Echo a lot of the sentiments on here, really decent game and as a coach you have to be happy with the output from both teams.

Stand outs for me for each team was Connor for you guys, quinlan for us. Sneyd and McGuire strolled through the game really, like quarterbacks.

We handled a bit of adversity with Addy and lee going off, and it didn’t help we had only 2 props in the squad and had to keep rotating them to have some freshness. We didn’t have enough go forward at times because of that and some energetic FC defending.

Some good young players across both teams though and really a promising reserve league would bring out the best in them, shame really.

That French fullback looks a Livewire, couple of daft mistakes but certainly tried hard. Glad Abdul’s going well, plenty of respect from us at the east side of the river.

I meant with respect to getting the inexperienced players more game time in the friendlies, the amount of time they had at the beginning of 2017 was a lot more than '16 and noted by most on here at the time, he also introduced them before there were injuries (the 2016 Easter Monday game was I thought an indicator but he didn't follow through which had consequences at the back end) though I still think he could have gone a step further especially with the likes of Litten who showed up well but didn't really get many minutes at all.
Turgut got the most games by far, actually probably as many on his own as the others combined (20 incl subs) and whilst he was only 21 I personally thought he was a bit disappointing, defensively he was alright, in attack, meh, however at times he went way overboard and lost his rag with a couple of incidents I don't want to see repeated by any player. It showed in his twitter that he sees the friendlies as really important for him to shine as he knows he had a big run of games last year and with JA and Hadley back in the fold plus 4 centres all wanting to compete to start he could be left out a lot more than last year.
The lack of experience in the younger squad members was always going to bite us at some point. As I had said several times, we've not had a Hull developed youngster come to be what you'd call a 1st XVII player who made their debut since 2013, I questioned that as to why and no-one wanted to admit that that was the truth/reality.

There are/were some reasons for that I realise but we've lagged behind the last 4 seasons or so after a good crop came through to debut in 2012/2013 and so have bought our way out and have a fair bit of catching up to do compared to other clubs in that dept IMHO. The external signings are most notable in the backs, we still haven't developed a decent SL 6 or 7 since 2002 ish, Tommy Lee being the closest until JA came along but our history is beleaguered with not having home grown halves of the highest quality.

As I said, I hope all the younger squad members get some games early doors because I think it's essential for our success both short, medium and long term (as proven by the likes of Wigan and Cas etc), the element of risk and indeed fear of failure forced Radford's hand previously which backfired at the back end of '16 despite us having incredibly good luck injury wise but he was in a or bust situation, IF we'd lost that derby game at Easter I reckon things would have gone very differently for all concerned. As it was he was under pressure to keep playing what he thought was his best 17 even though ultimately a knackered senior player wouldn't necessarily be as effective as a fresh junior squad player (again as proven in that 2016 Warrington Easter game with a "million quid in the stands"icon_wink.gif

This year we have even greater balance and depth than before and I hope Radford uses that depth and doesn't wait until injury to rotate, he did do that to an extent last year but I hope he does it even more this including given DH a break even if just during matches as opposed to leaving him out.

Some interesting chat and exchange of opinions here.

Sounds like JA did well. I saw him shopping in town over the Xmas period, his preseason looked to be going well, he was svelte and looked to be in great shape. I think the opposition will dictate who starts at 13 this year; were we need a sledgehammer to crack the nut I think we'll start with Watts or Manu, were we might want a toffee hammer we'll use JA. Horses for courses. Radders clearly has a place in his plans for Abdul, I hope he has a belting season !

What was the attendance?

Anywhere between 6k and 9k I've read

To answer your question, weighman I thought that Connor Scott really added some impact when he came on - looked fearless and ran hard. Liam Harris looks a good prospect, self-assured and certainly not out of place.

A few pics from the Leigh v Hull 'opposed' training session yesterday.....(not very exciting I know)

Will we start the season "undercooked" if most of the first team haven't had a proper hit out? It's a tough start to the season for us with the oz trip and the way the fixtures have fallen in the first few weeks and we could find ourselves behind the 8 ball early on.

There was a lot of talk last year about finishing the season well but that didn't really pan out as it could/should have and I hope we're not as inconsistent as we were for most of last year

I think the Huddersfield game is key. If we lose that, then the games post Aussie trip become very difficult

Cats....

Jordan Abdull
Jake Connor
Josh Griffin
Bureta Faraimo
Brad Fash
Dean Hadley
Danny Houghton
Albert Kelly
Jordan Lane
Jack Logan
Masi Matongo
Hakim Miloudi
Mickey Paea
Cameron Scott
Marc Sneyd
Fetuli Talanoa
Carlos Tuimavave
Jansin Turgut
Danny Washbrook
Liam Watts

Its always a debate as to what is best with pre season etc do you give most of the first team a run out and risk possible injury ala Addy or do all the drills and plays etc on the training field etc?

For me Radford seems to have adapted each off season taking into account the way the team performed from the start and how they finished and hopefully has made the right decisions and plans. We have a very settled squad with experience so is there a huge need to have the majority of first team players in the warm up games?

In all fairness most teams are in the same boat re friendlies as most even when they have first team players in only get limited minutes.
I think it will be an interesting season for us and have a feeling we will do pretty well as the squad in settled as has the best balance its had for as long as I can remember.

No win situation for a coach I think.

Leeds have done well in the past by having a moderate start, building up momentum, almost deliberately having a mid season dip in form to ramp it up again ahead of the run in to the play offs.

If we only have our share of injuries rather then a glut at any one point in time, I think we should be well placed

dammed if you do dammed if you don't, you would like to think radders and his staff know which is the best way to go, he hasn't done to bad last 2 years so I'm ok with that,

getting some game time and throwing 1st XVII players into the friendlies I think has to be the way to go. You can't second guess injuries, they can happen at any time even outside of match play so trying to cotton wool early doors IMHO isn't really of benefit. Obviously getting younger squad members game time is crucial too so a balanced approach is fine but not shying away from ensuring everyone gets a decent wedge on the field.
What I would like to see is more thought into rotating players earlier on and if we do have younger squad players in the XVII then bloody well use them not wait until last 10 minutes of the second half. Radford has been guilty of that too often and it's a wasted sub spot and thus forwards particularly are more fatigued.
The other aspect is mental strength, again we went into free-fall too often and against crap sides too as well as folding badly from strong starts.
I didn't think we were too bad physically at season end I just think that we failed mentally at times and this cost us and we end up chasing or letting in soft tries too often including the Leeds play-off game.

Decent side that, albeit still missing Shaul, Taylor, Bowden, Minichiello, Manu and Green. Are Green and Shaul injured?

green seems to be pretty injury prone. Shame as he never really gets a consistent run of games

At work today, is the Catalan game on radio?

Best I can find is online.... mixlr.com/hull-fc-live/

Best I can find is online.... mixlr.com/hull-fc-live/

Very pleasing if unexpected scoreline. Best part was the performances of Faraimo and Paea. Faraimo’s first carry was ace, if he continues like that he’ll be a right fan’s favourite. And Paea looked like he’d never been away.

When Watts dropped out I thought we might get steamrollered in the forwards with Tag, Watts, Bowden, Manu, Mini and Green all missing (essentially our starting pack). They stood up to the physical challenge really well I thought, just 2 tries conceded. Handling not amazing either side but it was snowing all game.

Hopefully good on injuries too. Masi got clobbered and went off in first half but came back for big minutes in 2nd. Connor took a bang to his arm first half but stayed on. Think Radford will be satisfied again.

I know it was a friendly but I was surprised how easy it seemed against a pretty much full strength Cats team. We won without needing to get out of second gear, which is pleasing considering the bulk of our pack was missing. I was impressed by Faraimo's strength in carrying the ball, I think he knocked Aiton airborne with that first carry Haha

according to radford today, green the only player unavailable for the opening match v huddersfield

... at least it wasn't 40°C.

I don't think so
2017 23 app. out for 7 week period june/July
2016 26 app
For someone who people don't consider to be a first choice XVII player he makes a lot of appearances and always has a strong game.

Highlights here c.newsnow.co.uk/A/920586642?-4338:2393

Highlights here c.newsnow.co.uk/A/920586642?-4338:2393

Always been a bit indifferent to Green if im honest but in our last game of the 2017 season in the play offs against Leeds we was going no where then Green came on and totally changed FC and was possibly our best forward on the pitch - hes deffo got it, just needs to find consistency and not get injured as much