WAS Jason Chan’s non-quota status critical to his signing?
No not at all, but clearly it is a benefit to have the classification of non-quota federation trained alongside his name.
However, it is not a ruling in general that I am in favour of and it does seem somewhat of a knee jerk decision.
I have every sympathy with the players and staff at Crusaders, but you have to consider too the impact of the ruling on young English players as it does potentially reduce their opportunities.
Jason is a player we have long been aware of and were delighted when he agreed to join us, and it’s a shame really that some of the gloss of this signing is taken off by the Crusaders situation.
Our supporters can be assured, though, that we are getting an international quality player in the prime of his career and he will move into the Huddersfield area to live once his Welsh commitments are at an end.
CAN the fans expect more signings?
Possibly, but there can never be any promises from us on these matters.
I believe we have a crop of younger players who can form the nucleus of our club for years ahead and one of our aims is to keep them all together – as you can be assured that other sides are looking our way with envious eyes and no doubt formulating offers.
There is an anti-tampering deadline of September 1, but it’s naive to think that agents are not touting players around each and every day so it’s important for us to retain, in particular, our homegrown talent for the longer term.
We have already this year retained Scott Grix, Shaun Lunt and Keith Mason as well as adding Dale Ferguson into our short and long term plan, and there has been no movement in the salary cap for next year so, like every top club, we face a tricky balancing act as we look to improve.
WAS the Crusaders withdrawal from Super League a surprise?
Yes I don’t think any of us saw that one coming!
I had heard concerns expressed within the game from time to time but, frankly, every club has difficulties of some sort,
I did expect Crusaders to gain a licence as the make up of the competition was due to be 11 heartland clubs and three expansion clubs, so with Widnes coming in it seemed to me that a heartland club would lose out.
HAVE the club celebrated the licence improvement from C to B?
No, not really, although I guess we should do – but put simply we are too busy!
The licensing headlines were always going to be grabbed by the displaced club and our improvement seems to have been missed by many.
There has been a lot of hard work by us all to move into the B category and it is deserving of greater publicity and reward, but the reality I always felt was that the fans have never felt our place was in any doubt and it was taken as read that we would be in.
However, I am proud of the B and once we have had our debrief with the RFL we can determine what strategies we need to push for an A licence.
THE Season Ticket Offer surely forms part of that strategy?
Yes, of course, you don’t need to be a genius to work out that we struggle to fill this fabulous Galpharm Stadium and, in these tough economic times, we feel our offer will bring new supporters to us and convert the floating fan into a regular.
Our ‘best’ offer at £50 for the entire Super League season equates to less than £4 a game and the youngsters are still free, so our challenge now is to get this message out everywhere and get selling.
The value is without question, the entertainment too is at the very top of the tree and we look set to be Yorkshire’s highest-placed club for the first time ever so my message has to be simply – BUY A SEASON TICKET AND PERSUADE EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO DO SO AS WELL.
WHAT has the initial uptake been like ?
Quite encouraging I would say, given that we are so soon into the process.
About 30% of sales to date are new and we have had a steady stream of purchasers at the ticket office every day so far.
The need for success of this cut-price strategy, though, cannot be over-emphasised and we now really are working flat out to make this work.
CAN the club still achieve its goals this year?
The Cup was a disappointment, it can’t be hidden from.
However, last year, we did not have a Cup run yet had a super play-off series that left us just 30 minutes short of the Grand final.
We therefore have to draw on that experience and I believe that we are a stronger team this year so, with hard work which I know this group of players and staff guarantee us, coupled with a bit of luck, there is no reason at all why we can’t take the extra step this time around.
We are also expecting some better news from our rehab guys next week with players coming back into the reckoning for Browny after being unavailable due to injury.
FINALLY, the new television deal has been announced by the RFL and on the face of it seems to be another great deal?
Yes it is very good news and the RFL are to be congratulated.
Clubs get regular updates as to the TV rights market and it is not a great place to be at the moment, so for our game to retain its upwards trend for broadcast rights is very encouraging.
Collectively the clubs are not in a great position financially, but this gives us all a fixed five-year base to work from and we must use SKY’s input carefully.
