Thomas Leuluai reflects on double-winning campaign and first season as assistant coach

Personally, I’ve enjoyed the challenge of coaching in my first season – and it has been challenging.

I hadn’t done too much beforehand, so the first couple of months was a whirlwind.

It was about getting my head around it, seeing how much work goes into it and the preparation that goes into it.

I’m grateful that I had good coaching staff around me and they knew beforehand that I was jumping in at the deep end. They were cool with that.

It took me a while but Matty Peet and Sean O’Loughlin were good, and John Duffy came in and helped me out.

He’s been in the game a long time and has coached at all levels, so to have him there to help me was class. I enjoyed the challenge.

Looking back on the season, there wasn’t a specific time when I thought we were going to be champions as such.

You’re in the moment and you keep wanting to improve.

That Catalans game in Perpignan stands out. It gave us a bit of confidence.

They were top of the league at the time. It was quite convincing and gave us a lot of belief, looking back in hindsight.

In the moment, we like to stay humble and go about our business.

At the start of the year, the goal is always to win the competition but once that’s set, you don’t talk about it much.

As the season went on, we built confidence and we built form at the right time of the year, which was key.

A lot of our key players stayed injury-free too, which was good.

A lot of our players played their best at the business end of the year.

There are a few season highlights. You’ve obviously got to pick the Grand Final but there were some other big games in there.

There was what Joe Shorrocks did playing at six. On that Good Friday game, he had never played in the halves before and he came in and got the man of the match.

That was pretty cool and I was happy for him. That was a big game for our club.

That Catalans game is another one. Leigh away to win the League Leaders’ Shield was another gritty result.

We ground that one out and showed another way to win.

We backed our defence and that was another important game.

Looking back, if you lose that one and the League Leaders’, confidence could have started to dwindle but we kept building. It doesn’t always happen like that but we’re grateful it did.

I was really proud of Harry Smith. I’ve known him for a long time and seen him come through the grades.

I obviously played alongside him, so I knew his talent.

He probably had a couple of harsh years before that, even last year with some of the criticism he was getting, which I thought was unfair but I’m super proud of him.

Even during the year I thought he wasn’t getting the accolades that he deserved.

A lot of it was focused on his goal-kicking but if you look at the way he played, how influential he was to our team and how well he controlled our game, he was brilliant.

The last month he flourished and that continued into his international duties with England under Shaun Wane.

He showed what a class player he is.

Another player who played in the halves was Bevan French.

What he did last year for us was so unselfish really.

Halfway through the year he was probably the best full-back in the competition, then we decided as a coaching staff to make a change and it was better for the team.

Bevan didn’t blink an eye. He jumped straight into the role.

It was a new role, I think he told Matty that he had played there before but he hadn’t.

I thought that was pretty cool of him to do that. He didn't want us to worry.

He’s a really good football player. He played wing, went to full-back and killed it and then into the halves.

And then in the last month of the season, what he was doing there defensively and off the ball was so influential for us.

His kicking game and chasing the kicks, doing all the stuff that doesn’t get too much praise.

He led a lot of those areas for our team and he’s developed into a great leader for our club.

The club loves him and, to be honest, the town loves him.

Looking ahead, we have signed some really good players and there have been a fair few players who played really well last season who have moved on.

Morgan Smithies was phenomenal last year, Kai Pearce-Paul is going to be a fantastic player and I think Toby King deserves a mention. He did a fantastic job for us.

We have recruited some fantastic players and I’m looking forward to working with all of them.

We’ll work really hard and the new recruits are very professional.

I’ve been really impressed by them all since they've come in.

They’re keen to learn and I’ve enjoyed working with them so far. I’ve got all the confidence that they can come on and add to our squad.