Just a bit of fun to get us through the off season

Whats the worst & best combined 13 you can think of? I've only been following Hull since the early 2000, so just based my 'teams' on that time period.

The worst team was harder to put together than I thought....



Worst
1 - Tansey
2 - Colbon
3 - Saxton
4 - Eager
5 - Crookes
6 - Seymour
7 - Thorman
8 - Hutch Maiava
9 - Howarth
10 - Lauaki
11 - Galea
12 - McNicholas
13 - Paul Johnson

Best
1 - Prescott
2 - Fonua
3 - Barnett
4 - Yeaman
5 - Briscoe
6 - Horne
7 - Sneyd
8 - Taylor
9 - Swain
10 - Watts
11 - Ellis
12 - Minichiello
13 - Cooke

Kiwi Michael Smith absolutely awful in black and white but played for the Kiwis in the last match at The Boulevard STINKER.

Only change I'd make would be Cooke and Horne at 6/7, Ellis and Manu (better than Mini) and jason Smith at LF (Best player I have seen in a Hull shirt)

Some good players Mini, Carvell, Talanoa, Best, Houghton, Sneyd, Raynor etc not making the side

I thought on the pitch Tansey was pretty good, wouldn't have him in at FB, I'd have Todd Byrne at FB.

I'd have Ben Sammut at full back. Awful. Never forgive him for letting a bomb bounce away at Saints once that they scored from

It was between Byrne and Tansey tbh, i went with Tansey though as he couldn't behave off the pitch. He got himself sacked at the start of a season (2011?) and we had to draft Phelps in

I wanted to put Best in. HIs combo with Barnett was great to watch.

Can't believe i missed out Jason Smith

If you are basing it performances than Tansey was streets ahead of Byrne, there was a spell were he was fantastic, absolute nightmare off the pitch though. Byrne was the very very average.

Any "best " team that has yeaman in it and not jason Smith at loose man i worry about.
I would rather have him at scrum half and stand off before the chosen

Best over briscoe, and I’d have to put greenhill in instead of Taylor, just because I loved watching him play

Greenhill was decent, very tough and solid, but I'd have Taylor, Carvell, O Meley in front of him..

Actually! O’meley, Greenhill front row for me, a bit of biff! Taylor as much as I like him, think he’s a little overrated, even when at his best, was poor for me last season

But harsh on Byrne, thought he was doing a decent job until he got injured

In my best team I would include Best,Cooke,O'Meley, Manu and Jason Smith. Cooke would partner Horne.

Totally average, solid and nothing else, no skill or pace.

Type of overseas player we seem to avoid signing these days.

Willie Manu and Jason Smith are my 2 favourite Hull FC players. Exceptional

Totally agree, how anyone could not have them not in 13 for the best SL is beyond me. Other positions can be argued but we haven't had a better LF (Or player) than Smith or a better wide backorder than Manu.

Byrne did a job, but agree he offered nothing special and was a waste of an overseas spot. See also Peter Cusack 'steady' at best but offered nothing a cheaper British player couldent have done.

Surely have to add Wade McKinnon into the mix for bad fullbacks, allegedly on a good wage and having been in the NRL for years must have been good at some point but apparently an awful attitude, left after a few months.

Never seen a player look so absent in a Hull shirt as him in his last game. The story was his wife had gone home already after catching him sampling the local nightlife, guess he knew he was going home to a world of pain.

He's now better employed putting out fires with his hose.

Wade McKinnon was actually very good in the short time he was here. Things just didn't work out.

Looking at the teams the OP posted, I had completely forgotten that Paul Johnson ever played for us, and even now I have been reminded of it I literally can't think of one moment of him in a Hull shirt. I guess if he was that forgetful it is probably fair to have him in the "worst" team.

In these "best" teams, there is always a debate in whether you simply choose the best players or the ones who had the longevity and brought the most to the club. Its very hard. For example, Kelly is probably a better player than Richard Horne was, but how can you leave Horne out after all he did for the club?

I aren't going to try to make a team, but I will throw a few names forward that haven't been mentioned yet.

As a kid of 10/11 Tony Grimaldi is one of the first players that I remember really admiring for his grit and determination rather than for being anything flashy. He has probably being usurped in his position by Ellis and a couple of others, but he certainly deserves a mention.

Stephen Kearney wasn't here long, but there is no way imo that we win the cup without him in 2005. Everything that a leader should be.

Danny Tickle wasn't a superstar but was very reliable for a long time. Both in his general play and his kicking.

Ewan Dowes started to get a lot of stick later in his career when he perhaps started to lose some impact. But in 2005/2006 you could have made a case for him being the best prop in SL.

Matty Head is still the most gifted 7 we have had in the SL era. Its a shame that injuries cut his stay so short.

Motu Tony got stick from some when he took Briscoe's FB spot, but I thought he was a superb player. Very versatile and gave us some really iconic moments. Then obviously came back and did a lot for us off the field as well.

Ewan Dowes “best prop in SL” is without doubt the funniest thing I have ever read.

Yeah well I've got no interest in your opinion if that's what you think. 2005/6 Ewan Dowes was outstanding. Thackeray and Carvell caught the eye, but Dowes was our best prop of that era. There wasn't a front rower in SL who could sustain his work rate for 80 minutes like he used to.

You are entitled to your opinion, even if it was funnier than any joke anyone got in a cracker with their dinner yesterday.

How strong are those chocolate liqueurs?

The thing about that group of 4 adding in King, was that they were all very good but also different and there was never a dip when they were rotated. The best group of props as a collective we've had in the last 30 years IMO and the platform of our success for those couple of years. A reason why I think we'll struggle to break the big 4 this time round - just don't see that consistent quality in our front row options. As a comparison in 16/17 we had Taylor, Watts, Bowden and Green with the latter two in their best form.amd again intensity not really dropping during interchanges. Just don't see that for 2020 but hope I'm wrong.

He was possibly the most consistent player in a team that won a Challenge Cup and reached a Grand Final. Admittedly his form took a dive over the next 2 or 3 years, but he was very close to a GB call up around that time and in 2006 in particular he was right up there amongst the best front rowers in the league. He was never the most eye catching, but his engine was second to none. If you can't understand the value of a player like Dowes in his prime then you clearly don't know much about the game. And to dismiss his name as a joke is pretty disrespectful to a guy that gave his all for the club every time he went out there.