Last updated at 12:52, Wednesday, 07 October 2009

Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown admitted that the loss of former Town star Shaun Lunt at the end of the season hurt his side.

Shaun Lunt

Hooker Lunt played a big part in Huddersfield’s success this season – only a year after making the step up from Championship One with Town.

But the former NL2 young player of the year missed their exit from the Super League play-offs with a virus, having to pull out just before the kick-off.

And Brown says it is a sign of Lunt’s speedy development that he proved a big miss as their season was ended by Catalans Dragons 16-6.

“Shaun was a good signing for the club coming from the lower leagues with Workington, and what he achieved in a season was remarkable.

“He ended up becoming that important to us that it hurt us a bit when we was missing against Catalans, and at the start of the season I wouldn’t think anyone would have thought that.

“I think we could talk about each player and I’d feel like there’s not one of them that hasn’t trained hard or attempted to work hard to improve their games, and I think that has transferred into the way we played.

“As a whole, we could make a case for every player that he did something that contributed to the team achieving what we did this year.”

Brown paid tribute to all of his players saying everyone had improved individually and played and trained hard for each other.

This was Lunt’s first season with the Giants after signing a three year contract and is tipped by many as a future star, after establishing himself so quickly in the first team.

He was the club’s third top try scorer with 11 touchdowns to his name in 17 appearances.

First published at 11:35, Wednesday, 07 October 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk