NEW WAKEFIELD TRINITY signing Josh Griffin has opened up on his Hull FC exit.
Griffin spent six-and-a-half seasons at the MKM Stadium, winning the Challenge Cup with the Black and Whites in 2017 and registering 45 tries in 143 appearances for the club.
However, his contract situation during the 2023 season – which was the last year of his previous deal at Hull – dominated the news arena with Griffin playing one of his best seasons for FC before it all went wrong in a Challenge Cup quarter-final clash with St Helens.
The 33-year-old was sent off for dissent just after the half-time whistle had gone in that game with Griffin being handed a seven-game ban by the RFL and a fine of £1000 over the incident in late June.
That would be the last time that the makeshift second-rower would play for the East Yorkshire club before moving to Wakefield Trinity in a bid to help the latter stay in Super League.
For Griffin, Wakefield gave him the security he needed that couldn’t be assured at Hull.
“I left Hull for a lot of different reasons. The red card and ban didn’t go in my favour and I think it was the right time to leave for me and the club,” Griffin told League Express.
“I think the club was looking to move on from some of the players that had been at the club for a while and I was one of them.
“Tony Smith also had a way of wanting to do things and moving to Wakefield was a chance for me to secure my future and get out of Hull a bit earlier.
“Wakefield is a club I know well and the city is somewhere I grew up. Plus, all my family live in Wakefield.”
Griffin believes that a new contract would not have been given to him even if the red card and subsequent ban had not occurred.
“I was playing well before the red card, I was fit and in form. I always think Tony Smith had his agendas and he had the final say on it.
“I don’t believe he ever wanted to give me a new contract anyway, it was just a way of getting me out of the club earlier and saving a bit of money.”
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