DAVY LITTEN may be fresh from the best season of his young career, but the Hull FC man knows he has plenty more room for improvement.
The 22-year-old made his senior bow in 2022 and played 16 times the following season, most frequently in the fullback role he once considered his strongest.
But in 2024 he featured only seven times for Hull, suffering not one but two knee injuries.
Surgery following the latter meant he only returned to action at the end of March this year, but Litten went on to play in all 23 remaining matches.
Each of those appearances came at centre, recording eight tries and nine assists in Super League as he struck up a strong partnership with competition top try-scorer Lewis Martin, and it’s a position the Hull-born club product now considers home.
“It was a good year, finally maintaining a spot,” reflected Litten.
“I’d been a bit all over the place in the past few years so maintaining a spot at centre gave me confidence from continuity. It was good to get a position nailed down.
“I still have that versatility and I can play wing or fullback, but I love playing centre now. I love being a sponge to my peers and the coaching staff.
“You can only get better with repetition. I’ll get better the more games I play. I improved a lot from the first game (of last season) to the end and I still know I’ve got improvement in me.
“I’ll keep working hard at that and hopefully next year I’ll be a more finished article.
“I can give a little bit more, both in defence and attack. That’s what this pre-season is for, and hopefully next year I can maintain that centre spot.”
Litten also sees plenty of room for growth in the team as a whole.
Having spent much of Hull’s horror 2024 season, when they won just three matches, on the sidelines, Litten was happy to play his part in a seventh-place finish, but only up to a point.
He said: “As a team it was a better year. We were disappointed as a group – we felt we could have done something special, but that’s in the past now.
“We’ll use it as fuel in the fire to do it next year and hopefully do some special things with a new group.”