Think we've played everyone now except Catalans? What does everyone think of the season so far?

Headline for me is so far, so good. Pretty sure we'd have taken 5th with wins against Leeds, Saints and a point v Warrington at the start of the season. A 30 point hammering Rovers is always welcome.

We've been solid, results-wise, barring the blow-out against Wigan. Getting to see the style Gentle wants to play and it looks good - last night in particular.

It's refreshing to hear of detailed gameplanning and adjustment of personnel and tactics depending on specifics of the opposition. To have the senior academy players training with the first team. Our conditioning seems more thorough and professional. Motivation (for the most part) has stepped on. Defence is far more organised and effective.

We're blessed with a great engine room, IMO. Tickle, Lynch and Houghton are delivering relentless work rates which frees up others to be rotated well - Gentle's use of the bench seems to actually be tailored to what is going on the game rather than a pre-set alarm at 20 and 60 minutes.

Gentle himself is looking like a very good signing. There seems to be a lot of attention to detail throughout in terms of preparation. He comes across well in the media IMO - warm, humble, honest, dry sense of humour. Seems clear about what he wants and expects.

In terms of players, there are quite a few who have shown improvement; Sharp and Turner are the most obvious in this group, but this is also as good a run of games for Whiting as he's had at the club. Pleasing to get debuts for a good handful of players in 12 games. Crooks and Bowden in particular are looking like they can give it a good go at this level. Can't think of many players who've disappointed vs expectations really. Briscoe has underperformed vs his own standards but it's been suggested he's been injured. Seymour hasn't consistently delivered the goods yet, hopefully last night will be a start. Ellis hasn't really stepped up to SL level, yet.

Recruitment/player movement is a mixed bag IMO. In terms of what we know, signing Ellis and extending deals for Bowden and Lynch, our best 2012 signing, are very pleasing, but clearly tempered by the loss of Manu. Still gutted about this. Pitts looks like he'll fit the Gentle model well. Disappointed in the loss of McKinnon, unsure about the rumoured signing of Arundel as I know little about him.

Off the pitch, it's encouraging to see the investment in youth and training and clearly from a PR perspective AP is light years ahead of Kath. We rode the Gleeson storm pretty well. The website and online store, already up there with the best in the competition, have gone up another level. Hull FC Live is a good additional service.

The number one concern for the club must be attendances. 11,500 just won't cut it for us to get to where we want to be, and I'm not sure that much else could have been done to get gates up. Season passes haven't increased in price, £19 for the South. New coach, improving results. Hoping this is a slow burn and that results like yesterday will tempt the floating voters back.

So overall, not sure that we could realistically have hoped for a whole lot more at this stage. Facing into a couple of months of predominantly away ties will mean things get tougher, but we're also getting more bodies back, so should be missing just Westerman and Heremaia. I'd like to see us sign up Houghton long term, and Tickle also. And finally, it's great to be enjoying rugby again after the unending chore that had become attendance over the last couple of years.

Very good post Mrs B....I pretty much agree with every-thing you've written.

Feels good to get excited about going to rugby again, and the future certainly looks more optimistic hopefully this will help to pull some of the fans back.

My only concern this season has been the lack of marketing of the games, I feel this is an area we need to improve on.

WOW! What a post! Nice one Mrs B!

Westerman should be back for London game, so only Heremai missing

spot on mrs b

Excellent post Mrs B.

Agree Mrs B only not enough depth yet but way blooding youngsters should come in next couple of years

Very interested to see the squad balance come pre season in November.

Forgot to mention the disappointment of going out of the cup early again too. Bit fed up of this now.

I'm starting to wonder if the club have decided that this year is a 'work in progress' year and that they won't start the marketing campaign until next season. Also up until last weeks events, Pearson was hopeful of agreeing a new deal with the SMC that allowed more ticket offers.

I do however think the club needs to end the North Stand pricing structure next season, it has brought nothing but complaints from away fans, and amongst away fans we are now seen as an expensive day out. I also don't think that the South Stand offer has increased our support, all it has done is moved fans out of the East Stand and made the support more spread out. In hindsight the club would have been better charging £20/21 for both the South and the North and kept it simple.

One suggestion I'd have to improve attendances next year would be to offer discounted tickets if you buy over a week in advance. Many games this year have had the crowds affected by the weather and our injury list. I bet we hardly pre-sold any tickets for Wigan for example, as it was nothing but bad news on the injury front in the week of the game. If we got more fans to buy in advance we could have awful news or weather in the week of the game but still have a full ground.

The economic downturn however is a key factor, with Hull harder hit than most places. Both City and Rovers crowds are down this year, and I even read in the paper this morning that Premier League gates are down this season. There is not a lot the club can do except wait and hope that better economic times are ahead.

Was just about to say the same



Good post agree with it. Gates will improve when more people can afford to go again.

Lazy fecker

Ditto

Great post OP but you forgot Whiting who has to be signed up before anyone else imo.

As for this season i think we are an unrecognisable team from last year. Gentle is doing massively better than the last coach and i completely trust him for the future.

with hindsight im pretty glad last nights victory was on sky. coz in an ideal world the 'stay away' fans that tuned in might well want to get off their backsides and support their team after seeing just how far the team has come since Gentle.

the season so far has been all i ever hoped for in the first season of the new era. the three blokes that are steering the ship (Gentle, McRae and Pearson) are finally people we can be proud to be representing the club.



i think the coming weeks, months and years are gonna be text book Hull FC. full of drama, ups and downs, but im quite sure we are gonna have more to cheer about then we have come accustomed to over the last 3 to 4 years.

looking at the league standings as a realist, im gotta admit that climbing the ladder any further is unlikely and holding on to our 5th spot is gonna be a task in its self with teams like leeds and saints below us. thats how good the top half of the league is this year, coz i believe that the form we have shown this year would have been good enough for top four a couple of years ago.

dispite recent events and rumours regarding players leaving or wanting away ect. i have little doubt thatits nothing more unfortunate circumstances for the individual and far from 'rats deserting the sinking ship' or even lack of funds due to the capture of Ellis. im convinced that the players that the rumours surround are very much in a battle between their hearts and their heads over their future in a short playing career, and ill wish them all well in their future providing they firstly dont derail our own recruitment and retention of players by fannying about over contracts, and secondly that they do their up most on the pitch and complacency dose not creep in.

It's refreshing to read such a great post on here. Its a cracker and such a tonic to read a positive post that for me shows how Hull FC has changed in just a few short months. Regards the crowds, they will return slowly and the win last night will make people want to go to the KC. It will take time but the faithful will return and now the Wendy ball has finished hopefully people who cannot afford both will start going to watch Hull over the summer.

Very solid start to the season.

Love what Peter Gentle is doing. Similar to what Brian Smith did with team, no stars and he's improving everyone's game. I love Gentle's confidence in the squad, if someone is injured, he just put's the next player in line (and that position) in the team, no fudging the team around like what Agar used to do.

We have so much go forward now, we look like we always have a chance of scoring a try from any where on the park. The chase is better, the kicking game has improved. We also have another gear that can kick on in the final quarter.

Confident for the rest of the season.

Expecting a top six finish, fifth would be great. Top four would be an excellent achievement, considering the squad Peter Gentle has inherited. If we can have better luck with injuries in the second half of the season, we could become a tricky proposition in the play offs and may do well.

Happy Days!!!





P.S Think we'll be even better next season when Gentle gets his own signings into the squad.

Good summary. We still have a lot to do but are certainly going in the right direction and importantly have the right people steering the club now.

Shocking post from the OP. Cannot believe that I wasted part of my life reading it

This is very much a transitional season.

I had a few goals I wanted to see us reach. Losing in the Cup and thus failing to beat a SL club in that competition for a fourth year in a row was one failure. Defeating Leeds was one of the targets met.

We can realistically aim for 5th this season and that should give us a great chance of a first play off win for five years. A win over Saints would mean a much improved record over the big four (my definition being Saints, Leeds, Wigan and Warrington). Should we take at least a point at Headingley, The DW or The HJ then we'll have a record of 50% or more over that group. Far better than in recent years.

Anything would have been better than the $hite Agar served up over the last 4yrs.

Is it my imagination or has marketing slipped at the Club?

How much marketing is done regarding up and coming games?

After beating Leeds for the first time in years, with London up next then rovers at MM weekend, two more positive results from this should be a marketeers dream. I'd hope for a large gate against St Helens on the back of this. On a Sunday of a bank holiday weekend against a top team.

yea hopefully we can get back some of the supporters, what crowd should we be looking at?

Not sure about this. I get regular promotional emails from the club, but more relevant I guess is communication to lapsed passholders and those disengaged during Agar's tenure or who simply can't afford it. You're right about the Saints game - should be setting our stall out for a good crowd. Important to get a derby win as part of the build up though.

Hence my point earlier in the thread about trying discount periods for buying in advance. If tickets were on sale now for Saints for say £15 for the South and £20 for the East and West at least some fans would take up the offer, in 3 weeks time we potentially could have lost to either London, Rovers or both and that would put some pay on the day fans off.

I'm surprised SKY aren't televising this game, Leeds-Wigan on the same weekend is an understandable TV choice, but Bradford-Castleford?