#hgsasavethedate
As another year draws to a close the HGSA would like to point you in the direction of our upcoming events.

2018 was another hugely successful one for the Supporters Association, our membership continues to grow, our monthly meetings with top quality guest speakers continue to be very well attended and popular, the cricket day was a huge success as was our annual reindeer race night, along with the running and promoting of the Academy and Scholarship games plus having exclusive access to the Legends bar at the stadium pre-game and Brian Blacker's ever popular roadshow there is lot's of reasons to become a member of the HGSA and still only £5 per year of which every penny we raise goes back into the Academy /Junior development at the club.

This year our committee handed over a cheque for £14,000 to Ken Davy which was raised during the year and next year we want to get close to £20,000 !

We were also awarded the Keith Burhouse Memorial award at the clubs 2018 awards evening for our services to the Academy.

So, onto the new year and what is in store for 2019?

• Firstly it's the annual fans forum which will be held on Monday 14th January at the John Smiths Stadium 7.30pm start, our confirmed guests so far are Huddersfield Giants and England star Jermaine McGillvary,
Huddersfield Giants Managing Director Richard Thewlis and Rugby League world magazine editor and League express reporter Matthew Shaw further guests to be confirmed soon.
The event will once again be kindly hosted by the Giants' matchday announcer Tim Burton.
Admission is FREE for HGSA members, under 16's and Giants season card holders (please bring proof) all other guests are £2, all proceeds go back to the club to aid junior and academy development.
We will be having a raffle draw on the night and an auction for a signed 2019 playing shirt in the lead up to the event.

• Our 1st speaker meeting of 2019 will be Giants head coach Simon Woolford who will be joining us at Turnbridge WMC on Monday 21st January, with a 7.30pm start, Simon will discuss all aspects of pre-season, recruitment, and his thoughts and hopes for the 2019 season and answer any questions you may have.
Admission as always is open to everyone with HGSA members admitted free and £1 for non members.

• Tuesday 5th February sees Chris Rostron, the Head of Rugby League Cares join us for our February meeting, Chris will be explaining who and what the charity is all about, again Admission is free for members and £1 non members with a 7.30pm start.

• Saturday 9th February sees us take on the Catalan Dragons and for those supporters who aren't travelling to the game we will be hosting a social event at the Shoulder of Mutton pub in Lockwood, there will be a meal option and the game will be screened, this event is not finalised yet and further details will be announced nearer the time, if you think you may be interested please let us know so we have an idea of numbers involved.

• Tuesday 5th March we will be joined by Huddersfield's grade 1 match officials, Chris Kendall and Michael Mannifield who will (hopefully) explain the pro's and con's of being a modern matchday official as well as answering any questions regarding officiating in the modern game, 7.30pm start.

If you have any questions or require further information please contact us.

rlOur websiterl
rlFacebookrl

Looking for a stocking filler for Xmas? rlEbayrl
Or why not buy someone a membership for Xmas rlMembershiprl

Finally on behalf of all our committee members we thank you for your continued and future support and would like to wish all our members, Giants supporters and Rugby league fans everywhere a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year !!

Let’s hope the HGSA continues to grow and more fans get involved. It’s a fantastic asset to our club.

answered on facebook

Due to our increased events, we are now using the hashtag #hgsasavethedate to promote forthcoming events once there is a date set, we will then provide more details in full of all the events later but get the dates in your diary so you don't miss out !!!!

Don't forget to share our stuff on your social media with the hashtag #hgsasavethedate

definitely coming to see woolford should be a good night.

The fans forum last night was brilliant and very well attended, well done to all the panellists and HGSA for making it possible

anything interesting mentioned or answered for the fans?

thewlis not got the best rep with fans so would think a few difficult questions were asked or not!

Things I can remember than I can can share:

Jerry had ankle ops and not really trained with squad. Played on Sunday without an injection for first time in four years.
Jerry has had wisdom teeth out and Thewlis told us a very funny (if youre not Jerry) about it

Matt Shaw talked about his pre-season day and how much he hurt. He spoke about how intense it was and how he found out it was only at 70% intensity when they ramped it up to 90%. He said that he'll never call a player lazy after that session. He hurt for days afterwards.
Matt said that the club have improved their communication with the press in the last 6 months and that can be seen in the content in the press and magazine. He was invited to the sponsors lunch with other journalists which gave him good access to the players. He didnt agree with the comments on social media about no "media day" as this was it.

Richard spoken about many things, about interaction with the fans, about ST sales (similar to last year) and about the success of the Catalan "Free Ticket" He had numbers around the success of it as it directly equated to a number of new ticket sales. He answered criticism of the online booking platform and says the team endeavour to call people who are frustrated as its that important to them. He answered criticism of the club shop and how it works . He had numbers to back up the club decisions which substantiated what they are doing. About the community trust, how it was the largest in the game and is doing a great job and how they then transition that into fans attending games.

He spoken about the clubs relationship with the RFL and with Superleague and how things are changing. He spoke about the need to really push on as a sport in 2019 as the television contract is hugely significant.

Andy Kelly was (as always) great. he gave us an insight into the Scholarship and Academy setup and how their aim is to produce Superleague players, explained how the pipeline works and how many we take on per year. He gave us an insight into the 3 peaks challenge they do and that included the senior squad this year was good.

HGSA organised the speakers, not the club.

The problem with the Examiner is they haven't had a dedicated RL correspondent for a while.
All the Gaints content in the Examiner is cribbed from the Giants website (or provided directly by the Giants?) and is usually 'attributed' to one of the existing sports correspondents - at the moment it looks like Mel Booth.

yes went down hill when chris roberts seemed to stop reporting for the giants, dont know if the club has any contact with the examiner now

like you see whats in the paper mostly comes from the website now

some other journo joe buck sometimes does a write up too

yes getting mixed up with the 'media day'! as he was at that too...

Don't forget tomorrow (21st) sees Simon Woolford joining us to discuss his plans and ideas for the new season and tell us how pre-season has been going so far, this is one not to be missed so please arrive at Turnbridge WMC early as we start at 7.30pm.