Wellsy4HullFC

Look at the direction the stick is coming from...

Well, no. You started making a subject about Salford and Hull into something about Rovers after having a little outburst about something that happened years ago (got callee out on the bitterness there) and that began stretching a few truths to save face. It wasn't the turning point. Nothing "turned around" (hence the phrase "turning" point), in fact it was the consistently worst run in Rovers' time in SL. A few coaches came and went in that time, lots of other chopping and changing occured. Not trying to "bring the progress down", all I was saying is it came later. You don't need to over-egg the progress, it's impressive what Rovers are doing and I take my hat off to them. Unlike you, I'm able to acknowledge the positives of the other side. Your bitterness prevents you from doing that and leads you to just making things up to try justify the bitterness. That's insufferable. But hey, you do you.

Where?

Well I enjoyed the game. 2 teams under a lot of pressure, mistakes are going to happen. We're not going to pretend the quality of our play is good. What I wanted as a Hull fan was effort throughout and some evidence of resilience and structure in defence and I think we definitely got that. We're under-sized and inexperienced as a team. But for the first time in a long time (unless I've forgotten one, first time since August last year), we scored first and were in it until the end. Big step in the right direction. For Leeds, they'll no doubt feel similar to how we felt when we beat London: a game they should have performed a lot better in and been more convincing in considering relative positions.

Your a top 6 side for now and doing very well. The game is cyclical. Win a year or 2, could go the other way. What works now might not work later. I remember all too well how that switched on the late 00s from doing well near the top and suddenly a few bad decisions and back down with the pack. Heard it all from your like back then too. "Look at us, we're on the up, you lot are rubbish supporters." Funny how it switched back around and we actually achieved success, but hey-ho. The free-ride thing is just laughable. It's not just Hull fans that would say we're a big club. We are objectively a big club going by the criteria, and that's why it's disappointing we're doing so poorly. Warrington are a big club despite some really poor seasons. Leeds are. It just speaks of your insecurity with your lot that you feel the need to try and emphasise negativity around other clubs whilst repainting your own history in a way that makes it seem every failure was done mystical lesson on the journey. You've sacked a fair few of your coaches on the way and made terrible decisions too. Once you get to a point where you don't feel the need to bring up your rivals, then you know you're happy with your lot. Until then, keep twitching those curtains at the neighbours.

Delusional.

If you did that, one team (the cup winners) essentially has no reason to perform in the league for the rest of the season because they'll already be in the final.

Merge them. Magic Weekend every round. Give it an identity. Spread the game. You'd need a 30k combined crowd for each event to at least match what we have now. Some regularity of each round might even build it.

Pretty much my sentiments. Having our 2 biggest events back to back in October will dilute both. When we require many neutral fans to fill these grounds, putting both showcase events on back-to-back is forcing fans to choose. SL clubs joining the cup at the round of 32 rather than round of 16 is an obvious improvement (how it was about 10 or so years ago). I'd be tempted to give the SL champions a bye so they have a free weekend for the WCC. But eliminating all the other clubs below L1 is doing more to damage the ethos of the cup than any of the ideas mentioned at the end of the piece. It's our FA Cup, not our League Cup. It needs to include as many as possible within the pyramid and unite the rugby league community. The quota idea puzzles me. Why restrict our selling points? Seems a bit gimmicky (in a negative way). And as nice as the other ideas are to build an event, they're not really selling points that are going to add bums to seats.

I used to teach the Kemp twins when they were 10. You could tell even at that age they were very talented rugby players. Was really chuffed to see they both got signed up. How are they both doing?

Seriously, the bitterness has to stop.

You really need to get out of your own bubble because you're enjoying the smell of your own farts. If you don't think finishing bottom and joint bottom were failures, you've got some interesting mental gymnastics. It's all part of the journey, nothing wrong with just saying "yeah, we had a rough few years rebuilding." I know plenty of Hull KR fans that hold their hand up to those shoddy years and did so at the time also. I won't tar them all with the same brush like you try to ours because I'm not that bitter. Enjoy your progression. You should. But remember, you haven't won anything yet so maybe get down from that pedestal.

Yorkshire & The East vs Lancashire & The West. There, everyone's included. Like when they added "Ireland" to GB&I. As long as they avoid calling them the Red Rose Wests, I'm sure we'll be fine!

Well, not really. After bouncing back, you finished 3rd bottom (then 18pd away from being in another MPG), joint bottom and then bottom again. Relegation knocked you back years. Let's not rewrite history into some kind of "rising phoenix" underdog story. Had it but been for Widnes' compete collapse that year, you may have stayed down there.

Something has to change. Smith had a full season and an off-season. I get he might have not been able to recruit all the players he wanted, but he got so little out of the ones he's got that it was just unacceptable. There was no confidence he could turn anything around. Since he's gone, there's some visible changes happening. Whether they're good or bad, who knows, but the support was being lost through such inept performances that you've got to be shown to be doing something. They're the customers after all. You can't have one win in 14 games (that one win being a last minute try at home against a newly promoted team with zero wins and guaranteed relegation), with 3 out of the last 4 by more than 50+, and expect to keep your job.