Insists boss Watson
“I’ve had opportunities in the past to leave but I just felt loyal. I was nobody when I first started off, they gave me a chance and it’s not like I’ve been poorly paid either.
“It’s not something I regret. If we win it, it probably justifies it. If we don’t, people will still be asking why I stayed so long. When I’ve finished playing, I’ll probably be able to answer those questions.”
McGillvary’s solo try capped a man-of-the-match display which Giants coach Ian Watson rated as the winger’s best in 18 months at the club. But the player can remember little about it.
“It was just a blur,” he said. “I’m 34 this month, I don’t know what I was thinking trying to go on the outside, but I got there in the end.
“I’d love to watch it back and see if I was running in treacle like the boys said.
“It was a massive team effort. Forwards
Huddersfield because it wasn’t a top-four club and we wanted to make it that consistently for years to come so even when I’m not here it stays as that.
“Everything in and around it is set up to be top four. We need to produce at first team and get those kids wanting to be players for Huddersfield Giants.”
“I was always confident in what I was doing,” he added on his decision to leave Salford.
“At that time I thought we could
win you games and the backs decide by how much.”
Giants will attempt to put the final to the back of their minds as they prepare to return to Super League action, starting on Thursday with a home game against cup final opponents Wigan, who were 20-18 winners in their semi-final against St Helens.
“We can’t dwell on the final,” McGillvary said. “It’s three weeks away.
“We have to come back down to earth in the next couple of days and start preparing for Super League.
“If we lose two or three games, we will soon find ourselves back down the table so it’s important we get over this really quickly and start trying to climb the table because we want to be in the play-off places come the end of the season.
“The season is not over after the Challenge Cup final.” build a competitive team at Salford but I didn’t know how we sustained that going forward. The challenge was coming to a club and doing that.
“We spoke to Hull but this was a bigger challenge. Similar to Salford in that it hadn’t had success for a long period but what it had was everything else set up around it, it had the youth system, the owner willing to back it who will now get his rewards and have the opportunity to lead the team out.”