THERE are many different ways of gauging the progress the Giants are making.

This week there were two prime examples.

For starters, there was the fantastic news we had managed to sign Canberra Raiders centre James Evans, a player that had attracted the interest of several top-flight clubs.

And that came on the back of securing an excellent win at London Broncos that took no-one by surprise.

A couple of years ago, neither would have been achieved by the Giants.

James arrives at the McAlpine with a fantastic reputation and had a whole host of clubs, both here and in Australia, keen to acquire his services.

Yet, when a final decision had to be made, his choice was the Huddersfield Giants.

Understandably, we're all thrilled about that, and I have to say I'm grateful for the role Canberra coach Matthew Elliott played in making it possible.

I've always got on well with Matt from the time he was in charge at Bradford Bulls.

So I was delighted when he e-mailed me a couple of weeks ago asking me if I would be interested in James.

He explained to me that James was looking for a fresh challenge away from the Raiders and, with his British ancestry, had always dreamed of playing in Super League.

That started the ball rolling.

I spoke to Matt on the phone and he said James was a quality guy and players of this calibre don't become available very often.

The next step was to watch James on tape, and he immediately impressed me with his athleticism, strength and power, both on attack and defence.

It didn't take me too long to make up my mind that I wanted him.

I then passed it on to general manager Richard Thewlis to negotiate a deal with James.

Richard did a tremendous job in the negotiations, and within two weeks he had secured his signature. That takes some doing.

There's no question that a couple of years ago there's no way the Giants would have been able to have struck such a deal.

It shows how the club's status is growing, and how we now have the quality of staff making signings like this possible.

And we do, of course, have quality on the field.

That was underlined by our performance in London at the weekend.

The Broncos are a dangerous side, yet we dominated from start to finish and ended up very worthy winners.

However, such is the high expectation now surrounding the Giants that it was a win many in the game were predicting.

How times have changed!

Finally, I'm obviously well aware of all the speculation surrounding my possible appointment as Great Britain assistant coach.

But I'm afraid speculation is all that it is.

However, I would at some stage like the opportunity to work alongside Great Britain coach Brian Noble, who is clearly one of Super League's top coaches.

When that will be, if at all, is obviously down to the Rugby Football League.