League Express editor MARTYN SADLER contrasts the Wigan and Hull FC squads that were both announced recently.
AT the time of writing five Super League clubs have released their 2025 squad numbers – Warrington, St Helens, Huddersfield, Wigan and Hull FC.
And it’s quite striking to compare the latter two clubs and their approaches to handing out their top 13 squad numbers.
Wigan’s only changes are the promotion of Luke Thompson and Junior Nsemba into shirt numbers 10 and 11 respectively, with Liam Byrne and Willie Isa dropping down the order to numbers 16 and 14 respectively.
Wigan’s top seven squad numbers remain exactly the same as last season.
And the only signing they have made during the season is George Hirst from Oldham, who I suspect may be on his way back to Oldham to gain further experience in the Championship or some other club in the same competition.
If we now look at Hull FC, we see the precise opposite situation to that at Wigan.
Only two players – Herman Ese’ese and Ligi Sao – who were in their top 13 squad numbers last season have retained their positions.
All seven of the players who wore squad numbers 1 to 7 last season have been replaced. And the only player who has been promoted from within is young Harvey Barron, who will wear number 2, after having the number 25 shirt in 2024.
Congratulations to Harvey, but all the six other players wearing those shirts are newcomers to the club, although Ed Chamberlain, who will wear number 4, and Tom Briscoe, who will wear 5, both joined in the latter part of the 2024 season.
The contrast between Wigan and Hull FC in terms of their squad turnover is a contrast between stability and turbulence. And stability normally triumphs over turbulence, as we saw with Wigan winning everything this year.
I would love to see Hull FC ascending the league table in 2025 because the Airlie Birds should be one of the biggest clubs in the game and Rugby League would benefit enormously from having two very strong Hull clubs.
But until they can develop a stable environment that approaches the same levels that we see at Wigan, their coach John Cartwright will experience plenty of difficulties.
Integrating all those newcomers into the Hull squad will inevitably be a tough process before the team is able to play with the understanding that we see from Wigan and I would urge the Hull fans to buy their season tickets to see all the new arrivals but to have plenty of patience. They are surely going to need it.
And it doesn’t help that their first two fixtures will be away at Catalans, although Steve McNamara will also have a team with a lot of changes in it next year, and at home to Wigan.
Whoever compiles the fixtures hasn’t been kind to Hull. And such is the awfulness of the loop fixtures that they will play Wigan at home twice in their first nine fixtures.
Wouldn’t it be better to space the loop fixtures out, so that they were played in the first four rounds of the season and then in the final four rounds?
Putting together fixture lists is never easy and none of us know what requests the clubs make to the fixture compilers.
But surely that can’t be the optimal solution.
Hunslet on the rise?
OF all the clubs in the Championship, Hunslet face the biggest challenge in 2025, possibly alongside London Broncos.
Hunslet finished fourth out of nine clubs in League One last year but were promoted on the back of some fine away performances in the play-offs, with successive away wins at Rochdale, Keighley and Swinton.
But they were the last club to be sure of their place in the Championship and therefore their plans to put together a squad that could compete at that level couldn’t be put into effect until they had secured that thrilling victory at Swinton, which is still available to watch on the Sportsman website.
Hunslet are having to recruit when most other clubs have completed their recruitment plans and they will face a mighty battle to stay in the Championship for 2026.
Last week I was delighted to welcome Hunslet chief executive Neil Hampshire as a guest on the League Express Podcast.
It was the first time I’d met him but it was a great conversation that lasted just over an hour and he gave some great insights into the trials and tribulations of running a club that was in League One but has now secured promotion.
He also spoke about the history of Hunslet and reminded me of something I’d forgotten – that around 25 years ago there was the possibility of rugby union club Leicester Tigers buying Hunslet in order to get a short cut into Super League at a time when our elite competition had a much higher profile than it does now.
It was a great discussion and it you haven’t seen it I would urge you to check it out on one of the podcast platforms (Spotify, Apple, etc) or on YouTube, where you can see it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzw9UO2zx28&t=228s
This week’s Podcast will be recorded on Wednesday morning and it will go online at around 4.30pm. And our special guest this week will be John Kear, who will talk about his life in Rugby League and the various roles he has had in the game.
Kevin’s amendment
AS you will see on page 2 of this issue, Batley chairman Kevin Nicholas and his Dewsbury equivalent Mark Sawyer have proposed an amendment to the grading system to be considered at this Wednesday’s RFL Council meeting.
Effectively the amendment, if carried, will restore a modified promotion and relegation between Super League and the Championship.
Under the proposal, the team that wins the Championship Grand Final, assuming it has a grade B, will be promoted to Super League to replace the lowest-finishing grade B team.
That surely has to be a sensible proposal.
I hope the clubs will vote for it.
And credit to Kevin and Mark for proposing it.
You will also see in this issue of League Express that Kevin has weighed in on the Mark Aston controversy at Sheffield, after Mark was suspended from coaching for 18 months by a RFL tribunal.
Check out the article on page 23.
Click here to get the digital edition of League Express
Click here to subscribe to the print edition of League Express
League Express is also widely available from local newsagents across the north of England.
