GIANTS football manager Stuart Sheard is hailing the success of the club's Scholarship Scheme after two of its former pupils landed full-time Super League contracts.

Seventeen-year-old goalkicking stand-off Thomas Hemingway and 18-year-old prop Jason Southwell have this week secured full-time Super League X deals.

They follow in the footsteps of first-team hooker Phil Joseph, who became the first player to come up through the Scholarship ranks and earn a place in the Giants' Super League squad this season.

And Sheard is hoping it's a pattern which will continue for a long time to come.

"We believe the scholarship system is the way ahead and bearing fruit," he said.

"The scheme has only been going for about five or six years and it was always going to take a little time for the players to start coming off the production line.

"But now we've reached that stage and the lads are coming through as we'd hoped.

"First we had Phil Joseph, and now we've got Jason and Thomas, who we believe could go on to big things in the game.

"We picked them up when they were fairly young and Scholarship co-ordinator Carl Atherton did a tremendous job grooming them for their rise up the grades.

"As a result of his work, Jason and Thomas have moved up comfortably from the Under 18s Junior Academy to the Under 21s Senior Academy. Their progression has been natural.

"Now, however, comes the hardest part - stepping up to Super League level.

"Jason has already had a small taste of it, coming on as a substitute for the last five minutes at Bradford Bulls earlier in the year.

"But the aim for both players now they've earned places in the Super League squad for next season is to play on a regular basis.

"And wouldn't it be good if we could field another couple of players who have been locally-produced.

"With Jason coming from Huddersfield and Thomas having played for Dewsbury Moor we're making sure we're picking up the best players on our doorstep."