Inaugural GIANTS CEO Dale Holmes was awarded life membership of the club at the recent Kevin Sheedy Medal. 

Mr Holmes was the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the GIANTS, following an extensive period from 2004-2010 growing the game of Australian Rules Football in NSW as the General Manager of AFL NSW/ACT.  
 
He is a long-time member of the GIANTS’ Captains Club and a current member of the club’s Football Committee.  

Announced on stage at the awards ceremony last month, Mr Holmes said he was honoured to receive the recognition.  

“The thing that binds us as a football club is we bleed orange,” he said. 

“We’ve been on a journey together. The journey is a rollercoaster, and we had another sense of that this year.  

“We’ve been on that journey since 2006, to be honest, when we first put our eyes on what is now GIANTS Stadium.  
 
“It was a bloody hard ride; a lot of people were incredibly generous and supportive. I'd like to thank our GIANTS family, the people who have put a lot of time, money and effort into it. 

 “I also want to thank my family as well as Dave Matthews, Andrew Dillon, Andrew Catterall and Andrew Demetriou. I'm very grateful for those people and the support of my own family.  

“I’m very honoured and quite surprised but very honoured to have the opportunity to support this football club to this day, I love it dearly.” 

GIANTS Chief Executive David Matthews congratulated Mr Holmes on the honour. 

“Our club may still be the youngest in the League, but we have developed a rich history led by the people who were here from day one,” he said.  

“Without people like Dale Holmes – and another recent life member inductee in Andrew Demetriou – we simply wouldn’t be where we are today.  

“We thank Dale for his vision and foresight and for the critical role he has played in the growth of our club, and the game of Australian Rules Football, across NSW and the ACT for almost two decades.”