WOMENS TEAM TO GO PROFESSIONAL

Huddersfield Giants Womens team will from December 1st pass from being run by the clubs charitable arm the Huddersfield Giants Community Trust to the main club.

This will be a seismic change and result for the players in a huge increase in support and back up, which the clubs Managing Director Richard Thewlis explained below.

“We’ve had to recognise that the womens team no longer fits the charitable aims and objectives of the Trust and simply had to move across to the main club itself. Their development as a team and the wider growth of the women’s game has been monumental in such a short period of time and its one that we want to embrace and grow with. 

"We are already a Women's Super League Club by right given our level of performance but we now want to press fast forward so to speak and really crack on.  We have met all the increasingly costly standards set by the Rugby Football League for the Women's teams and will look to further commercialise the opportunities that this presents. 

"We will shortly be announcing a number of Full-Time opportunities within the women's operation which will include a dedicated manager and physiotherapist as well as stand alone doctor. We’ve seen positions shared with the mens game in the league but at Huddersfield it will be the other way around.

"These peoples primary role is with the women's teams, The Huddersfield players at Super League level will have the access to the very best medical care in the game which is something we believe strongly in. We will reward those players who attain International honours financially and contract then as such so that mid season movement as has currently occurred is a thing of the past. Our developing Laund Hill complex will become a real home for the team with the state of the art brand new 4G pitch being a focal point.

"There will be a huge challenge for us to incorporate an additional 50 players into our systems and it is one that will require increased commercial support. We believe we can attain that through our women in business network which regularly attracts over 100 attendees to its popular events. In addition gates have grown over time and that’s another key area of focus for us and will form a large part of the new Women's Marketing and Media officers role.

“While all of the above is incredibly exciting it’s also vital that we continue to take all the partners and volunteers over the past year with us on this journey.  I spoke at the recent awards evening of how teams change over the years for differing reasons and certainly in performance environments that’s how thing go and the 2024 squad of players will be different from the 2023 squad with incoming and outgoing players being a natural process. I do hope though that the current sponsors and volunteers can stay involved and help us grow and go forwards and all can expect to hear very soon some pretty exciting appointments both on and off the field.”