Giants coach Nathan Brown's column: Belief has banished fear of facing the big guns

Sep 17 2009 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Nathan Brown answers the questions put to him by Examiner sports writer PETE BARROW

FINISHING the regular season on a high with the 48-16 home win over Wigan Warriors must have been the perfect preparation for the play-offs?

The game against Wigan was a very good result for us.

We had a number of players out for a number of reasons, so we had to restructure things a little bit, so to score the points we did was very pleasing.

But I was a little disappointed that we let in a couple of easy tries. Generally we have made teams earn their tries this season, but we came up with a couple of errors in that area.

As a whole our defence has been very good and I feel that the game against Wigan takes us into the meeting with Saints with some momentum and we have good reasons to be confident.

GIVEN the Challenge Cup semi-final win over St Helens and then a good performance in Super League at Knowsley Road with a much-changed team, that must give the squad a real lift?

I think the players are going there believing that they have got a good chance.

The fact that the guys think they have got a good chance as they run out is an obvious step forward.

I think there have been times in the past when the Giants have run out against teams like Leeds or Saints and they have been beaten before they even got on the pitch.

I think our mindset has changed and I am sure that we are going to be very positive and give ourselves every opportunity to win.

Basically we have the belief and that gives us a great chance of winning.

WITH the play-off set up as it is you get a second chance, does that take some of the sting out of the first game?

All the teams that finished in the top four, if they had their way, would want to guarantee the shortest route through to the Grand Final.

If you win the first game you get a week off and I think all four clubs would take that.

Obviously we have got some good teams in front of us in the play-offs and so we have to go into these games focused on putting on the best performance we can to ensure we get to Old Trafford.

ANOTHER big day out for a final following the Challenge Cup would be a be a big bonus for the club, so is the defeat at Wembley acting as a spur for the players?

Getting to Wembley was a great achievement and the day itself was a great experience.

Obviously the result at Wembley was very disappointing and as long as I am in the game – in fact probably as long as I live – there will be some part of each day where I will think about what happened.

But there is nothing that can be done to change the result now and what we have to do is learn the lessons that Wembley handed to us. We have to move forward from there.

Regardless of the result, Wembley was a great experience for all of us and a real achievement for all the guys.