HI, Jammer here.
What an experience Wembley was!
To play in a Challenge Cup final and in a superb stadium was a great occasion for me and the rest of the squad.
Although obviously we didn’t get the result, the experience we gained out the game was invaluable.
Our start really let us down and playing catch-up in a final is just too big of an ask against a side who turned up to play on the day.
While we had a few really good performers, we just couldn’t find our touch after losing my good pal Kev Brown early on.
What we did get out of Wembley was big-game experience and that should hold us in good stead heading into the semi-finals.
It was pleasing to see so many claret and gold jerseys down at Wembley and the atmosphere was amazing, and the civic reception we received when we came home was second to none.
Even with a few sore heads and rough-looking players, it helped to raise all our spirits to see the fans cheering us on even though we’d lost!
So, a big thank you to all our fans. It really was very much appreciated.
Now onto more exciting news, and our youngsters’ performance against St Helens was one of the most inspirational I’ve ever seen.
They took on a star-studded side and lost by a couple of points.
What the future holds for Huddersfield’s youngsters is bucketloads of excitement and, like I said last year in one of my columns about looking out for Danny Kirmond, Leroy Cudjoe and Michael Lawrence, I find myself saying the same thing this year about Alex Brown, Elliot Hodgson, Jermaine McGillvary, Josh Griffin, Keal Carlisle and Larne Patrick!
Wow! I ask myself how can we have so many good juniors?
Well, the secret is these boys train with the top squad every day, so getting used to being tackled by first-teamers is nothing new to them. On top of that, these young boys train at the same intensity as us and lift the same weights, so it’s just the same as if they actually play first team.
It’s no surprise, therefore, that when they play a Super League game they fit right in and don’t look out of place.
We look forward to Wigan now and then, of course, the semis and a successful tilt at the Super League trophy!
