That's a fair enough point. I expected you to finish where you finished last year too (being 6th), but I didn't expect you to finish 4th and can't help but feel fans would be feeling very differently had that one match against us gone your way at the end.

However, you have totally valid points too, and obviously you know Hull better than me!! I'm not "pro-Agar", couldn't really care either way if I'm honest, but I just think you could do a lot worse.

It's nice to read a nice intelligent response & debate though!! And not the... "Long hasn't played well" argument that clearly has nothing to do with Agar's intentions or coaching ability (which is what we were discussing!).

It'd be ironic if Hetherington's moan at the UKBA r.e. Hauraki has prompted them to push Obst through faster!!

wakey just been docked 4 points by rfl

No worries! Re McDermott, I agree that it's of course possible he could do well at Leeds but I don't see how anyone can argue that replacing a coach who has achieved as much as McClennan with someone who did no more than the bare minimum at Harlequins can be seen as anything but a downgrade.

I can see how it might look from the outside but remember that 6th last year was only seen as an improvement because of Agar's appaling finishes in his first season and a half in charge. During this time we were being told by the club that the team (which still contained a considerable number of players who had only a couple of seasons before won a challenge cup and reached a grand final) was no longer even capable of finishing anywhere near the playoff positions, and the coach was effectively exempt from any responsibility for results until a clear-out could be made.

You make a good point about people probably having different attitudes if we had finished 4th but the fact is we didn't, and what kind of proud sporting institution spends much time focusing on things it [inearly[/i achieved? Embarrassingly for us, even our Chief Exec was at it! If we really were the 4th best team in the league last season then we certainly wouldn't have gone out of the playoffs at the earliest available opportunity by getting spanked at home by our biggest rivals.

The way I do what? Expect us to win against an understrength leeds side? get a grip. If I'd said we were in for a pasting you'd have come back with some shiite as well. leeds are there for the taking. That's fact, not me being funny or anything.

If we are a top 4/6 side like some make us out to be then we should be beating Leeds especially on our home ground. A defeat is a poor result tonight but we are starting to expect to lose to the 'bigger' clubs now because it is common place.

i agree, leeds are there for the taking, but something tells me we will come up short once again, possibly our weakness in the backs

I love the way you do that hullbg

If we don't win tonight then we really will struggle this season IMO. Likely to be a near full strength side with only a couple of players missing which is way better than leeds are

all about attitude imo, something leeds excell in, take last week, cruising at 14-0, then got overun by an average mid table team,(fc average mid table team too), do the same again we will get a hiding

Seems like Leeds are struggling with injuries in the forwards but I also fear their backs will be too stong for us.

3 of our first choice props are out injured + Ali Lauitiiti.
Your pack should dominate ours.
Leeds' only way out is to play expansive and gain the yards out wide early in the tackle count. Stop that and you should win.

Ssssssssh!



Don't give away all our tactics! If they shut down our expansive game and we go on to lose, I'm coming for you Neil......

Nowhere will be safe!

Don't talk sense and fact on here because they will have a lynch mob after you.

Really looking forward to the game tonight, Leeds always an entertaining side and now with Agar talking up his teams attacking flair, us neutrals should be in for a good contest.

obst cleared to play www.hullfc.com/hullfc/contents/?p=7403

obst cleared to play www.hullfc.com/hullfc/contents/?p=7403

What did i do??? Think I am missing something.

Looking forward to obst linking up with the class around him , he could just be the piece of the jigsaw we are missing .
alongside Long that is in my opinion a mouth watering duo , then if we can get Horne on the pitch at the same time and westy playing to his potential as a true loose man rather than a battering ram that is a heck of a lot of thought process going on that can only be good for the team....
Obst natural enthusiasm will be the key that may lift everyone around him

All true aside from yet again no mention of the fact that Agar never got anywhere near picking a full strength side for most of the season. In fact since he has been in charge he never really has had that luxury. By the last game of the bad 2008 season, with people dropping like flies yet again, we only had 5 players in the squad who had played in the 2006 Grand Final.

I'll not lie - I'd rather Obst hadn't been cleared to play tonight, he always seems to have good games against us.

Whether he can combine effectively with Long so soon is another thing.

I am sure for a couple of weeks it will be a bag of spanners between them but individually they both know how to push the big uns around the park , one thing is for sure in obst we now have a natural support player we have needed for a while

The injury excuses are certainly part of the reason Agar has been able to linger for so long. There comes a time though when the excuses have to stop and hopefully that time is this season.

No, just me being silly