The rumours of his signing have been put to rest. Ed Courtenay has officially put pen to paper on a new one year coaching deal with the Giants. The news will please Giants fans who where looking for come continuity behind the bench.

Ed is expected to scout for players with immediate effect and with the import rule changing he will be able to look at even more talent out there with the hope of bringing them to Belfast.

Of course plenty of last years team may well be retained to keep a core group but Ed is expected to shake up some areas and make some changes after a poor playoff run to finish last season.

Talk in the hockey sections of the local media this Easter weekend is all about whether player coach Ed Courtenay will be back behind the Giants bench next September but as is clearly evident there’s a few important things standing in the way, but will Ed be able to turn down the challenge of retaining the Elite title and pushing for the playoff crown next year?

The major factor standing in the way of Ed coming back to the Giants again is family. Ed’s wife and kids live out in South Carolina and the lack of seeing his family may be a reason that Ed decides to return to the other side of the Atlantic this off season. Thanks to a favourable schedule this season there where enough breaks to allow Ed to return home to visit the wife and kids and the hope of a similar schedule is what we hope for to make Ed decide he can come back.

One thing that’s likely is if Ed does return it will not be as a player-coach, but the Giants need continuity behind the bench after 4 coaches in 4 years, and big Ed is the man that could bring that. Dave Whistle is the last and only man to have coached the Giants for multiple seasons and that ended in 2003 when he left for a short stint in Germany.

Since then Rob Stewart and Tony Hand have had seasons behind the bench before Ed’s arrival and there’s nothing the fans, and even management would like more than to see the same face year after year building upon each season. It’s the proven way to success.

So we say, bring back Ed, offer him the contract now and get him signing. The sooner we have our man behind the bench the more time he has to recruit a winning team… After all, he put together a league winning team in just one month. Currently there is 4.5 months before face-off in 06-07. The possibilities are exciting indeed.

The struggling Steelers have had enough and sacked ex-Giants ace, Rob Stewart. After a run of poor results ending in two defeats in the past number of days against Cardiff the Sheffield management decided it was time for a change.

Rob who only last summer was sacked by the Giants after one season was brought in by Sheffield with only days until the start of the regular season after Sheffield’s legendary coach Mike Bliesdale left to go back to Canada to coach.

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It was the day Giants fans hoped they would never meet, the final home game of the season and Dave Whistle’s announcement to a capacity crowd at the Odyssey that at the end of the season he would be moving on for another Challenge. It’s a Challenge that will come in Germany’s DEL with the Iserlohn Roosters.  Read More»