Jim Lenihan has confirmed that he’s been assured of the club’s Super League security ahead of the 2027 season despite plenty of questions being asked of Huddersfield Giants.
Defeat to York Knights at Magic Weekend meant Huddersfield slipped to a tenth straight defeat and whilst their sporting quality is lacking, plenty have also asked what the Giants offer commercially.
It remains unclear where they will play their home games in 2027 and they currently boast the lowest average attendance in Super League, approximately 700 less than Toulouse and around 1,500 less than the Knights, two sides that Huddersfield will be battling it out with on the IMG gradings.
Huddersfield have recently issued a statement explaining that they have improved scores in five of the six IMG pillars and Jim Lenihan, speaking in his weekly presser, has also affirmed the Giants’ belief they will be in Super League for 2027.
“I’m of the opinion that we’re fairly okay on the grading system,” the Australian said before explaining why.
When put to him that he had been given assurances by those at the top of the club of their confidence at being in Super League for 2027, Lenihan simply responded: “Yeah, absolutely.”
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“Easy to kick us” – Huddersfield Giants boss explains off-field improvement
Lenihan had earlier explained that whilst Huddersfield may be struggling on the field, their off-field advancements are impressive.
“The club is doing fairly well off-field,” he confirmed.
“Off-field, we’re investing a lot. We’re investing into our training facility, we’re investing into a new stadium.
“I think even at the moment with our performance being as poor as it is, we’ve doubled our shirt sponsors in money coming in.
“There’s a lot of good things happening at the club that people aren’t aware of that is working all the time in the background.
“It’s just our performance on the field doesn’t reflect that right now.”
The Australian pointed to the fact that poor performances are temporary, adding that the work behind closed doors ensures the club are on the ‘right path’ with both Hull KR and Wakefield Trinity used as beacons of hope.
He, said: “The work that goes into the club behind closed doors, into sponsorships, into investing into training facilities, into investing in a stadium that we’re going to have is certainly on the right path and something that’s very exciting for the club.
“It’s not desirable right now to be on the bottom and it’s easy to kick us around and say that we don’t deserve to be in there (Super League) but we do feel a sense of pride about being in Super League and we do want to be in Super League.
“Five years ago, Hull KR and Wakefield, and sides like that, weren’t where they are now so it’s not like it’s an irreparable situation.”
As it stands, Huddersfield are set to finish 14th in 2026 with the club currently six points adrift at the foot of the table, however, a win over tonight’s opponents Bradford would slash that to four.
“It’s vitally important,” Lenihan said of the club’s aim to avoid the wooden spoon.
“No one wants to lose. I’ve said it a million times over, we’re trying to win every week. We’ve got what we’ve got at the moment and playing with what we have. We can’t magically wave a wand over people and turn them into other players.
“We are who we are and we’re searching for improvement.”
Anonymous
July 10, 2026 at 5:49 pm
If the outcome of playing in super league is based on IMG ratings and that they will not be known till October, how can Huddersfield have assurances that they will be safe. This is all a bit fishy
Stuart
July 11, 2026 at 11:46 am
The IMG gradings are a joke, SL decide which teams they want in SL, then manipulate/alter/fiddle the IMG gradings to suit, as with Bradford last year..
They want London in, so their IMG grading will be adjusted to make sure they get in.
It is rumoured that the Hudddersfield score has improved this year and is now above Castleford, Toulouse, and York. How? Crowds are poor, performances are dire.
Huddersfield under any criteria should go down. Compared toYork — York have a better ground, get better crowds, their performances on the field are better, they have won more matches in the last 2 years than Huddersfield, their catchment area is better than Huddersfield and they got 1/2 the amount of funding than Huddersfield. But Huddersfield will stop up and York will go down to get London in. The IMG farce stinks!! Either use IMG honestly with no fiddling of figures, or ditch it and go back to straight promotion and relegation.