The Story Of 2023…
Hull FC fans might have expected better. When Tony Smith joined the club as Head Coach in September 2022 there was reason for optimism. He had won two Super League Grand Finals with Leeds Rhinos and two Challenge Cups with Warrington Wolves. He’d coached England and Great Britain. After an initial struggle he then guided Hull KR to the playoffs. What was not to like about the arrival of a proven winner who was joining having recently left your most bitter rivals?
Well maybe Wigan fans who can remember the brief reign of Ian Millward might have offered some words of caution to over-excited FC fans. If Smith is going to be the success he has been elsewhere it is turning out to be a gradual process. The black and whites finished a dismal 10th in 2023, winning only 10 of their 27 league matches. Smith or no Smith, it was another campaign in which a clearly talented squad failed to get it together as a cohesive team.
It started brightly with wins over Castleford and Leeds before seven consecutive defeats followed. A couple of them were chastening humiliations. Plenty of sides could lose 38-6 to Catalans in Perpignan but a 60-14 home loss to Salford Red Devils resides in the file marked ‘unacceptable’. As does a 40-0 towelling by Rovers on Good Friday.
Beating eventual champions Wigan a month after that derby debacle was the most Hull FC thing in the world. That was the second in a three-game winning streak that was the longest run of victories that FC achieved all season. Although they gained a measure of revenge on the Robins - winning 16-6 at Sewell Group Craven Park in early July - they ended the year with six consecutive defeats.
FC did reach the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup, beating the Tigers 32-8 away from home in the last 16. Yet they ran into Saints in the last eight. That was a match they were competitive in until Josh Griffin offered referee Chris Kendall an impromptu appraisal of his performance and was promptly sent off as the teams left the field for the half-time break.
The 2024 Recruits.
FC have never been afraid to take a risk or two with NRL imports and this year is no exception. The biggest name among this year’s crop is probably prop or loose forward Herman Ese’ese. An international with both New Zealand and Samoa during his 9-year professional career, the 29 year-old has also clocked up almost 130 appearances in the Australian competition with spells at five different clubs. He spent 2023 with the NRL’ debutants - the Dolphins - making 20 appearances for Wayne Bennett and his assistant and three-time Super League Grand Final winner Kristian Woolf.
If the much travelled Ese’ese represents a risk it’s nothing compared to the apparent gamble involved in taking on Jayden Okunbor. The 26 year-old winger (or second row, apparently which would be a massive red flag for me if I were a Hull fan) joins from Canterbury Bulldogs where he was once a controversial figure. In 2020 he was sacked by the club after a sex scandal involving a girl he had met during a visit to a school.
Now it should be stressed that the girl was not underage and that the subsequent encounter was consensual. Okunbor later won an appeal against his dismissal and was instead fined and asked to complete some community service. But it won’t only be me who looks at this and notes that we have seen this movie before. The one about the NRL star who gets into trouble and ends up in the UK. It can work out, but for every Joel Monaghan it feels like there are two or three Greg Birds and Todd Carneys.
Another ex-Bulldog is Fa’amanu Brown. He arrives in Humberside after a solitary season at Newcastle Knights where he managed only two appearance. A former Samoan international who switched allegiances and represented New Zealand three times in 2023, Brown can play in a number of positions including both halfback roles, hooker and loose forward. Yet if we’re looking for red flags with Hull’s imports the fact that he has only signed a one year deal arguably screams ‘shop window’.
Prop Franklin Pele completes a trio of former Canterbury men headed for Hull. A serious injury robbed the 23 year-old of his entire 2022 season after making his NRL debut for Cronulla Sharks in 2021. Fit again, he managed only six outings for the Bulldogs in 2023 and will be hoping to reboot his career in Super League. Pele has a two-year deal and will compete for playing time with Ese’ese, Ligi Sao, Brad Fash and Jack Brown.
Coach Smith isn’t the only one on board for 2024 with previous on the other side of the city. Fullback Jack Walker spent part of 2023 with Rovers after a spell at Bradford Bulls. Now 24, Walker first turned out in Super League for Leeds Rhinos as a 17 year-old in 2017. He showed enormous promise back then but has been incredibly unlucky with injuries in the years since. The Rhinos finally gave up hope and let him go in 2022 but if he can stay fit Walker has the ability to be one of the premier fullbacks in Super League.
Liam Tindall never made quite the same impression in his four seasons at Headingley. The winger made only 21 appearances which is perhaps not that surprising when you have the likes of David Fusitu’a and Ash Handley ahead of you. Nevertheless he only crossed for two tries during that stint and was farmed out on loan to both Bradford and Doncaster. Now the 22 year-old leaves his home town Rhinos to add to Smith’s wing options which include Cameron Scott and further promising youth in 20 year-olds Harvey Baron and Davy Litten.
Fa’amanu Brown and Jake Trueman look favourites to form the halfback pairing with Tex Hoy adding another dimension at fullback. Yet there is a further option with the arrival of Morgan Smith from Wakefield Trinity. The former Warrington man escapes a season in the Championship with the Trin by making the move east to Hull. He has plenty of experience in the second tier after spells with Rochdale, York and Featherstone but has also featured in the top flight with Warrington and London. Now 25, it feels like he needs to establish himself as a Super League player.
There is one UK based addition to the pack. Jack Ashworth played 47 times for Saints including off the bench in the 2019 Super League Grand Final win over Salford Red Devils. From there he joined Huddersfield Giants in 2020 where he has made just 20 appearances and had loan spells with Leigh, Halifax and Featherstone. Now 28, the man who made his debut for Saints at centre against Hull back in 2015 can’t have many more bites at the Super League cherry if this one doesn’t work out.
Lastly, he (or she) won’t be making many tackles or passes in 2024 but it would be criminal not to mention the arrival of FC’s new mascot. The as yet unnamed character has been designed by a sponsor, heating solutions manufacturers Ecostrad. And well…there’s no getting away from the fact that he (or she) is a radiator. It’s the sort of attempt to make money that would make Jordan Henderson blush. That thump you heard was the airlie bird falling out of his tree.
So Who’s Out…?
Perhaps the biggest loss from the 2023 squad is halfback Jake Clifford. He returns to North Queensland Cowboys - where he played from 2018-21 - after just one season with the airlie birds. Clifford earned widespread praise for some outstanding performances in black and white last year, though his effectiveness seemed to wane after his move back to the NRL was announced. We call that a Barba in these parts.
While Tindall’s arrival adds depth on the wings it doesn’t seem set to compensate for the loss of Adam Swift. The 30 year-old ex-Saint was excellent last term, bagging 19 tries in Super League. Only five men in the league managed more. In all, Swift scored 36 tries in 55 games across four seasons at Hull after being edged out of his home town club by the emergence of Regan Grace. He’s now a seriously injured rugby union player but it seemed the right decision at the time. Still, it’s hard to fathom why FC would let Swift go and even harder to fathom why he would choose to join Huddersfield Giants. But then, who knows why Mollie didn’t vote for a banishment?
Ben McNamara has failed to really establish himself in the halves at Hull and he will try again at Leigh Leopards. Meanwhile three-quarter Connor Wynne - who has managed only 36 appearances at the club in five seasons - scoring 14 tries - has left to try and aid Featherstone’s bid to win the Championship and - if they receive permission from the game’s new rulers IMG - gain promotion to Super League.
Hull’s pack has also seen some turnover of staff, making it even more important that Okunbor, Pele and Ashworth make a success of their time at The MKM Stadium. Chris Satae has been one of the better impact front rowers since arriving at Hull in 2019 but it will be Catalans Dragons who benefit if that continues in 2024. Versatile Fijian Joe Lovodua has stepped down a level to join Doncaster, while Andre Savelio has made the opposite journey to Ashworth and joined Huddersfield.
The two were team-mates at Saints until Savelio’s 2016 exit to Castleford on loan initially before a move to Warrington. A spell with Brisbane Broncos was all but ruined by injury, since when the back rower has made 58 appearances in five seasons with FC. Savelio is a skilled operator but fitness issues and - at times - attitude have prevented him from gaining consistency. If Ashworth is drinking in Super League’s Last Chance Saloon then Savelio is about to be dragged towards the exit door by a couple of burly doormen. Although it might take three of them.
Brad Dwyer has travelled around a bit since making his debut for Warrington back in 2012 and the hooker is packing his kit again, rejoining the Wolves after a solitary year in Hull. Dwyer turned out just six times for the black and whites last term, that after mostly impressing in 120 appearances for Leeds Rhinos. In one of those he picked up a Challenge Cup winners medal in 2020 as part of that year’s Wembley triumph over Salford. With Dwyer gone Fa’amanu Brown may step into the hooking role at times to allow Morgan Smith to operate in the halves although veteran dummy half Danny Houghton has just been reinstated as captain. He will expect to feature regularly despite having turned 35 in September.
While Houghton goes on there are others from last year’s group for whom retirement has already arrived. In a move with slight echoes of Denny Solomona’s Castleford exit back in 2016 (but without the outrage) Jamie Shaul has retired from rugby league at the age of 31 to play rugby union for Hull RUFC. Prop forward and former Rover Scott Taylor - a Grand Final and Challenger Cup winner with Wigan - has also called it a day after eight seasons and 178 appearances in black and white.
What’s The Expectation?
The expectation should be that under a coach who is a proven winner the years of underachievement should end. But for how long have FC had a squad bursting with talent without ever really threatening to challenge at the top? FC have made the playoffs just three times since 2013. The last of those was in 2020 when they were hammered 29-2 in the semi-final by Wigan. Hull is a big rugby league club which should always be pushing for involvement beyond the regular season. Yet they have missed out so often in recent years you do wonder whether their fans really do expect it.
What Will Really Happen?
I’d still back FC to improve on 10th in a 12-team competition but looking at Tony Smith’s recruitment moves I wouldn’t advise anyone to put the house on a return to the top six. With Satae, Taylor and Dwyer all gone they are suddenly reliant on having their NRL signings work out. It’s a similar story in the halves too where Fa’amanu Brown has an unenviable job in trying to live up to the standards set by Clifford - even if they were not sustained and they didn’t translate into wins even nearly often enough.
Yet my faith in Smith as a coach is unshakeable so I still expect his side to improve. They may do so at a slower pace than he achieved at KR where a bottom of the table finish in 2020 was followed by a playoff appearance in 2021. The top eight would represent improvement and is a realistic target.
No comments:
Post a Comment