Huddersfield Giants skipper Leroy Cudjoe will be 'well-supported'
Wednesday 8 February 2017 09:39, UK
Huddersfield Giants have introduced a captaincy committee, in order to reduce the stress of leadership on newly-appointed skipper Leroy Cudjoe.
Cudjoe, who suffers from a bad stammer, will have the support of two of his predecessors, Ryan Hinchcliffe and Danny Brough, as well as the long-serving Michael Lawrence as he prepares to lead his home-town club at Widnes on Friday.
Giants coach Rick Stone said: "We spent a bit of time getting to the captaincy.
"One of the things we wanted was to have a player that represented what we wanted from a captain and we believe Leroy has that.
"We also understood he needed support around him and we've got three blokes here that can take a bit of pressure off him in different scenarios, whether it's a press conference like this or at training or on the field.
"These four boys are probably the most experienced and respected in our team, and are responsible for all our standards across the board."
Hinchcliffe, who joined Huddersfield from Melbourne Storm at the start of last season, revealed he experienced difficulties after taking over the captaincy from Brough mid-way through the campaign.
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He said: "The process we went through selecting Leroy as captain was the right process.
"I was probably a little bit uncomfortable with how it all got handled last year to be honest but Leroy will have the 100 per-cent support of myself and the rest of the boys here.
"He's the deserved captain. He's a local boy and his performances are very good every week. I know that he'll do a good job."
Meanwhile, overseas signing Jake Mamo arrived in the country last week but may miss the first four weeks of the campaign, as he continues to recover from a motorcycle accident in which he badly damaged an ankle.
Stone added: "Jake will be another two weeks at least, more like four I would suggest.
"He had a syndesmosis operation and a screw in his foot and his range is not great at the moment. Our medical boys have started working on him this week and seen some improvement."
