It was for the most parts an entertaining match and good to see all the young players get a good run out. The idea of these games is to give players a good blow out, and some competitive opposition. How teams are made up is down to the coaches (or size of the squad). If a coach decides to field almost all their first choice squad for nearly all the game it is down to them, and you go expecting what we saw today. The team that will have learnt very little from this is Cas who didn't start to introduce their younger players until the last 15mins. Once the sides were on a par Hull looked much better.

Don't understand this bit. We decided to use this friendly as it should be - a competitive festive match. You should have sent some more 1st team players to even it up and introduce your young players throughout the match as we did. This was an opportunity to try out some set plays you've been working on and entertain your fans - something Hull didn't seem to want to do. If your fans wanted to watch an academy game I'm sure they could have done that.

Entertaining game for the neutral. Was curious to see how Griffin got on after watching him for the past few years. Still carries well but his defence has always been a problem year after year ive seen him play. It's the only thing stopping him from an England shirt. He'll be found out very quickly by the Hull fans and the rest of SL now he's at a much bigger club when people start to take notice.

Hull have another four friendlies in which they can do this including two at home where I imagine the two strongest teams will play. Also there will be far more of Hull's fans at the home games where they will hopefully be entertained. It was Cas's home game so a chance to encourage more home fans to buy season tickets, That's what Pearson will hope for when we play at the Kcom.

Looking forward to seeing how Griffin goes. He absolutely looks the part but as you say questions on defence which potentially may be improved under Radford.

It wasn't a full Cas side by the way.

Largely first team in the first half but still missing:

Joel Monaghan, Ben Roberts, Luke Gale, Andy Lynch, Adam Milner, Oli Holmes, Matt Cook, Larne Patrick and Jy Hitchcox

Well, it wasn't full strength Cas, which I'm sure you already knew. Or if you didn't, you knew it wouldn't be a full strength side, as much as you try to convince yourself otherwise.

As for what Cas took from it, a chance to give some players like Shenton - who haven't played for a long time - some much needed match fitness.

A chance to see some of our fringe youngsters like Maher, Douglas, Tom Holmes and Fitzsimmons a chance to step-up and stake a claim.

We only have 3 friendlies after this, Wakefield, Batley and Saints. Two of those will probably be out first team with the Batley a mix like today.

There's obviously some exaggeration at play here but whilst we were missing 11 of our starting 13 perhaps you were missing 5 or so? Stick Fonua, Taylor, Houghton, Ellis, Shaul and Mini in there (picked 6 at random, just all happen to be in the Dream Team) and possibly there may have been a narrower margin. Not sure Radford got what he wanted today in any respect as apparently he's playing this reserve team again against Rovers.

Radford said post match. Starting 13s were about a 1000 first grade games apart. Score is what I thought could happen. Bout 3/ four more tries than I'd hoped for tho. Bad goal kicking helped it stay under 50

They aren't all 1st choice players though are they

Nothing to worry about, only Griffin and one of either Michaels or Carlos will start in our 17, and only 6 of that squad will be in our 17, so that's 11 players to come in and all our our best players. I know Cas had done players missing, but no where near the quality of ours.

Saying that, I think Cas will do really well this year and could win something if they do well with injuries.

Question to the Cas fans, were do you think Robert will play next year?

Yeah, sticking with youth/fringe squad for Rovers and Toronto then bringing in more like a first choice squad for Salford.

7 of them are.

Very good question. Roberts can play 1 6 7 9 13 (even played centres way back when) . I think he will be off the bench when he first comes back. If rangi or gale struggles then on comes Benny. 1 of the hookers will then go 13.

Which 7?

Roberts Gale Milner Cook Holmes Patrick Lynch . Suppose an argument could be made for 1 of the other to be winger but I reckon Minikin / Eden will be the starting wingers.

Yeah, they are. Hitchcox was in the first team before getting injured last year, hence why we brought Flynn in. And he's got a bigger part to play now Solomona has left.

As for the others:

Monaghan -> Minikin
Roberts -> Chase
Gale -> Tom Holmes
Lynch -> Springer (Springer to bench)
Milner -> Subs bench
Cook -> Massey (Millington to 13)
Holmes -> McMeeken
Patrick -> Subs bench:

Line-up for me: Hardaker, Eden, Shenton, Webster, Monaghan, Roberts, Gale, Lynch, McShane, Cook, Holmes, Sene-Lefao, Millington

Bench: Moors, Patrick, Springer, Milner

That's with Minikin, Hitchcox, McMeeken, Tom Holmes, Massey, Chase, Douglas, and a couple of others in back-up.

One thing Cas have done is built a solid squad. Not over spent on first 17 but spread the money across 24/25 Super League players.

Yeah, I don't think we're arguing that the two teams were a difference apart just that neither was full strength. We had more experience and more first teamers out there, which showed in terms of strength, control and domination.

But we also had a few young kids on show and some of our more senior players (like Webster) did start coming off after 30 mins in the game too.

Don't think anyone expects the SL fixture to be that one-sided. And if it is, I'll be elated

Let's just say that the league fixture won't be the same score! See ya later in the season.

£10 that those 8 won't be in the 17 for your 1st game of the season

Normally I'd agree with these straw arguments, but those 8 were in our first choice 13 last year.

Re Radford improving Griffin's defence, Fonua continued to struggle defensively all season, Logan was dropped on the back of defence and Talanoa is still a liability and Shaul is still not effective on his own line (elsewhere brilliant) We've conceded more points under Radford on average than under the previous coach and last season we were exposed far too often down the same side throughout so I'm really not sure what Radford can do with respect to any defensive frailties.
Where the results turned around were in attack, if we are going to play the 'Brazil' way of just scoring more than the opposition and not stress too much about defence then that's fine so long as the results keep coming in but I really want to see some improvement defensively.

Friendlies this early are virtually meaningless in the grand scheme results wise, trying to justify the score line with bickering about how many were out/not out from the opposition is ridiculous. It is what it is, getting players on the pitch as part of a build up is the aim no more.

All 8? I'd say that Gale is a cert, so that rules out that bet.

Well anything can happen in friendlies. Monaghan was injured a lot last season so whether Powell will risk him or not is a different matter. His experience will be invaluable though.

Have we?

I knew before I opened this thread that it'd be a tit-for-tat argument about how many first team players each side had playing. Should've known better - it happens every season after pretty much every friendly game.