Huddersfield Giants have tied down Nathan Mason on a long-term deal until the end of the 2018 season.
The Oldham-born forward has enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2016, impressing during the club’s injury crisis at the start of the year and has gone on to maintain his place in Paul Anderson’s squad, making 15 appearances so far, scoring one try.
Mason, who previously spent time on dual registration at Oldham, has been at the Giants for the entirety of his professional career and has done enough to impress the Giants chief.
He becomes the latest young star to be commit to the Giants, with Oliver Roberts and Sam Wood two of the latest players to sign new deals at the club.
The 22-year-old said: “I am obviously happy to be staying at the club and I hope that I can establish myself as a regular in the first team.
“I have always been at Huddersfield since signing professionally and as well as Paul as head coach who played my position I am lucky that the senior props such as Eorl (Crabtree), Sam (Rapira) and Craig (Huby) have helped and encouraged me – especially this year when I’ve played far more first grade than before.
I know we still have lots to do as a team this year to get where we want to be but I’m glad I’ve been playing and hope that continues and our form continues to get better. I have some security now as it is worrying when you are out of contract at the end of the year and not knowing what the future is so I’m really glad this deal is done and announced now. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the club and my representatives, Aticus Law Limited for making this happen.”
Anderson commented: “Nathan deserves a chance here to continue his development and he is a good example for the younger lads to look up to as he demonstrates a genuine development path into the Super League team. He has come through our systems and this year really pushed his nose into consideration for the top side. He is a naturally big man and will probably get bigger with age and the continued benefit of training alongside the proper nutrition programme. Game wise he is like many aspiring players of his age in that he needs to play regularly against good opposition.”
