two big words - Half Backs
Gentle has hopefully fixed the issue we have now had for years, coincidence that our form has improved with Holdsworth on the pitch and now Miller is looking the real deal. Richard will do his usual job as he has the support he needs and we are now looking strong in this area.

Youth
4 players in the under 16's, Crooks, Lineman, Shall and Green we are seeing the benefits already. The half back school and other initiatives will take a while to show their worth but positive so far.

Form
I'd take a challenge cup final and place in the play offs at the start of the year. I thought we would add a top 4 position into the mix after the Leeds game however, injuries altered all our expectations i'm sure.

Future
It's always next year for us Hull fans going into the summer however, this year we are still looking forward and seeing what can be won THIS YEAR. WHEN we WIN the cup the recruitment process should become easier and with the contacts Peter has we hopefully will see some great players in black and white over the next few years.

Sack the coach - Your having a laugh

The tone of this thread would have been wildly different if we'd have lost to Warrington. It's amazing the difference one game can make.

My view is that it's too early to make a definitive statement one way or the other. We could still lose the final (Wigan are undoubtedly favourites), fail to make the play offs, and/or scrape the eight and get knocked out in the first round.

Equally, we could win the cup, finish fifth and make a real impact in the play offs.

Obviously, the two scenarios would make AP look at things very differently in his end of season review.

Agar took us to t'wembley, people still would have been happy if he got struck down by ebola during the game.

That's right it's a results game and at the moment, all of a sudden we are heading in the right direction. Another bad run of results and it could be very sour for PG. Every coach strives for consistency but only the good coach's succeed at that. PG is getting there bit by bit, so imo needs to try and finish the job in hand and make us the finished article.

Didn't Pearson say he was happy to run the club at a loss for a couple of seasons in order to get them in the direction they need to be going? surely this means he would be accepting of a not so fantastic league position at the end of the season?
Never the less, I bel13ve we will finish strong for the last hand full of games and of course the Wembley cup final. Ok, we've had a rough few games pre semi final, but it was a patch to be forgotten now and we need to get 100% behind the boys! As I said. Am confident Hull FC will move forward strongly from here. The issues on the field wasn't to do with Gentle, it was the personnel on the pitch that were under performing and not putting themselves on the line!
Gentle has made it clear, no places are set in stone for anyone, everyone is fighting/playing for a place.

Let battle commence.

I predict an 18 point difference on Sunday in favour of the mighty black and whites.

league form sells passes regardless of a cup run/win.

end of day we have not been good enough there is no getting away from that.
I would think he would get another year but that is only because we won the semi. if we had lost that i don't think he would of been in charge for widness game.

I hope RL owners aren't going to start showing the knee jerk reactions we have long seen from football club chairmen.

You shouldn't sack anyone unless you are going to able to replace them with someone better almost immediately. I can't see the point in sacking anyone mid-season because there aren't dozens of top coaches sitting around waiting for a job. Anyone who is any good already has a job.

Equally I don't like the idea of a caretaker being appointed because often he gets the job as a cheap option.

That's what they have done



Sorry couldn't resist

Would it be that wildly different, though?

I'm still not seeing masses of endorsement, just people saying exactly what you (and I) have, that it's still a bit early to make the call. That's entirely sensible given that the season is still open to significant change, but had we not made the final then the actual achievements and room for further improvement would be much smaller.

Speaking personally, I think if we'd lost the semi Gentle would have needed 6th to keep his job, 8th will probably just about do it now, especially if we win our first play-off game.

Which is why its way too early to be talking about coaching appointments.

We'll be watching you!!!!! (As we're the big brother).

You lot, of course, are the tits!!!

I don't believe the article is true for one second. But our cup run has been masking our poor league form and Adam Pearson is known for being ruthless.

This is Gentles first full coaching job, he has had made mistakes, that is all part of the learning curve. I think overall he has done a decent job, I think he shouldn't be judged well at the very least the end of the season, but realistically he has to be given another year, minimum.

I agree. I've always said we have a three-year plan in place. And he should see his three years out.

I don't agree with this, everybody associated with the club knows we've been poor in the league. I think its fairly obvious we've targeted the cup this season & I'm sure Gentle regrets how things have gone in the league. I really do hope there's no truth in that article because it really would be a shame to see Gentle sacked for going all out for the cup, he'll have learnt his lesson this year & will surely go about things differently next season, it is a learning curve for him too.

There have been plenty of people saying 'another year at least' and there's been enough endorsement to suggest that some have been swayed by the Warrington game. If we lose the final and don't make the 8, I reckon at least some of those same people will be on here calling for Gentle's head.

And way too early to state definitively that AP shouldn't be reviewing Gentle's position at the end of the season.

Well, yes. But we didn't. And the story has been published [iafter[/i we won.

Really? Someone should have said.

The point is, one victory shouldn't make such a difference to the overall view of how Gentle is doing. The season could still be a roaring success or a crushing disappointment. Very little has changed since the week of the Bradford game, yet some of the rhetoric seems miles apart from then.

Occassionally buy that paper for a laugh, bloody awful.

"We're your OFFICIAL Big Brother newspaper!" Erm, didn't that trash show die about ten years ago?

Oh no wait, because "Around 1.1 million viewers tuned in..." My God that's impressive, not like there's 30 other programmes which get more is there.

When one victory makes such a significant difference to our season then of course it will alter perceptions. More relevantly, it directly affects the sensibility of the story under discussion - it would be much more credible if we were not one of two teams still in the hunt for both trophies and appearing in one of the two finals on offer.

It only makes a significant difference if we win the final. The difference between beaten finalists and beaten semi-finalists when the season is ultimately assessed is not that great - particularly if the league form doesn't continue to improve.



I'd say that was 'less relevantly', given that we unanimously agreed that the story in 'The Star' was horse several pages ago and moved on to discussing Gentle's position more generally.

Gentle has taken us to a major final, more importantly he is putting into place a very good young player program for the future, has given young players a chance , the likes of lineham crookes shaul green bowden etc, we cant expect him to take us to the top in just over a year, but imo he is going in the right direction, as for the daily star report i thought april 1 had passed

tomorrows fish and chip paper.

gents has proven that he can pick a team and devise a game plan to beat any team in super league. why we have dropped silly points this season is up for debate but when gentle finds the illusive formula for consistency we will be a force in super league

his job is safe imo

Still think Gentle hasn't finished with our team. He's tried improvement's but the injury curse always seems to find a way of dampening our year.

Don't believe what the Star say's. True there's no smoke without fire but feel Gentle's job is safe.

Him and AP have done wonders with the youth structure and the future does look good.