YET again it’s been a case of ‘nearly, but not quite’ for Huddersfield Giants in Super League.
Even though Nathan Brown’s side have continued to make big strides forward, there’s been no silverware for the men in claret and gold to show for their efforts.
For the third successive season, the Giants secured a top-four finish under Brown as Huddersfield continued to punch above their weight.
In the first two-thirds of the season, the Galpharm-based side were leaving the likes of St Helens and Leeds Rhinos trailing in their wake as they were involved in a thrilling three-way fight at the top with reigning Super League champions Wigan Warriors and 2010 Challenge Cup holders Warrington Wolves.
But, in the end, it wasn’t to be.
Injuries to key players struck at exactly the wrong time – the ‘business end’ of the season – with international playmakers Danny Brough, Kevin Brown and Shaun Lunt all having lengthy spells on the sidelines, while many others were forced to play on, despite carrying knocks.
As a result, the season lost all its momentum and the Giants finished the season with a paltry three wins from their last 12 League and Cup clashes.
And that couldn’t have been in starker contrast to the start of the year when Brown’s boys took the season by storm.
It all started so well in February, where the Giants turned up to play a Warrington Wolves side as major underdogs in the opening Super League XVI fixture at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium as part of the Magic Weekend.
Quite simply, no pundit gave Huddersfield a chance.
But Brough immediately showed England coach Steve McNamara what he had been missing in last autumn’s Four Nations, with the skilful scrum-half having a field day in the Welsh capital, with a length-of-the-field try highlighting his potential to shine on the international stage.
That game ended with the Giants winning 28-16 to send a clear message to the rest of the competition that Huddersfield were in it to win it.
Unfortunately, the Giants were brought crashing back down to earth though in round two as Castleford Tigers managed to win an old-fashioned winter war 18-12 at the newly named PROBIZ Colliseum, albeit on the back of some highly-controversial scores.
They were back on the horse a week later, however, as they beat Hull FC in their first game at the Galpharm – or the ‘fortress’ as it seemed to be for the majority of the season!
Huddersfield later reached the summit of the Super League ladder when they trounced the Bradford Bulls 50-16.
This sent them into their game against Wigan the following week in sparkling form and full of confidence, but this time the Giants failed to deliver in front of their home fans, going down 20-6 in what would be their only home League defeat until the final round of the regular season.
The next big test of the season for the Giants was to tame the Wolves in round nine, which they did comfortably to make it three wins in a row against Tony Smith’s men and again put them in pole position.
They cemented that position the following week with a historic first win at Headingley over Leeds in 50 years in what was without doubt the Giants’ highlight of 2011
After four wins on the spin, the Giants headed into the tough Easter period with confidence again seeming to be sky-high.
But Good Friday’s game with the Crusaders looked anything but a performance from a side that were title challengers, going down 32-8 in Wrexham to the wooden-spooners.
They ended the Easter programme with a difficult trip away to the Catalan Dragons, that resulted in a heartbreaking 13-12 defeat at the Stade Gilbert Brutus.
The fatigue factor was there for all to see the week after in their opening match of the Challenge Cup to Batley as they struggled home to a 28-12 win at Mount Pleasant.
Yet that win was the start of a perfect May as Huddersfield secured excellent victories over St Helens and Hull FC in the League and also managed to avenge their narrow defeat to Catalan by knocking the French side out of the cup.
June saw the Giants first take to the field at The Shay in Halifax due to the Galpharm pitch being re-laid.
But their opening game at the home of the Championship Grand Final winners was mostly remembered for the farcical kit situation which eventually saw the Tigers take to the field in the blue and white of Halifax.
Huddersfield’s three games at The Shay all ended in victories, but the succession of away games in July seemed to halt the Giants progress, although the catalyst was clearly the ankle injury suffered by the inspirational Brough in the Castleford win.
Warrington got their own back on Huddersfield at the Halliwell Jones Stadium with a 28-16 win, but the following week’s result was to be one of the most concerning.
With Brough’s quicker-than-expected return to the side and Bradford’s demise as a force within the league, few would have expected the Giants to not take the two points home from Odsal.
But a dismal day resulted in a dismal display from the visitors as the Bulls brought the Giants back down to size with a 36-0 win.
And Huddersfield were even more downbeat the week after when an injury-hit side without captain Brown was beaten by Castleford in the Challenge Cup quarter-final at the Probiz Colliseum for the second time and the dream of Wembley success was over.
They got themselves back on track in their return to the Galpharm with a 46-26 win over Hull KR, but the Giants failed to win consistently for the rest of the season, which resulted in them going into the end-of-season play-offs without any real momentum.
As a result, their fourth clash against Warrington proved to be a complete disaster as they went down 47-0 to set up another difficult, but tasty tie with the Rhinos at the Galpharm.
The Giants did put in a valiant effort, but individual errors in attack and defence meant Huddersfield fell one hurdle shorter than last year as what started off as a season of great hope ended in bitter disappointment.
