Sun 9 Aug: SL: Salford Red Devils v Hull FC KO 1pm (Sky Sports)

[Red Willow]

Not sure you need a big name coach, Salford had Noble and McRae and under both I watched worse performances, teams without heart and effort and it is depressing watching them every week. I couldn't see what they were trying to achieve. Watson had no real rep when he came to Salford.

You need someone who will deal with the deep issues within the club without favour.

[DoubleD]

3 hours ago, Old Frightful said:

Not often I disagree with you mate but I have to in this case.

You're correct in as much that the effect of Covid and Toronto's withdrawal has thrown this season in to a farcical set up, but all the remaining teams now have to fight for the same spoils, albeit under unusual circumstances. But it's the same for all of them, teams simply have to play for what is up for grabs and players have to put in a shift or else what are the fans going to think?

And the key word that we, as Hull FC fans are concerned is "fight". Our squad look like they haven't a clue and as soon as things start to go away from them, they can't be ar sed and along comes yet another humiliating one sided scoreline.

So how do we "sort things out"?

It might be considered harsh but Andy Last has to go. He's part of the old guard and all that was wrong at the club. We need a big name coach, someone new that the players look up to rather than a mate, and someone who will come along with the attitude of "I haven't seen any of these players before, let's see what they can do.

And wield the axe if he doesn't like what he sees. Shift under performing players from the club, after all, they're all supposed to be stars aren't they?, so we should have other teams fighting over them and paying a decent transfer fee.

As I've said countless time before, if we get beaten week in, week out, I'll be disappointed  but not full of doom and gloom as long as I feel the team has tried their best and not let their heads go down when the going gets tough. We are both old enough to remember when, as a second division club, Hull FC reached the 1976 John Player Cup Final and gave a good account of themselves throughout that cup run by constantly punching above their weight. Most of the current shower don't seem to have a single punch in them.

At other times in the distant past, when my club conceded 50 or more, which was rare, it hurt but I knew that it was mainly a team of local lads brought together at a low cost that simply couldn't always compete with the likes of other big spending teams full of stars and I knew that we might give a good account of ourselves the following week and maybe nick a win against a team on a similar budget.

Currently, I don't see where the next win is coming from yet we are a big spending team that is supposed to be full of stars. Look at what neutral fans have said in this thread prior to the game. Along the lines of "If you compare the squads, Salford are going to struggle".

Well, I didn't see much of a struggle for them a couple of days back.

I always like to give coaches the benefit of the doubt when they come in, so i will reserve judgement on Last as it's too early to judge him on 1 performance. 

However, my concern for him/Hull FC is that his whole career has been at Hull, so that's all he knows in terms of club environment/culture. In terms of his personal development, he'd have been better experiencing other club environments (particularly high performing ones and those in NRL) before taking on the position.

It seems to be a particular issue over here. In the NRL, most head coaches are groomed as assistants at various clubs before taking on the top role...........sometimes getting a gig in SL first. There doesn't seem to be that same focus on developing coaches, either by them individually, or clubs in general. There are plenty of examples of coaching failures after being put in positions when not having that development - Cunningham is a prime example. SL always seems to fish in the same small pond, or pick up assistants from NRL. It's a shame they don't look at coaches in lower leagues who've done well - although I suppose you could say Richard Marshall and Andrew Henderson have been taken on as assistants with perhaps an opportunity to become head coach in future

[boris74]

Huge week for Andy Last and one that could be defining if he doesn't get a reaction. Quite a few players appear in a comfort zone and are certainly not pulling their weight or showing the enthusiasm they once did. Stories of same players losing their love of the game only highlight the issue!

By dropping some names and bringing in some youthful enthusiasm may just be what is needed to re-energise this side. Wynne at full back, Cator in the second row and Jack Brown at prop would certainly help bring this. Connor and Kelly in the halves and Swift or Faraimo onto the left wing in place of Fonua who can cover from the bench.

Last claims he is prepared to drop underperforming players and now is the time to show although I expect the old 'give them a chance to redeem themselves' rolled out on Sunday.

That said, Salford were great to watch.

[Ullman]

On 11/08/2020 at 06:13, Old Frightful said:

Currently, I don't see where the next win is coming from

Well we're now in a position where we don't know where our next game is coming from. Looks like I'm going to have even less to get wound up about.

My own preference would have been to bin the season off rather than play behind closed doors but I accept the fact that it was financially imperative to get Super League restarted in some form.

[Old Frightful]

9 hours ago, Ullman said:

Well we're now in a position where we don't know where our next game is coming from. Looks like I'm going to have even less to get wound up about.

And we can gather in the Whalebone and discuss more important things like Ripping Yarns and The Life of Brian.

[Ullman]

4 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

And we can gather in the Whalebone and discuss more important things like Ripping Yarns and The Life of Brian.