Saying all that the truth is the 3 big signings in Kelly Griffin and Connor all came from middle 8 teams.yeamo and tank gone and Kelly is rocks or diamonds. Tough times ahead for Radford and his bullying methods .add in the football orientated owner and could be curtains for the curly turds..or is it wishful thinking?

Good post apart from any correct factual content. Fonua spent whole of last season thrashing around like a stranded trout after every tackle.finalky got pinged for it .don't blame hicks blame your Millwall style team

What a very balanced opinion...still hurting I see

Speaking of which, Hull won a penalty last night (not sure who was involved) when the ball player thrashed around like a stranded trout on the back of a Catalans player who was face down in the mud. One of the more blatant cons I've seen but getting Greg Bird sinbinned was another. Getting totally fed up of it in the game now. Frustrates me like hell when we do it because 9 times out of 10 all it achieves is slowing your own attack down. I suppose these players are working the percentages though and know that when they do eventually con the ref they'll get free yardage downfield. Time to start penalising the con-men.

That was an absolute steaming turd of a game; I rarely agree with Clarke, but he was right when he said it was like watching a different sport to the Wire/Broncos game last week. The coming together of two teams who play a wholly negative, niggly and unsportsmanlike game plan - and a referee who in trying to assert his authority, comes across like an officious middle manager - made for a dreadful spectacle.

Action is required, urgently, to clean up the ruck area and prevent the further iniquities of those coaches who believe they can win the % game by cheating their way to territory and possession; just awful.

I was at the game and probably won't watch it back because it was the worst game I've seen in a while, but I didn't really think the ruck was any worse than in most games. It just seemed (in the first half especially) that Hicks couldn't wait to blow up for anything and everything. And yes I know it's the players that are doing it, and that to the letter of the law they probably were all penalties. But the stop start nature just ruined any chance of it being an entertaining game.

As a Hull fan I think there is plenty to be encouraged by, a few things that need some work, and a few things that at this stage of the season it's too early to make a decision on. I am still fully confident we'll make the top 4.

It's also ironic that year after year people talk up Catalans as genuine contenders on the back of all the stars they sign. This is the one year that seemingly everyone has written them off, and actually this could be the one. They showed more heart last night than I saw from them all last season.

I thought Hull had the best pack in the history of rugby league? Looked like scared kids to me. A decent team would have mullered Hull. Tough times ahead for them

Regards

King James

As a Hull fan I'm sure all that optimism feels justified - and I don't comment on that; but as a neutral, your coach appears to favour a particular style that is negative and based on slowing the ruck down and stifling the flow of the game - and as Catalans appear to be doing the same thing, it was a perfect storm; which resulted in an absolutely turgid match.

It may well get you into the top 4 - but that's an entirely separate issue.

I think Radford's tactics are to try to over power the opposition like the Bulls did in the Noble era. You can see this by looking at the size of the team.

Bit different then though! We had 4 different types of prop:

[iVagana[/i - big trundler, took 3-4 to get him down causing defenses to reshuffle.
[iFielden[/i - punched holes in defenses, athletic, strong with a decent offload.
[iMcDermott[/i - metre maker, enforcer, always won the collision.
[iAnderson[/i - big impact player, came on and did damage allowing Fielden/McDermott space when they came back on.

Plus back then defenses weren't as fit or as quick as they are now. It was more open. Even Championship games are more structured now than the Super League days of 1996-2005.

Now it's not enough to just have a big pack. Michael McGuire showed that when he came and coached Wigan. Noble was a genius in his day but you can't use the same tactics now as we did! Hope Hull learn that quick as I like to see them do well!

Given that your predictions for 2016 included Leeds 1st and Hull FC 9th I'll not be overly concerned by your view.

That was some pack, Peacock in the 2nd row too. I'm not altogether sure those tactics wouldn't still work with that personnel. Maybe not as successfully as before but they'd win far more than they lost IMO.

This thread is digressing from its main theme of Catalans heroic victory despite 3 injuries (playing most of the game with 14 men against the 16 men of Hull plus the referee).

As we soon found out after Koukash was advised to make him head coach, it didn't take anyone long to realise we had a Dinosaur.

I agree with you regards the Bradford pack but disagree in your view that it isn't possible to run over teams these days like the Bulls did back then.Souths did it recently using the Burgess clan. The key is having the right players in place like the Bulls did back then.They didn't just have that 'Awesome foursome' up front but also some huge outside backs to compliment them. And not trying to disrespect Hull here as i think they are a good team in their own right, but they don't really have the same Quality as that bulls team had right through the squad so they will find it harder to blitz teams. I still think they will have some success though and be in the mix despite last night.

Add to that Radford who was a tough unit and Gartner/Gilmour who ran lines well. Haha. We were blessed and very lucky to have class from 1-17. Very rare that happens.



Did not understand why he did that after being successful at Crusaders. Saying that, none of your coaches have really done well recently. Even the world class Tim Sheens didn't do much.



You've hit the nail on the head in saying you need the RIGHT players in place. Which is so hard to do. We were blessed with talent all over the pitch and you can see how Hull are trying to emulate this by having a big pack and massive outside backs (Fonua, Tuimavave, Talanoa and Griffin). But these guys aren't the same class as what we had and their pack isn't in the same class as the awesome foursome. To run over teams regularly you need freaks which is what we had. And that's why I try not to use the Burgess boys pack as an example of how a pack can simply run over teams because those 4 boys are freaks of nature especially Sam and the twins!

Ironically the nearest I thought a team were to recreating a dominant pack was Catalans when they had Casty, Elima, Stewart, Taylor and being bossed around by Aiton and Carney! That team should have done so much more than it did!

I just think with the way the modern game is in terms of fitness levels and techniques and size. You simply can't just run over the top of teams like we used to do. My opinion of course! Yes I assume Hull will be near the top and rightly so. They are a good club and have some very good players.

Back on topic. Great win for Catalan! Again I want to see them do well and become a leading team as it will help promote the game in France and hopefully benefit the French national team! But last night they ground out a victory in a scrappy game with a poor official! Something which they have failed to do in the past!

Oh dear best you can come up with is from last season!

Your pure hatred of anything fc is as clear as day

Sorry.

All hail Gregory Bird

looks like the treble is already in the bag.Big question is can the Cats go through the season unbeaten? If Gregory et al stay fit i wouldn't bet against it.

Yes Jean I agree .despite being deserved of the 2 points they would have buckled in seasons past against a very nasty team.expect 2 or 3 banned for hull .Bird is a stand out

No it was/is my view that Fonua takes exeption to being tackled and steps 3 or 4 steps forward every play the ball bit like ablett and does a saint vitas dance when stopped trying to milk a penalty .posted elsewhere that not being in super league gives a different perspective as a viewer forget who I support and just admit your team stink

What a bitter little being you are.

I think some are being a bit unfair on Radford and Hull, last season I would agree, it was mainly about the forwards and defence, to be fair at times we played some great rugby and did have flair players like Shaul and Fonua, it worked and we had a great season.

Towards the end of the season when the forwards were tired and we lacked a plan B, so Radford went out and signed 3 attacking players for the backs, unfortunately our first two games the weather has been appalling and he has rightly had to revert back to the forwards battle, I'm sure as the season goes on we will see our style change and play some good rugby.

Catalans as usual in away games came to spoil, last year we beat them four times and they tried the tactics each time and it didn't work, for whatever reason we got drawn in on Thursday and were dumb and very indisciplined, it cost us the game.

what a load of poop! how many times did catalan move off the mark thursday night? the penalty on fonua was harsh, wrongly as i still cant see how he was suppose to ptb with a catalan player behind him!


plus if we stink, your team as has rotted and hopefully will remain in the championship for a few years! no, you arent missed and we dont need you financially

Was commenting on a thread of televised game . irrelevant who I support so try not to be so precious.what have rovers got to do with fc v catalans sky game? No need for hissyfits

The score was a less than fair reflection of the game. Catalans were decisively better and should have had the unexamined try from Inu video replayed so that it would have been awarded.

I would like to see an RFL investigation of Robert Hicks's shocking performance.