Super League: How Huddersfield Giants plan to hit back under Rick Stone

The problem, though, was the Australian head coach – who joined last July with the free-falling Fartowners bereft of confidence and tumbling towards the foot of Super League – did not really have scope or time to fully put his plans into place.

The West Yorkshire club’s priority was scrapping and scraping their way to survival on a week-to-week basis amid the nerve-shredding Qualifiers.

They achieved that but, given the scale of their problems, plenty of issues needed addressing in the fullness of time.

Stone, the experienced former Newcastle Knights and Fiji chief, feels he has done that during the winter, making the most of a full off-season with his squad to impart his ideas and, hopefully, rediscover the alchemy that saw Giants regularly achieve top-four finishes under predecessor Paul Anderson until last year’s nadir.

He has re-shaped his playing rosta with the likes of Craig Huby, Scott Grix, Kyle Wood and Jamie Ellis all released and club legend Eorl Crabtree retired to make salary cap space for new arrivals while long-serving England centre Leroy Cudjoe was yesterday announced as their new captain.

When, therefore, they kick-off the new season at Widnes Vikings tomorrow week, fans should see a Huddersfield side more in the 49-year-old’s mould.

“We took a bit longer than most to formalise our squad and have been on the back foot a little but since January it’s been smooth,” Stone told The Yorkshire Post.

“We’ll have nearly a full-strength side to pick from for that first game and, hopefully, the players have taken on a little bit more from me now.

“I know old habits take time to change but we’re trying to produce a bit more resilience defensively to start with.

“We let in an average of 25 points per game last year and that was not good enough to be successful against the better sides.

“When you look at the semi-final series and the top-four teams, there were just 12 to 14 points getting scored by the other sides.

“So, if we want to improve at the top level, we must improve that part significantly.”

Huddersfield had become almost one-dimensional at times last term with a safety-first approach which did little to utilise some of their flair players like Danny Brough and Cudjoe.

But Stone – whose signings also include exciting Newcastle Knights full-back Jake Mamo as part of a swap deal with second-row Joe Wardle – hopes to reveal a more ambitious side in 2017.

“I’d like to think I really enjoy the English style of footy; promoting the ball, having a little bit of pre-line passing, playing some eyes up and what’s in front rather than a boring style,” he continued.

“Our players are getting to the stage where they are looking up a little bit better and making more consistent decisions on where to go and what to do with the football. We definitely need to improve the consistency of our kick-chase game, particularly early in the year when conditions might not be as great.

“The game just before I arrived here when they played Hull on a Thursday night is probably a blueprint; they played pretty simple that night but to the conditions and really kicked and chased well to get the win.”

The unforgiving nature of the shortened 23 round season, though, means Huddersfield are well aware they need to quickly find their feet this time around.

“We do need a big start to put a few ghosts from last year behind us, too,” added Stone.

“We need to build some confidence, get some continuity going forward and springboard us into the next part of the year. Our first four to six games will be really important; if we can get away all right we can help build from there.

“There’s not a lot between the best and worst team in this competition. That Hull game showed it as they were top and we were bottom. But we have to be willing to be patient and resilient enough to get those sorts of wins.

“Obviously, you need a little bit of strike, too, and we’ve added some quality there. To score points you need good quality strike players and hopefully we have enough of them.”

Cudjoe, who has been with his home-town club since 2008, was “very proud” but also “shocked” to be chosen by Stone as Giants’ new captain.

He takes over from Australian Ryan Hinchcliffe, who becomes one of three deputies along with Brough – another former captain – and back-row Michael Lawrence.