Jermaine McGillvary blasts how he learned he would leave Huddersfield Giants
JERMAINE McGillvary has hit out at the way he has been dumped by Huddersfield – finding out he was not getting a new deal when asked if he was retiring!
And the former England winger will not be going part-time because of his sons’ football commitments in Manchester.
16 years of service to the Giants – turning down chances to move to clubs in England and Australia – were ended in a phone call from boss Ian Watson.
That has left McGillvary seething as he fumed: “It’s quite embarrassing telling my family how I found out. It’s a bit s*** really and I’m absolutely gutted to be leaving.
“I only found out on Monday, I got the call from Ian a couple of hours before our presentation evening.
“I was hoping to stay and asked for a new deal but I was told there’d been no decision. Then the welfare manager asked me, ‘Are you retiring at the end of the season?’
“I went, ‘No.’ He replied, ‘I’ve been told you are. We’re releasing something at the presentation night.’ He’s called Ian, who rang me and said, ‘There’s nothing for you.’
“They were going to say I was retiring before they officially spoke to me. No-one has sat me down, they called me, but until then, no-one had told me. I was expecting either a new deal or a handshake and being thanked for my time.
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“After 16 years of my life, dedicated to Huddersfield, to be told in a phone call before the presentation evening only because they were going to release I was potentially retiring isn’t nice.
“How it’s ended has left a bit of a sour taste. The reasoning is spot on but I thought it could’ve been done better.
“I had a couple of chances to move to the other side of the Pennines. Looking at the way things have been done, should I have done it? With how things have been done, I regret not taking an opportunity when I was younger a little bit.
“And after the World Cup in 2017 I had a chance to move to the NRL but family comes first.”
McGillvary admits he is trying to get his head around the call before looking at where to play in 2024 – but it will not be part-time.
Being on the other side of the Pennines as his three boys push their football careers – eldest Isaac is at City, Elijah at United and Ezra at United’s school of excellence – takes priority.
The 35-year-old added: “Playing rugby isn’t the most important thing, it’s my family. I’m at all their games. I need to be present, I don’t care if I’m getting £20,000 or £200,000.
“And I can’t do part-time as all the activities are in the evening.”
McGillvary’s exit means the end of an era but Watson – who will sign Adam Clune and Thomas Deakin from the NRL – admitted things had to move on.
He said ahead of tonight’s clash with Warrington, which also sees Chris McQueen play his final game: “Some of our players are a bit older and the game’s not getting slower but he feels he’s another year left in him in a full-time environment.
“However, we’ve good young players in those positions coming through and it’s a case of not holding them back – we need players to push through and become the next Jermaine McGillvary.
“We can’t keep turning out Jermaine at 36 or 37.”