They are a plus but that could be ruled out if lineham, crooks and green leave

35 years you say and yet this season has done you in. What about all the other years of heartache?????

Radford's struggled with the attacking side of our structure there can be no doubt. For me it's a mix of things that are the cause. In some ways Westerman's outstanding form for the first half of the season masked some of the attacking issues. He was performing the main play making role singlehandedly which meant that the lack of creativity in the halves was less obvious. We lost some narrow games due to poor individual errors. Add to this some poor quality core passing skills from the 'spine' in Houghton/Heremaia/Miller/Rankin and Horne which make us look amateur at times with ball in hand. That's not particularly a Radford related issue we've been shocking at this for a long time and it's a big reason why points have been hard to come by over recent years. Finally the total absence of anything approaching a SL standard kicking game since the departure of Holdsworth (his only real input but a vital one) has meant we haven't been able to create any pressure that way either.

Defensively our record is half decent but overall the pack should have been more dominant than it has been. That said we have in the main had enough field position in games to win them but it's the sometimes alarming low core skill standard together with at times a diabolical level of individual errors and a lack of attacking options that have seen us fall short. The suggestion that Radford would benefit from some assistance in the coaching department has merit and I would hope that Pearson will rectify this.

Radford has probably made a few too many personnel changes for games overall although I'm not really one for having massive sympathy for dropped players - if they were playing well enough individually they wouldn't be dropped. No one has been dropped for playing well - there will always be allegations of favouritism but without seeing the whole picture of how players train and what attitude they bring it's not easy to make well founded claims from the outside. There are one or two players who have been talked up by Radford that I do find it difficult to see his point of view about however.

Pearson has said he is sticking with Radford so it will be a surprise if he changes his mind although anything is possible. The idea that he has 'backed himself into a corner' is nonsense - he's made a decision that he appears to be sticking by to change the way the club works - young players brought in through our own systems in the main. That takes time and Radford looks as though he will be given it. Next season's signings will improve us without doubt - Sneyd has miles more class than any current half at the club and Pryce will hopefully aid the younger players coming through. We need more than that - personally I think a new first choice hooker would improve us but that's a bit controversial I guess. People can regurgitate the same points every week (with some merit) but Pearson seems to be sticking to his guns. The emergence of several young talents is promising but next season results will be even more important and Radford needs help to improve things IMO.

I haven't got as far as deciding whether or not to renew my pass next season yet.

I'm still deciding which of the 4 remaining home games to go to. I've just booked a holiday which clashes with the Leeds game and may go away for the weekend of the Saints game but hey ho AP has already got my money so he won't care.

I won't be going to any of the remaining away games. I usually go to those in Yorkshire but will be giving Hudds and Bradford a miss this year.

posts.

This season is the worst I can remember since we moved to the KC:

Missing out on the play-offs
Looking like a 12th place finish
Out of the Cup at the first attempt
Two defeats to Rovers (and finishing well below them)
Totally unacceptable performances (Widnes and Wakey at home)

And Radford can't even blame injuries as this has been one of our best seasons for injuries for years.

We have had 2 bad finishes before this,gone out of the cup at 1st attempt as well...been beaten by Rovers more than twice and have had some horrid displays under Kear,Sharp and Agar....so don't just blame this season.I f you don't want to go again that's fine but don't use this season as a excuse

I never seen a side play as bad as the team under Agar , Radford is pushing it close though .

It's not an excuse it's a reason. Maybe this season is an accumulation, maybe it's the straw that breaks the camel's back, maybe it's because I can't see where our next win is coming from, maybe it's because I fear next season will not be much better, maybe it's because I can only take so much.

Poetry, all of it 100% spot on.

Got to the point now after being pass holders for many years, we are seriously considering not bothering next year. Quite frankly had enough and after talking to many fellow fans and seeing the posts on here, there is quite a large number who feel the same way.

Before the In Any Kind Of Weather brigade start up I can assure you and I am willing to bet many other people feel the same way that the despair and frustration many of us are feeling is not just about this season. This is the culmination of year after year of mediocrity, where it has got to the point where many people have reached their limit and simply have had enough and are not willing to spend decent money to fork out for passes. Who can honestly blame them.

I have been a fan for 25 years now, and I think only the abomination of 1999 under Walsh was worse than what we are seeing now. The Agar years was bad enough, but is this really much better. I questioned the appointment of Radford at the time, and it gives me no pleasure to think that he is simply not up to the job. Don't give me the "It's not his team, he hasn't got his own players" b***. That is the the ultimate kop out/excuse which quite frankly I hate. Darryl Powell hasn't done bad has he, and in the NRL at the Warriors after Elliot got sacked, McFadden has got the same personnel playing pretty well since he took over.

We live pretty close to the KC and I hate to admit it but myself, my wife and daughter find it an effort and chore to go. What gets me the most is I honestly believe that for many years the games big boys would always fear coming to the Boulevard or the KC. They knew they would be in for a hell of a game, and would really have to earn a win. Now that fear factor is gone I believe, and if the big boys play at a decent level, they will be going home with 2 points. That shows how far off away we are off the big boys. We really ballsed it up after the 05 Challenge Cup win followed by a grand final appearance the following year. Never kicked on, and while we may have a passionate fan base, we are miles away from being a big club.And if Radford stays on, I hope he proves me wrong, but I honestly believe that he is not the answer.

100%

Do you not for one moment think its a result of all thats gone before. There are one or two on here who always harp back to the Walsh era as if its some badge of honour that you were there throughout a bad period in the clubs history.
If you take a trip back over the recent history of the club, what I call the KC years, then consider everything that has happened. In that time we have had lots of promise, far to many false dawns and propaganda thrown at us constantly. 2005 was the pinnacle with Kear, Swain, Horne etc delivering what we have wanted. 2006 saw a coach (who some seem to slag off for reasons I fail to understand) take us on a fantastic journey from also rans to grand finalist. What have we had to endure since.
I make this season as being the 8th season of transition.
Also since the move to the KC we have moved into a fast digital age, where everything is accessible. at the flick of a switch. Our entertainment is moving in all directions. We have also been in the grip of the worst recession in living history. But despite that 12000+ of the good folk of this fine land of ours have regularly attended games to watch our beloved Hull FC.
I am in my 38th season of supporting the club. I have a wife and kids to support now as well as the club. Sometimes priorities change especially when in all honesty the quality of the product on the pitch is so incredibly poor, when you consider everything that is given to our so called heroes.
So I would say its not just a case of what has happened in the past 22 competitive games and the p poor friendlies, since we qualified for the play offs in 2013. Its a sum of all that has gone before since that great day in Cardiff in 2005. Thats why (i imagine) the straw has broken the camels back this season.

As I said earlier, me and the wife will renew next season. After all these years, it's hard not too. I won't settle for mediocrity but they are my team. This is not an IAKOW post, just me. I know exactly how you all feel, I get jibes off me mates, asking if I'll be going again next year because I do whinge about them and have done for years, it's an Hull thing. I do hope genuinely for next year, perhaps it will be our's. Ever the optimist. You'll all be glued to Blunderside and Gollum anyway, just like my Dad when he was with us, bless.

My view is that no fan with even an ounce of knowledge on the game fails to see that the club has been poorly run for years and that the rebuilding job pearson took on was massive. We're all (except seb) grateful he did take us on as the alternative doesn't bear thinking about, however his lack of real RL knowledge has taken him down 2 blind alleys and cost him a lot of money in the process.

Firstly he trusts the advice of mcrae, who advises him to appoint an unknown australian assistant coach and then sign up a string of average players on inflated long term contracts, most of whom happen to be clients of a well known local players' agent (conflict of interests anyone?).

He then realises it's a sack of shiit so bins them both off (at some cost no doubt) and turns to the former coach's assistant, a man with very little experience coaching at the top level and one no real fan felt was right for the job at this stage.

The results of that decision are plain as the nose on your face. He's not up to it and is doing further damage to this club we all love. I just hope pearson wakes up one day soon and sees it for what it is. He either needs to bin radford and bring in an experienced coach who has been there and done it before or he needs to invest in the structure at the club and bring in one or even 2 experienced assistants to work with radford.

I think what will happen is that radford will continue for now and we'll have a coaching team next year of radford, last and horne

One of your better and least sarcastic posts, Jake. Genuinely, if you were making the decision, who would you bring in, if Radford would standby and see a mentor type assistant.

Marwan

My posts may occasionally be sarcastic but when I'm being serious they are always bob on so don't believe any cr4p other posters may post about me.

Genuinely? Who the hell knows? If you can give me a list of:

1) who is available
2) which of those is prepared to come and
3) what our budget and desire to do it is

I'll tell you who I'd chooses

I'm worried they might decide to bring Cooke in as assistant. That just about might do me in.

Great post!

I would be quite happy for Cooke to work on the attacking structures and another experienced guy to guide and advise Radford. Who that guy is, well there are plenty of good assistants kicking about that I would like to see, but the question is who would be willing to come to play second fiddle.

It's going to happen, isn't it? Cooke as attacking coach. Fits the remit of local lads for local club - he'll 'get' it -
Pearson gets to keep Radford whilst also being seen to be doing something constructive. Plus Cooke and Radford are close, it ticks all the boxes.

The problem with Hull this year is they are doing the opposite of a champion team, who manage to scrape a win when not everything is a going right. This year Hull have had an uncanny ability to do just enough to lose. With their points difference they should be looking around 6th and comfortably in the 8 but they just keep finding ways to lose. There have been some gutsy efforts against the better teams (Wigan excepted) which if replicated against the lower down the table ones would have seen comfortable enough wins, but no, the team magically adjusts its performance down to squeeze out a loss. What is particularly frustrating is that well into the season we still have no hint of any settled combination or who is the best player for a position because of all the chopping and changing, injuries not withstanding.

Cooke already signed 1 year extension at Doncaster

Good post...... That is because Radford still has no clue who his best players are, and without a settled squad/13, there is no chance of the combos you speak of ever becoming 2nd nature to the player.

To me it seems that as soon as a player, who is not Radford's mate or purchase, has a bad game or speaks out of turn in class, he is dropped. I'm not saying let players continually perform crap or get away with murder, but we need to have a settled squad for anything to happen on the pitch.

All about man management and I feel that Radford has none.

Can't argue with that. We should have had a settled squad long before now... and we're still waiting!