Belfast Giants

Mm.

People scoff sometimes, is the Belfast Giants.

Absolutely.

And ice hockey.

But the really, really strong message I would take as somebody maybe from the outside looking in, with that strong caveat, I don't live here anymore, but do not take people for granted.

And what I mean by that is there can be this feeling potentially in Ulster of, as you say, "Oh, they'll- they'll turn up." Well, will they? Because, you know, we're- we're in a cost of living, you know, it's- it's getting increasingly expensive.

You're bringing the kids, right? We love that, but if it's windy and cold and the Belfast Giants are doing whatever, tickets for a tanner and it's under cover and they're shooting subway guns, I- I just don't think you can be naive enough to expect that, you know, the- the things can just continue and you will get unmitigated loyalty.

Now, from what I can see, and correct me if I'm wrong, Peter, but I remember whenever I was covering Ulster, you know, when I was living in London, it was great and then it was terrible in that it was like you couldn't speak to anybody.

yes, the Elite League.

There's Belfast Giants as well.

Yes, a UK.

But...

lovely.

Obviously, with the Giants game on Sunday, then, obviously, you've got your other teammates, Christian Berger.

I think you played with Christian, was that in Maine?

So, Bergs is, I played with him all four years at school, too.

And I'm gonna swing big on this, because I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying this.

In terms of Joey Martin goals and the ones he remembers, I'm pretty sure he holds the first ever goal in this building when it was, uh, built against Belfast Giants.

I think he got the first one, and if I'm right on that, and I really hope I am-

Yeah

They finished first, we finished second, and the teams were stacked.

And then we went to play in, in, in Belfast in the Challenge Cup final.

Um, and believe it or not, they, they already had the banners made up, Belfast Giants Challenge Cup champions.

They had the Belfast colors on the trophy, honestly, um, before that.

They've got Lightning Jack, but yeah, have to include him.

Would have been Finn McCool but I didn't want two Giants in there, so yeah.

And that'll be it for, for ours.

But if you, uh, wanna give us your takes everyone, some people come up to me, um, on the, the Devils game on the weekend, uh, 'cause of course I did say, um, for the last one, who would you like to have a meal with, you know, from, from the past, figures fro- from before, and had some wonderful, uh, examples.

Blades got spanked and then fought back to see off their rivals.

Flames then flexed their firepower as a battle Steelers early call for a dark horse maybe.

Giants then hit the road, went unscathed, but will this be precursor for their season ahead? Stars got beat 4-1 both nights by last season's champs and conversely the table prop is at home, so a long season ahead for them, and the only team without points.

Devils saw off a feisty Flames visit with a goal from a former f- uh, player, then they folded i- in the fog against their old foes, causing it an early forfeit.