What an unusual subject to start a discussion on knowing that we were never ever going to challenge this year. I feel like some people have to purposely display their morose outlook on everything to prove that they’re a ‘been there and seen it all’ FC fan. Dwelling on negativity does no good. Since the home fans have simply switched to appreciating the effort the boys have put in, the atmosphere at the MKM has been so much better. Positivity breeds positivity. Let’s just appreciate the small gains we’re making.

Why shouldn't we challenge?

Leigh are challenging

Salford last few years

Don't need 17 world class players to challenge in super league

Saints the benchmark but the rest aren't anything special

Apart from the fact there was something seriously wrong with the club’s culture?

Talent isn’t everything. Getting a new coach in and their strategies and nuances in place and working certainly is though.

Season over? No it's not for two reasons.

The obvious reason is, a playoff spot is still all to play for. There's 12 games left. 8 wins gives us a winning record which, with 6 playoff spots, should get us in. Points difference might be a problem, but it's still achievable.

The second reason is. I know fans don't want to hear about jam tomorrow, but we are obviously building towards something good imo. I'm enjoying watching this new, hungry, Hull FC. We are competing hard in every game. Even if we don't make the top 6, what we do for the rest of the year will go a long way to shaping the team we see next year. The style and the systems we want to play with, the development of the younger players, the character building hard fought wins and defeats. We are growing as a team and I'm looking forward to the rest of season regardless of where we finish.

Great post. I must admit that, prior to Smith's arrival, I had no idea where this team would end up and was seriously disillusioned, with what felt like wasted opportunities at the forefront of my frustration. Undoubtedly, the squad we had from 2016 did under achieve, Wembley aside, we really should have made a GF, players like Mini and Ellis, Kelly, Talanoa, Sneyd don't come around often and you cannot help but wonder what a good coach could have achieved. I am not bagging Radford , he gets my eternal thanks for the 2 cup wins, but we still endured some horrible hammerings and the culture, prevalent in some of the senior pro's was all wrong. Now we at least have some excitement and enjoyment, from a team with probably half the talent of it's predecessors' . Some astute signings will improve us and with a growing belief and togetherness among the squad, we can definitely build again and develop from within the academy.

I'd be happy with 9th place given where we were. Confident of a playoff place in 2024.

people forget,not only did we win the cup in 2016 but at the end of the regular season we finished top..the real champions of that year.a great feat.

Maybe got the years mixed up but weren’t we beat by Wire to finish second, Wire took the Leader’s Sheild.

After the initial rounds we were irrc, before the top 8 split from the bottom 4, then the players/coach were allowed to throw away the best chance of finishing top to 0arty instead after the cc win

I think we actually finished 3rd because Wigan also won to leap frog us.

Still think the season is over talentboy?

I take it back, season on!

If we can squeak into the playoffs then its well and truly on.

We are hitting our straps just need to put a nice 4/5 game winning streak on to put pressure on the teams above us

Catalans next week which would be a huge win, although doable. Then after that we have something like Rovers, Cas, Huddersfield and Wakey. Some good chances there to pick up a nice run of wins.

Play off places more or less sewn up - 6 from the current top 7. But at least we are starting to see the impact of Smith so that makes the run in more interesting in terms of what we might expect next season.

It's certainly not the end of the world if we don't make the playoffs, this was always a transitional season. But with 11 games to go, 8 wins would give us an excellent chance of making it. Catalans and Rovers are both difficult games, but if we win them both then I'd back us to make it. We could do with really running the cleaners through someone to wipe out a lot of that negative PD. It might come down to that in the end.

Rovers, Saints and Wigan all still have the Challenge Cup distraction so it would be nice if any of them drop points around the semi final, either the week before or week after (both would be nice).
1 of Wigan or Rovers is guarantees in the final so again dropping points around that time would be helpful for us.

Ultimately all we can do is concentrate on ourselves and pur own games. In the background hopefully other fixtures just start to go our way a little.

We play at Wigan six days after the Challenge Cup Final so hopefully they go on and win it and then make wholesale changes for our game.

Jam tomorrow.......or for breakfast.
Strawberry please.

The up and down results we’ve seen this season anybody can take points off anyone. Would you have had Cas down for beating Warrington last night as an example?

We are 8pts of 1st & 2nd, 6pts off 3rd & 4th and only 4pts off 5th & 6th. Admittedly our pts difference puts us at a disadvantage but there’s still enough games left to give it a shot how ever long that shot may be.

Maybe seasons past you could have said top 6 were sewn up but not sure you can this season.

We're also chipping away at our +/- points difference . Only 30 points behind Hudds now .

Rovers will win the Cup this year unfortunately. Puts them in a difficult spot though, having belittled its importance since 2015 it will now be a sensational achievement.

Think we need salford to beat Wigan tomorrow to have any sort of hope of playoffs

Wigan win we need to make up 3 wins and that's without the poor points diff we have

season far from over, 11 games to go, 2 v cas, 2 v hudds, 1 v wakey and leeds, got to be looking to pick up a maximum of 12 points from those games. John Wellls said on the pre match build up the points total for making the top 6 is 28 minimum, that would give us 26 if we won those games, leaving 5 games to pick up a couple more wins...possible? yes, but we have to play like we did v saints nearly every game