JOHN CARTWRIGHT has shrugged off predictions that Hull FC will finish near the bottom of Super League this season and says his side is working hard to change that perception.
Cartwright has taken over as head coach of the Black & Whites after a disastrous 2024 season that saw the club finish second from bottom and win just three games.
Since then the club has new owners and a new chief executives, along with a massive squad overhaul with nine new players arriving and 14 departing.
The bookmakers expect Hull to finish near the bottom of the table but their coach remains unperturbed.
“I don’t really buy into that sort of stuff,” Cartwright told League Express.
“The pre-season for me has been all about us. People see the results from last year and they’ll assume everything will be the same, I suppose. I don’t know, but time will tell.
“We’ve got new owners, new staff, new players and a new facility – they’ve all walked into a whole new environment. Outside perceptions can be hard to change but we’re doing everything possible to try to change them.”
The 59-year-old admitted it has been a taxing and intense pre-season for his players to improve their fitness and conditioning.
“We’ve got a lot of young players, so I thought we had to have a really tough preparation going in,” he said.
“And we have an older crew who have bought into it. We’ve been smart about it though; we’ve had a lot of niggling injuries without having anything major.
“We’ve eased up when we’ve had to because coming into the first game we’ll pretty much have a full squad to pick from. That was the goal from the start – to make sure we’re as healthy as we can be without going too easy.”
Cartwright was an assistant at the Brisbane Broncos last year and helped NSW win State of Origin as an assistant coach to Michael Maguire.
But now the former Penrith backrower is enjoying his move to Yorkshire.
“I’ve been here three months now, straight into training pretty much when I got here, so that keeps you busy,” he said.
“You tend to be at work a lot in the pre-season. But we have a great group of players, with good staff, both admin on the football side. It’s been a really good environment to work in.”
Cartwright has coached for nearly three decades, working in roles with the Panthers, Roosters, Kangaroos, United States, North Queensland and Manly.
But he has not been a head coach since an eight-year stint at Gold Coast ended in 2014, and he concedes his coaching style has changed since then.
“Ten years is a long time and I’ve worked with some really good coaches in that time,” he said.
“I’ll probably approach it a little bit differently. When you’re a young coach you tend to try and control everything. You learn as you get older that you have to trust the other people around you, because I’ve got good people around me. I’m really enjoying it.”
