LAST week I was invited to speak at the Huddersfield Giants Supporters Association forum at the club’s Laund Hill training centre.

As always there was a fair-sized audience of Giants supporters to listen to the club’s Managing Director Richard Thewlis, coach Luke Robinson, testimonial star Matty English and me.

The mood in the Huddersfield camp seems to be very positive, much more so than last season, when the club had an unprecedented number of injuries, in particular to its key players in the spine positions.

Adam Clune only played six times, Niall Evalds played twice and Tui Lolohea played 14 Super League games, just over half of the total.

The positive thing, however, was that those injuries did give an opportunity to young George Flanagan, who took his opportunity with both hands.

I always tend to think that Huddersfield supporters, who sometimes can be tempted to see the glass being half-empty, need cheering up.

So I suggested that they might contemplate the possibility that the Giants could win their first five games of the Super League season – against Catalans (a), Wakefield (h), Castleford (a), Hull KR (h) and Bradford (a).

Beating Hull KR might look like a tall order, but the Giants will host the Robins the week following their return from Las Vegas. Willie Peters’ side might well come to the Giants feeling fatigued from all that travelling.

I suggested that the Giants’ fans might like to check out the odds of them winning all those five games and Richard Thewlis interceded to say he had already done it and the bookmakers had them priced at 80/1 to win their first five games.

Will any of their fans take up the offer?

Meanwhile, under the direction of former RFL chief executive Ralph Rimmer the Giants have launched a strategy called ‘Giants Unleashed’, which is intended to reverse its declining fortunes of recent years.

“This club has really challenged itself: Giants Unleashed is the result and is a complete change of mindset,” claims an article on the club’s website.

“We are rapidly transforming internally in three ways: Strategically (Vision, Mission and Business Plans), Culturally (Values and identity) and through increased Connectivity (Engaging more effectively internally and externally with old and new).

“Quite naturally within this process we are modernising, re-structuring and seeking to make best use of what is available to continuously improve how we project the Giants and the offer we make to our partners and audiences 

“The work behind the scenes has been relentless, and internally, we then worked on a title for this campaign that would truly represent this change in direction and the launch of a new era.

We will bring Giants Unleashed to life and to you over coming months and it will manifest itself in many ways. You will see and share in our successes…..”

There are no details of what all this will entail, but I’ll watch with interest.

One thing they need to do is to secure a home ground.

On the night, Richard was adamant that there is no going back on the decision to vacate what is now called the Accu Stadium at the end of this season and so far there has been no confirmation that they will move to Halifax or anywhere else.

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