Salford's Chris Atkin is ready to fill in for Man of Steel contender Brodie Croft insisting: “We’re not a one man team.”
Red-hot Red Devils are just 80 minutes away from Old Trafford after emphatically knocking much-fancied Huddersfield out of the play-offs. But yesterday's impressive 28-0 away win came at a cost with Dream Team stand-off Croft failing to return for the second half after failing a HIA. That automatically keeps the influential Aussie out of Saturday’s semi-final showdown at champions St Helens.
Versatile bench regular Atkin has slotted in at half-back, full-back, hooker and No.13 for Paul Rowley's exciting team this term. He replaced the gutted Croft on Saturday to help guide Salford home along man of the match Marc Sneyd and is likely to do so again versus three-peat champions Saints. Atkin said: “Brodie’s a huge loss for any side when you look at the awards and accolades he's rightly getting.
“He’d be a big loss to anyone but we’ve spoken about how we’re not a one man team. We’re 13 blokes on the field working hard for each other. Brodie is an outstanding part of that and we’ll have to work extra hard now to make up for him not being out there. But you saw what we’re about.”
Third-placed Huddersfield had only lost at home once all season but were blown apart as Croft helped set up Joe Burgess and Kallum Watkins for early tries. Even when Ryan Brierley was sin-binned for a shoulder charge on Tui Lolohea Salford’s full-back will fear being banned on Monday - one-dimensional Giants didn’t look like scoring. Instead, Brierley latched on to Marc Sneyd’s grubber after the break and hooker Andy Ackers scurried away for a brilliant solo try at the death to show why he’s being tipped for England honours.
Lowest-ranked contenders Salford finished sixth but have won eight of their last 10 matches, demolishing Saints 44-12 along the way. Atkin, 29, admitted: “That’ll maybe give a little confidence for the fans to look back at and ourselves to pick the positives out of that. But I think Saints will come with a totally different attitude. They've obviously rested this week as a reward for how good they've been this season.
“We can't underestimate them at all. They're the league leaders and rightly so. We’ll prepare for the best Saints side. But we were massive on Saturday and that sort of performance is what our fans deserve and what this club is all about. A lot of the talk has been about our attack but we speak about both sides of it. We have got to be able to defend to win games and obviously to nil a team in any game is a positive. We’ll try and improve again next week.”
The ex-Hull KR player was 18th man when Salford played in the 2020 Challenge Cup final. That’s another reason he wants to get to Old Trafford as it’d be the England Knights player’s first major final appearance.
Atkin, who was playing alongside Ackers at part-timers Swinton seven years ago, said: "That would be something. It’s a dream is to be able to walk out at a Grand Final and be a part of a Grand Final. But we’re just focusing week to week and look forward to St Helens. We've given ourselves an opportunity, something that Paul (Rowley) talks about every day. We can't look too far ahead.”
Meanwhile, Ackers is winning more and more rave reviews for his performances. There is a clamour for the uncapped ex-London and Toronto No9 to be named in Shaun Wane’s World Cup squad. Atkin said: “Andy is doing an outstanding job. He's very level-headed and is playing with real confidence this year.
“He’s a vital part of the team and he’s got to keep playing well each week for us and who knows what will happen at the end of the season? He's definitely one of my favourite hookers to play with and has been for years since we partnered up at Swinton. You never know.”
Huddersfield coach Ian Watson - who led Salford to the 2019 Grand Final - admitted: “We played real dumb. This is going to sting. It is really disappointing. A hell of a lot of our players will learn a hell of a lot of lessons from this game. But we finished third, got to a Challenge Cup final and fell short in that, so there's a massive step forward in terms of progression.”
