THE roller-coaster ride that is being a Giants’ fan continues!
From the depths of despair on Sunday to the heights of the Fans’ Forum on Monday.
The event was organised as a joint venture between the Supporters Association and the Giants.
And to say it was popular is a huge understatement!
Radio Leeds’ James Deighton put the audiences’ searching questions to the panel.
The answers given by Richard Thewlis, Danny Brough, Chris Thorman, and Martyn Sadler (editor of League Express) were equally forthright! In fact, Martyn was told “And don’t print that!” on quite a few occasions.
Chris revealed he could have carried on playing in Super League, but did not want to uproot his family, so he chose a career in coaching instead. From being the chief cook and bottle washer in the lower divisions, he now can apply himself full-time to coaching.
Danny was given the opportunity to express his views on a variety of topics, including his views on referees, and those who were there certainly enjoyed his very honest answers!
Martyn’s suggestions about how to promote the game and individual players were well-conceived but would take quite a bit of what the Rugby League does not have a lot of – money.
The Bradley Wiggins/Sam Tomkins advert is an excellent way forward. We need to ask more sporting heroes to talk about our game. Attracting more rich people to buy clubs is another ideal.
Richard, a supporter of Fartown long before he worked for the Giants, fielded questions about the running of the club extremely truthfully.
In particular, he berated the negative rumour-mongerers in the fan-base.
The comments made by these people are often disruptive and are never helpful. He has an ever-open door for people to check their facts before airing them in public.
As is now traditional at a Supporters meeting, Dave Calverley presented the guests with their Honorary Supporters Association Membership Certificate. This entitles guests to attend meetings for free – but if they want to vote they have to pay their £5!
So an extremely successful meeting. Apologies for not relating some of the more, shall we say, controversial points, but the laws of libel are quite a deterrent!
We hope to arrange a similar event towards the end of the season when you will be able to hear the warts-and-all answers for yourself.
For further information on all the above please visit our website, www.GiantsSupporters.co.uk , or contact Dave Calverley, on 07887 878 425.
