THE appointment of Nathan Brown as St Helens head coach for 2013 has made absolutely no impact at Huddersfield Giants.
That’s the assessment of Galpharm assistant Paul Anderson as the Giants focus all their attention on remaining at the top of Super League XVII.
Brown announced last December this would be his final year in charge of Huddersfield, with Anderson ready to step up to the top job after being handed a three-year deal.
And the Galpharm Stadium head-coach-in-waiting admits that’s meant Brown’s announcement has been met with the minimum of fuss.
“We’ve all known since Christmas that Browny wouldn’t be around next year, so it’s not exactly a bombshell, is it?” said Anderson.
“What Browny does is his business and has got absolutely zero to do with me, and that’s the attitude of everyone at the club.
“But what I do know is that he’s 100% committed to Huddersfield this year and will go with everyone’s best wishes, because he’s done so much for this club.
“That’s for the future, though, and there’s still a lot for us to focus on before Browny goes.
“What he’s doing next year has not been a talking point at all this week, everything has been geared towards making sure we’re ready for Salford at the Galpharm tomorrow. That’s our top priority.
“Then it’s Hull at home on Monday.
“Nothing else matters at this stage.”
And with Huddersfield having close to a full-strength squad available, Anderson knows Brown has his work cut-out this week to make a final choice on who to pick against the City Reds.
That process has been made harder with the return to fitness of captain Kevin Brown (ankle), utility forward Dale Ferguson (knee) and Aaron Murphy (knee).
“We’ve had 28 players training this week, and they’re all capable of playing Super League,” he added.
“So trying to narrow that down to 17 is going to give us a lot to think about.”
