Huddersfield Giants head coach hailed his side’s grit in a dominant win over Castleford Tigers, however, he’s still asserted that his team ‘haven’t really achieved a great deal’ yet.

It’s that realist approach that will put Huddersfield in good stead for 2027 as they don’t get too far ahead of themselves despite finishing the 2026 Super League season stronger than most sides, recording six wins in their final eight games.

The two losses came against play-off teams Hull KR and Warrington Wolves and both were on the road, however, they have recorded a win over Leigh in that time but today’s 48-16 win over Castleford was their best yet.

Making it more impressive was that they played 45 minutes with 12 men after Fenton Rogers’ red card and Lenihan pointed to that when speaking post-match to Sky Sports.

“I’m just really proud of the boys,” he said: “Obviously, finishing with 12 men for the last 40 to 50 minutes was really good, so we had an opportunity to let it go there, but I thought the way we bounced after a slow start in the second half was really good.”

Another big tick in the box for Huddersfield was their physicality as well as their attitude, an area where they dominated Castleford, with Lenihan admitting: “I think that’s a big part that we’re trying to do well, to be a side that obviously focuses on having a physical presence every time we play, and play for pride.

“Largely, today, we didn’t have anything to play for but we certainly had an opportunity to show the people in the community of Huddersfield how grateful we are for their support.”

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“Still so much to achieve” for Huddersfield Giants

His side will hope to carry their form into 2027 and they’ll do so on the back of a strong pre-season, which Lenihan has confirmed will start in early November.

He said: “We’ll be starting training on the 2nd of November. It’s about seven weeks from now, so it’s not long and we’re back into it.

“The boys will freshen up a little bit, we’d definitely love to be playing final football, but obviously that’s not going to be us this year.”

The Australian added a dash of reality plus motivation, stating: “We still haven’t really achieved a great deal. We’ve maybe moved a little bit of momentum and understand what it’s like to work out, but there’s still so much in front of us to achieve. We’ve really got it all in front of us to do.”

Looking ahead to the move to Dewsbury for 2027, he asserted his side’s intent to make that a fortress as they have the Accu in recent weeks.

“We’ll certainly try and make it that way,” he said, adding: “I think everyone tries to have their home ground a bit like that, but certainly in Dewsbury we’ll be looking forward to going there and having the fans really clap for us and hopefully giving us their support.”

With stars Adam Clune and Jacob Gagai among nine leaving, Lenihan has explained that the club are hopeful of adding more signings to aid their 2027 campaign, confirming: “We’ve probably got three or four more coming up, so we’re just working out a bit more detail on some blokes, but we’re making sure that we get really good people to come to this club.”