Isn't blaming Radford an excuse?

Oh I think there are a few posters on here who've had a pretty firm grip on (a part of) themselves since last night.

In fairness there was plenty of criticism of the players during the second half. And some since. I've always maintained that coach and players succeed or fail together and it's very rarely all one or the other to blame. But the point is we are stuck with this squad - a newly assembled one at that - for this season at least, whereas the coach could be changed. The coach who assembled the aforementioned players who were an embarrassment last night.

Still - having calmed down a bit through the course of today (only a bit, mind) I can see the merit in waiting until Easter before pulling the trigger. Although I'm not expecting any massive improvement TBH.

It's a mix of things. radford isn't good/experienced enough to take a club which is on the ropes and turn it into title contenders. As has been said, all of the other clubs who have had success appointing coaches into their first head coach roles have picked up strong clubs with good practices, systems and better resources than radford has (wigan apart who picked up an exceptional coach in maguire).

So we have an inexperienced coach trying to rebuild an ailing club, suffering from a lack of investment over many years, a dwindling support base backed by an enthusiastic but even more inexperienced club owner.

I'm sure that there has been lots of good stuff done and some of this will reap rewards in the future but the fact is that pearson should have gone out and picked an experienced coach with a track record of rebuilding. The coaching appointment would have cost him more but would have saved him a fortune in the long run.

As it stands, playing wise we're worse off than we were 3 years ago. radford has assembled a poor squad IMO, with few quality players, surrounded by average players, backed up primarilly by inexperienced kids. I don't see any way we'll finish top 8 this season which will be massively damaging IMO. Imagine if rovers do finish top 8 , who will the next generation of young players in the city want to sign for?

I'm not sure what the answer is. Maybe bring someone in to work alongside radford but finding the right person won't be easy

I personally think that we have the makings of a team that could well. Granted there is some dross in it (Bowden, Green, Yeaman, Rankin) but there also some great players in there too. Where it falls down is the coach. How anyone can be enthusiastic for that bloke who came on telly after the Leeds loss and mumbled through a few sentences then made a joke knowing his jobs as safe as house is beyond me.

Id personally get rid of Radford now. Were going no where and the new man needs to start getting his processes up and running as quick as possible - waiting till easter could be suicide. I know Pearson will probably want to avoid Aussies so only one man would work - Noble and let him have a big back room staff.

It was obviously very unwise of Pearson to be so explicit in his determination not to consider sacking Radford at any point this season ("I'll tell everyone now, if they think there is going to be a change in the head coach of the club this year, they are sadly mistaken. My heels are as dug in as you will find them. If anyone wants to put up a banner saying 'Radford Out' then bring it on because it is not going to happen."icon_wink.gif A straight bat was all that was necessary. That said, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

A poor result against Wigan will see a four figure attendance against Catalans and a bad Easter would surely set alarm bells ringing. We probably need a minimum of 22 points to make the 8 and May/June look particularly tough.

My only hope is that Pearson said similar things about Jan Molby and Phil Parkinson all those years ago, before ditching them just weeks later at great expense. He also backed Gentle publicly and he was his way not long after.

Low attendances will set the alarm bells ringing, as will the prospect of missing out on 3 'super 8' home games, which will most likely be the difference between profit and loss for the club.

That statement doesnt ring true does it?

I disagree, I think there's been plenty. Maybe less so individually (although Westerman seems to have had a few mentions), but that's possibly because people don't know where to start. It's like an oscars speech; there are so many to name check it's hard to get them all in.

Even they took the experienced route to halt the slide first with Noble, though.

Indeed, I don't get the issue many have with Noble, he's a proven trophy winner and got Crusaders to the playoffs under difficult cirucmstances. Salford wasnt a success but in any sport simply buying in a whole new team never works (it took years for Man City to become a force despite the billions for example) and Harris hasn't done much better.

Pearson's a businessman , If your not getting the right returns on your investment then you make changes .

I've long been of the opinion that Noble has never been given due credit for his role in Wigan's success in this decade. Any successful enterprise needs sound foundations and Noble effectively put those in place at Wigan allowing Maguire & Wane to subsequently build on them.

I know Brian Noble isn't to everyone's taste, but I believe that given the scope and freedom to do his job, he would put an effective structure in place which will leave us in a far stronger position long term. This is what is required at our club.

We've changed owners, coaches and an endless raft of players since 2007 to no effect whatsoever. The general trend of the club remains one of a slow steady decline with each passing year. The only conclusion that anyone could possibly come to when reviewing the last seven years of Hull Fc is that the structure/set up of the club/company is inherently flawed, or do we seriously believe that all that is required is some magic super coach who will restore us in the space of twelve months with a wave of a magic wand. That is not about to happen any time soon. I know it, you know it, we all know it whether we belong on the apologist or antagonistic side of the argument (

).

One thing that has always puzzled me about owners of sports clubs (and this isn't specifically aimed at Pearson) is that despite usually being successful businessmen in another field, their business acumen seems to desert them once they acquire said club.
To this end, they usually start making off the wall decisions (ie promoting people with no expeirence to a position of influence) which they would never even consider in another field of business. It's almost as if they leave the business practices which made them successful in the first place at the front door upon arrival at the club.

Agree this post unfortunately. We are still a long way off producing super league "real " quality stars. There are some good youngsters come along but doubt there any long term quality there.
Regards the coach whilst I would love him to succeed I am fast losing confidence in him. Friday night I predicted the second half collapse. They looked done in when they walked off the pitch.
Not fit enough, not strong enough i.e. even Clark not one of there biggest players was still going forward in the tackle, not aggressive enough. Green is prime example , big strapping lad and not an ounce aggression in him.

So Mr Pearson you have a lot to do yet before you have a top 4 team. For starters new coach and 3 big nasty props.

Agree this post unfortunately. We are still a long way off producing super league "real " quality stars. There are some good youngsters come along but doubt there any long term quality there.
Regards the coach whilst I would love him to succeed I am fast losing confidence in him. Friday night I predicted the second half collapse. They looked done in when they walked off the pitch.
Not fit enough, not strong enough i.e. even Clark not one of there biggest players was still going forward in the tackle, not aggressive enough. Green is prime example , big strapping lad and not an ounce aggression in him.

So Mr Pearson you have a lot to do yet before you have a top 4 team. For starters new coach and 3 big nasty props.

Personally I can see low attendances even f we scrape into the top 8.If we are 6/8 points behind the 4th place team after 23 rounds there is no way we are going to win 3 or 4 more games than the team that is 4th and people will realise that.

I've never understood the "I'm not going because we're not going to win" mentality.

Maybe someone can explain.

People want to be entertained and be made to feel happy for their buck, they dont want to be made to feel like theyed be better off throwing their money in the bin. Most rl supporters arnt loaded and only have a finite amount of disposable income so want to use it wisely. Spending it on FC is not very wise at present and hasnt been for years.

I forced myself to every home game last season never expecting a win but just to be at least entertained and supporting of gallant effort.
None of those 3 prerequisites were evident and so after suffering the dross decided not to renew my pass this season.
I've still attended every home game but now no longer have to force myself because I have a pass or waste taking a shift off from work.

So as said its not about winning all the time but at least leaving the ground entertained proud of the effort and buoyed for the next game.
Can you really say you feel like that?

As others have said people want to be entertained, also nothing builds crowds like a bit of hype, even a crucial bottom of the table clash with both sides out of form but relegation threatened can get a better crowd because there is hype/tension.

its going to be a long hard season, the flair just isn't in the squad for me, i thought the way trinity played the other night was superb, with ex FC players in the midst of it, we are a million miles from that type of rugby. we are going to be bottom 4 and in a dog fight.
In the pub last night with a friend who is a lifelong bulls fan, they are playing hunslet today. I am seriously concerned that we might be in the same position next year.

We're worse than ever with ball in hand. Any decent team would have been 20+ points up at half time against leeds. No pace, no structure in attack, non existent support play, no strike players. Unless things change quickly we'll be in the bottom 2 at the split. We obviously can't rely on defending teams out of the game

To this and all the other Noble fans out there, what has he achieved in the last 10 years that compels you to think he could do better better than the Hull FC coaches in that time (including Agar!)? Wigan were flagrantly cheating the salary cap during their great escape, even when they were poor they had a continual stream of excellent younger players coming through, their main problem at that time was all the best Wigan juniors ended up playing elsewhere. If Noble stopped the junior talent drain then a well done for that, but the dramatic improvement in their 1st teams play after his departure surely wasn't entirely coincidental. Crusaders - not bad but just scraping into the 8 was exactly the thing Hull FC coaches were being slammed for. Even before that he inherited a top side at Bradford and the cracks were already appearing in that as he left.

I'm not convinced by Radford but its too early to pull the trigger yet. If he does go then it has to be for someone demonstrably better, some of the suggested replacements clearly aren't.

Can see Radford going himself following Wigan defeat.They are too fast for us and we always struggle against pacey sides who move the ball fast.
Cant see a win against Catalan either too big too strong and with pace in the backs and forwards.
1 win in 6 should be be enough for Pearson to act in any case.