TWELVE months ago, Huddersfield RLFC were celebrating one of the greatest days in their history.
Against all the odds, coach Jon Sharp’s Giants beat the mighty Leeds Rhinos 30-12 at Odsal to reach the Challenge Cup final for the first time in 44 years.
Almost immediately, a delighted Sharp was hoping this would be a taste of things to come and his club would continue to go from strength to strength.
Unfortunately, the Giants’ Twickenham final showdown was something of a let-down as favourites St Helens stormed to a 42-12 triumph.
But the key is whether the Giants have made progress as Sharp had wished.
On the playing front, opinion changes on an almost weekly basis.
At the start of the season, when seven defeats on the trot were suffered, it looked as if Huddersfield were going back.
Then, after winning their next nine League and Cup clashes, the general feeling was that the Giants were finally heading in the right direction.
Another dip meant it was back to square one, with the jury once again out with six top-flight fixtures remaining.
The big hope was that a first Challenge Cup final since 1962 might be backed up by a first appearance in Super League’s top-six play-offs.
Looking at the current table that’s going to be a tall order, although certainly not beyond the realms of possibility, given the fixtures the Giants have left.
Clearly, if a top-six finish isn’t earned, some will regard it as a big failure, even though there are far more than six clubs in the competition who spend more on their squads than Sharp.
And that disappointment will be felt most by the players themselves, who have been stating publicly on a regular basis how getting into the six was their big pre-season target.
Yet while it’s still virtually impossible to state at this stage whether progress has been made on the field – being able to hold on to the likes of Wild, Aspinwall and Crabtree suggests it could be worse, however! – giant strides are continuing to be made off it.
When the Giants first got back into Super League in 2003 after a highly successful and record-breaking unbeaten season in the NFP, their average home attendance was around the 4,000 mark.
In 2007, that total has almost doubled.
And that’s exceptionally impressive given the stuttering start to the season.
This is surely an indication of the potential the Giants do have as a major Super League force.
Just imagine what crowds could be achieved at the Galpharm if Sharp’s squad finally make the play-offs and begin to compete regularly in the top six.
Under the salary cap system, the bigger the crowds, the bigger the spending power on players.
So, on the back of crowds of around 10,000, Huddersfield really could become the power Sharp was predicting this time last year.
