Think we really need to try something different at 9. Danny didn't run the ball once last night, maybe scared of taking a big shot to the ribs. I don't know. But in the short time on the pitch Balmforth had he looked much more energetic than Danny has done all season. Everything Houghton does is telegraphed. At least on a couple of occasions Balmforth ran one way from dummy half then switched play back the opposite way. It's nothing impressive but it's just a simple move that causes the defensive line to reshuffle.

Even Danny's defence is showing a lot of cracks now. Left absolutely flat footed when Batchelor ran between him and Laidlaw.



I don't rate Smith at all, but once Trueman is back I'd be tempted to go Trueman and Charles in the halves with Smith and Balmforth sharing the 9 duties. Wouldn't be against Hodgson getting a go either once we get a couple more forwards back to help him out.

That is fair but even if we’re just talking about last night, it reflects the fact that Hull FC have chosen to base their depth almost entirely around inexperienced academy products. It’ll be interesting to see if that tendency is quite as pronounced after Myler starts to reshape the squad.



I tried swapping out Rovers players, trying to pick fair equivalents. The starting 13 looked fine, although after Storton the bench was youthful. Not a 17 to be able go to Saints and expect to win, but much better than nowhere near competitive.



And it’s not like things were better when a fair proportion of the players you list were in the team. Or you’ve had to face other teams at their strongest every week (Leigh missing Lam, Asiata, Ipape and Amone, Saints missing Walmsley, Dodd and Clark).



I get that the performance was always going to be seen through the prism of this being a new dawn, and you’d be ‘pulling together’, rightly…. if it had happened with Smith still in charge though, I doubt anybody would be offering those mitigations. Tbf, that’s why he had to go.

The Pele t shirt was a really good marketing ploy but his onfield performance has not furthered any cult status recognition.

Most teams use their outside backs on exit sets

Not as much as us though, we seem to 4 or 5 every set, I'm all for the first couple, but when you have backs like ours, the forwards should be doing the most work.

At half time, we'd made 220m compared to Saints 860m, to say we still had a few experienced forwards out there in Pele, Ese Ese, lane, Cator - I'd have expected a bit better

Worst recruitment since Melchester Rovers signed Steve Norman and Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet.

Or is it just the club is a depressing place to be with low standards so even the most motivated players get fed up? Pele was far too pumped up in Round1, a couple of months later and he looks like he wants out of there.

2019 recruitment still tops it I think:



Ins: Matty Dawson-Jones (Leigh Centurions), Jordan Thompson (Leeds Rhinos), Danny Langtree (Oldham), Lewis Bienek (London Broncos), Levy Nzoungou (Salford Red Devils), Andrew Bulman (Rugby union)

Well that was another tough night. I don't think any of us expected any less.



I thought the effort was there. They tried and at times that effort really shone through. Particularly in the first half defending their line. The tackling was better and they felt like they were playing more as a team. A blowout score was always going to happen, particularly as they tired in the second half. You can't fault the effort.



I've previously said that I would rather Myler concentrates on long term signings as opposed to short term fixes. But I have changed my mind on that score. We desperately need some additions. There's some good youngsters at this club with lots of potential. We saw some of them last night whilst others are soon to step up. But as someone said in another post, it was lambs to the slaughter last night and that's going to be the case every week until we get some bodies back from the side lines, which risks them being overexposed as Myler pointed out in his interview. But even when we do get some of the senior players back, I'm not sure it's enough. We need more. Players that can drive us up the field so we're not struggling to get out of our own half all the time, players with creativity that can marshal us around the field. We need to learn how to relieve the pressure on ourselves better.

Awful, but at least didn't have 6/7 quota places wasted.

I think people overestimated what Pele would/could actually do this season, possibly highlighted by you referring to him as an experienced player. He's only 6 months older than Will Gardiner and played a very similar amount of games. The fact he's come from Australia probably puts expectations up, but he's still fairly young and very inexperienced.

Whilst I agree, that makes him a poor signing. Not really in a position to be signing projects FWIW I think he could be a decent signing off the bench, but we have to surround him with some quality.



If you had Ese Ese and Fash starting, with Pele and Ashworth on the bench I think he will do better.

Yes, pretty horrendous especially compared to who we were signing just a couple of year before. We did at least bring Ratu in as a trialist that year.

Ah, well!! Nearly objective achieved!!! Doubt any of us were too surprised as to how last night panned out.

Onwards and (vaguely) upwards we go.

To cut a long story short! I would guess that didn't work out too well either.

We don't need this pressure on!!

That is true.

In Tony we trusted

iwould take Pele any day over Gardiner

I know they do, we have done for years but it’s clearly not working with the lightweight kids we have in. The forwards need to pick up the slack. Several times last night, only 1 forward took a drive in per set.

That's because we're not fit enough and spend too much time defending and forwards take 3 tackles to get back behind the ball. Add in shorter and passive defence and our sets invariably start within 10 metres of our own line

Whatever the issue, it needs addressing. The back rowers should be getting more involved. Either way we aren’t making yards, resulting in kicking from deep and inviting full sets to defend in our half. Can excuse the likes of Moy or Martin not making metres but not McIntosh, a senior player, who instead of belting back into the line, is crabbing across the pitch, throwing drop offs and speculators, one of which was miles forward.

If he was signed as a 5th/6th choice prop then maybe, but he's wearing the no.10 shirt, is taking a quota spot, and the club heavily hyped him up with the merchandise, so I think fans are right to expect more from him

If only we’d have dropped Okunbor and played balmforth like people have been shouting on here for years , we might have taken the 2 points last nights eh …. Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it ! Coaches galore

Yeah, Radders just wasn't backed finacially after delivering us our greatest times in modern history, and that cost us losing one of the best coaches in the business. He was still savvy enough to bring in some cheap gems like Ratu, Satae and Swift. And while we went backwards, he went on to be part of the coaching staff that took Samoa to the World cup final.