LeytherRob

Absolutely, my ambitions for this year didn't go much past 9th place even if we had a good year. I thought we'd be competitive in most games but ultimately come up short in quite a lot of them. Of our squad, there's only Ben Reynolds that has done more than 2 full seasons with the club and most of them only arrived after January last year so what Lam has done in terms of building a team ethic and culture is nothing short of remarkable. Last night we looked like a team that's been together 3 or 4 seasons at least.

I think that is a fair reflection of where we're looking short/medium term. I did say to someone I was with at the match last night there were almost Powell era Cas vibes around the club in terms of our on field results and crowds. Maybe not 2017 Cas quite yet, but the years either side where they were upper mid table and mixing it with the top clubs

It doesn't happen overnight. Crowds have been excellent this year, particularly considering its £27 a ticket, and we're about 8/900 up on 2017s average so far. Im glad to see the club has committed to opening the East stand for every game, rather than just the odd big fixture so that people can start to to build the habit of filling those areas. It'll be interesting to what can be achieved with a sustained push in SL rather than having to rebuild back in the championship on 3k gates.

Think the notion that Adrian Lam can't coach attacking rugby can be put to bed now. 130 points for, 34 against in May.

Well that was incredible. The run goes on, 5 league wins in a row and Wakey up next. Good crowd in the end too, 8120, over 1k up on the 2017 equivalent fixture.

Wakefield sending out the SOS to big Dave https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/david-fifita-set-answer-wakefield-26991710 desperate times and all that. To be fair though if Cas ditch any more players Wakefield may have a fighting chance of beating the drop this year.

Some odd recruitment/retention decisions going on at both Huddersfield and Cas at the moment. Huddersfield have 14 experienced forwards already on the books, meanwhile Cas seem desperate to get rid of any remaining quality they had in their pack. I can only assume someone is going the other way from Hudds to Cas.

Ah yes, 4 points it would be. Point still stands though

Should be a Warrington win, but we're in good form and at home so who knows. The mere fact that this is gameweek 13 and a win would put us only 2 points behind 1st place is just mind blowing, frankly.

Hit the nail on the head there, I would also add the increase in financial power of the NRL has also probably suppressed the desire of SL clubs to part with larger transfer fees. Anyone good enough or with enough potential to command a fee is ultimately going to going to fall onto the NRL radar sooner rather than later. If Dupree signed for KR midseason for £100k on a 2.5 year deal then end of 2024 he decides he wants to run his contract down and go to the NRL for nothing, KR are going to look very silly.

That's particularly shocking considering Leigh took 529 of those.

6-figure transfer bids are almost unheard of these days in SL, especially for a prop forward. Turning it down when it is public knowledge the player wants to leave is a gamble, it may lead to increased bids or it could end up with an unhappy and disruptive player phoning in performances and if that happens and other clubs realise that SRD want to get rid, those offers will quickly become 5-figure offers.. An asset is only an asset if they want to play for you, otherwise they can be dead weight that clubs short of cash can't afford to keep. There is still 80k to target for the share issue, if the documentation is correct then 100k+ from dupree secures SRD's short/medium term future and means more investment in the commercial debt to grow crowds.

Possibly, but I can't see them getting much more if the offer is already in the 6-figures. That is right at the top end of transfer fees for SL era, especially for a prop forward. If they keep him and he spits his dummy out those offers are only going to come down.

I wonder which team Dupree will be lining up for in June... certainly makes the draw extra tasty for that match!

This is why it surprises me Salford have turned it down (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/65674364). There is no value to keeping a player who isn't happy and the longer it drags on, the more it poisons the whole dressing room and the transfer fee offers get smaller as other clubs realise SRD are stuck with a net liability who doesn't want to be there. If Hull KR are offering 6-figures as reported, I'd be snapping their hand off because more than likely the next clubs to come knocking will be from the NRL and I highly doubt he wouldn't just do the same thing to Hull KR further down the line. I don't particularly blame him, it's a short career made shorter considering he's been a bit of a late bloomer so you have to get what you can and there is no doubt his stock would have risen considerably since he accepted the new contract last year.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/rugby-league-news/hull-kr-transfer-tyler-dupree-8459547 Tyler Dupree has apparently handed a formal transfer request in at SRD edit - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/65674364 Now confirmed by Salford and they've denied his request, not sure how well it's going to go trying to keep him til end of 2025 if he wants to leave though, they'd be far better off taking the 6-figure offer from Hull KR and using it to find a replacement.

I could think of 100 reasons..

What's the TV situation for the quarters? Obviously BBC will have 2, is it still viaplay or will sky take over for the quarters?

There is good value and then there is giving them away, which is what some of the Hudds prices have been over the years. Yes those are mostly early bird prices, the majority of most clubs season tickets are sold in the first couple of weeks of availability so a high proportion would have been bought at those prices. Cheap tickets are a very old school and lazy way of marketing that just doesn't have much impact these days. A low price just creates a perception of low value product and in a competitive entertainment marketplace, it's experience that drives attendance rather than cost implications. If Hudds want to stay a top SL side post-Davy, they need to basically double those season ticket prices and soon.

Highlights from Leigh v Wakefield

Well let's put that to the test, 10 minutes of googling tells me the average price for the cheapest adult season ticket since 2012 is £119. Year Cheapest Adult price Source 2023 £149 https://giantsrl.com/article/8203/huddersfield-giants-launch-2023-season-cards 2022 £180 https://www.giantsrl.com/article/7865/new-season-card-prices-%E2%80%93-buy-yours-for-%C2%A330-per-month 2021 £99 https://www.giantsrl.com/article/7533/giants-launch-2021-season-cards 2020 £149 https://www.johnsmithsstadium.com/huddersfield-giants-season-tickets/ 2019 £139 https://twitter.com/Giantsrl/status/1071011603099852802 2018 £125 https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/news/huddersfield-giants-launch-great-season-13626132 2017 £99 https://twitter.com/Giantsrl/status/786899415181262848 2016 £120 https://twitter.com/Giantsrl/status/662297610443735040 2015 £120 https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/news/huddersfield-giants-reveal-season-ticket-7743568 2014 £99 https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/news/huddersfield-giants-announce-season-ticket-5820912 2013 £99 https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/news/huddersfield-giants-announce-season-ticket-5820912 2012 £50 https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12196/7840973 average £119

Leigh 40-12 Wakefield full time

not for long, 22-0 now for Leigh

Huddersfields cheapest adult season ticket has generally been between £99 and £149 for the past 10-15 years now