HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS will step up their backing for the women’s team next year by bringing them in-house with the professional club.
The Women’s Super League side, who finished the 2023 season bottom of Group One with one win from ten matches, are currently run by the club’s charitable arm, Huddersfield Giants Community Trust.
But from December 1, they will pass to the main club, who intend to appoint several full-time staff members to work with the women’s team and professionalise its operation.
They will use the club’s Laund Hill training complex once complete, while Huddersfield also say they will reward players who earn international honours financially.
Richard Thewlis, the Giants’ managing director, said: “Their development as a team and the wider growth of the women’s game has been monumental in such a short period of time and it’s one that we want to embrace and grow with.
“We are already a Women’s Super League club by right, given our level of performance, but we now want to press fast-forward and really crack on.
“We have met all the increasingly costly standards set by the Rugby Football League for the women’s teams and we will look to further commercialise the opportunities that this presents.
“We will shortly be announcing several full-time opportunities within the women’s operation, which will include a dedicated manager and physiotherapist as well as a stand-alone doctor.
“We’ve seen positions shared with the men’s game in the league, but at Huddersfield it will be the other way around. These people’s primary role is with the women’s teams.
“The Huddersfield players at Super League level will have the access to the very best medical care in the game, which is something we strongly believe in.”
