It seems the gripe with most is our style of play and I think warrants a thread on that alone.

I have to say the in recent seasons with defences becoming dominant, there have been a few games on tv and other places that have failed to set the world alight when it comes to excitement. RL seems to be becoming stifled by dominant defences.

However, in the case of Hull FC this is compounded by the fact we seem incapable or willing to even try anything a little more risque. Its been mentioned on other threads that we appear to have one game plan which is basically 5 drives and 1 kick. This is becoming very tedious as a spectacle. I was bored half to death yesterday. Its not what I pay money for. I want to be entertained. I wouldnt mind quite so much if the tactic was proving too much for other teams to handle and we were winning games but its not.

For example how many times recently have we tried an attacking option from our own half? I really cant think it happens much at all. The days of Shaun McCrea seem a distance away. In those days we looked capable of scoring from anywhere on the pitch. So much so that I looked at highlights from those years to see if it was just me or looked like a reasonable comprehension.

Besty scoring from our own half, Prescott the same. Line breaks aplenty. You can move it on somewhat to the days of Briscoe and all under John Kear. Not in the same abundance but still there to see. It WAS better as a spectacle in those not so long ago days. Steady decline from then on it seems to me.

We see very little of that now. I tend to watch a fair bit of the Academy and reserves and believe it or not, they all play with the same type of mentality. A safety first approach. Watch the Saints Academy play and its just like watching their first grade. Players backing up, short balls to the support player, supporting the ball carrier, offloads etc.

It seems to me it has to be a coaching decision. I have my doubts about our ability or willingness to take chances. I would rather we went down playing some good "Rugby League Football" than playing tactics a simpleton could read.

Oh I dont know, Thorman tried to mix it up and kicked it down someones throat on the second yesterday !

Yeah exactly... remember the play-off semi against Bradford, Horne kick from the base of the scrum to Tony on the wing? We were inovative once....

You only have to see what our first 3 tackle plays are after we get a penalty within the oppositon 20 to see whats wrong with our style of play. Why waste 3 or 4 tackles with one out rugby when we are within 20 meters of the try line? Teams know they can defend tight in because we never spread it wide and certainly never at pace.

But we did at Huddersfield and Bradford

Whats wrong with our style of play ?

Which shows we can do it. However since we played Cas and Moa has been put in at the expense of another forward who can do 2 x 20 minute spells we have not been able to lay a platform for the backs.

Admittedly a better scrum half would still produce something, but we need to go back to using the bench effectively and spread the forwards workload.

Our style of play has been boring for most of the games this season and it needs to be worked on, but Agar needs to use his bench better first.

thats how i saw it, the forwards are too knackered by having to play too long, and the backs cant create anything.

Did we? Seems like a lifetime ago.

With forwards like ours, we need to be super aggressive id happily run at out line in a match... would i against Saints and Leeds? No I'd be scared of getting smashed by Leuleui or Puletua. i dont think we give that fear factor.

We seem unable to pressure opposing kickers also, would have loved to see Steven Price from Warriors come here for exactlt that and even though he's 35 odd still just about the best prop on the planet, might make some of ours wake up and realise what they should be doing and get some tips also. (Not that I think ours are awful may I add!)

Moa played against Hudds and Braford.

He did, but we had Thackary as a second prop on the bench for those two games and the Cas game, we have since reverted to King on the bench. Thacks is a better impact player than king in my book, we have also missed out because Manu is playing 80 minutes now instead of coming on as an impact player where he produces his best performances.

Another thing that is annoying me about our play is our lack of backing up the man with the ball, a couple of times our forwards had been partially tackled and looking to offload the ball and there was nobody in sight.
Also helping the man in defence is something we only do out of neccesity, a couple of times yesterday we got the ball from a kick for the player to be tackled and pushed back, it is only when they have gone back 5m or so that the players look to help out.

I know they are just silly things but these little things are sometimes the difference between winning and losing.

Surprisingly we are missing Mike Burnett because he was a forward Agar would use to start leaving Manu as an impact player. We are short of numbers but Agars refusal to play players from the bench until the second half and to use Moa for 10 minutes is difficult to Fathom. Thacks in the reserves to get more game time? But Dowes and Cusack and Tickle are getting too much. Surely more rotation of our fit players would ultimately keep them fresher? having two hookers or three on occasions just takes up the bench esp when we had an underdone King coming back. Dowes as good as made a plea for a change from the coach when he said he wasn't sure that he could continue playing the long minutes with the short turnarounds coming up. Things would look different if we had Crocker and Lauacki and Raynor and Tony but we haven't and it's the coaches job to do the best with what he has. I get the feeling the players don't like the regime and that unhappiness is coming through on the pitch.
We've had a "dynasty" of failed coaches. Each has had a part to play in the previous management team. Either they had some input and should pay the price or they weren't contributing so why were they there? If you're going to change something change the whole thing. We need new blood and new ideas only then will you get a new style.
And McRae's flowing rugby days? He was the man that said we don't need a 7 and thought Wilkin was no good!

Risk taking needs to be calculated. Unfortunately when your scrum half decides to kick on teh first tackle having just been given 6 more, on their line with a minute to go and youy are trailing by 4, there is not a great deal you can do!

It's not our style of play that's the problem.

It's the lack of commitment and enthusiasm shown by the players.

IF we had dummy runners, players backing up and players running with such force they could try and offload then the style of play wouldn't be an issue

The one way we could change is to get our forwards to offload the ball a lot more and the backs too.

Leeds are not the best attacking side around but they continually offload the ball until that 2nd/3rd phase of possession results in enough space to work out a try.

Simply offloading the football would make a huge difference to us aswell as supporting the man with the ball everytime! Using some angled runs now and again would be a good idea too, one man rugby can be effective if the ball is timed right and the angle is good.

Surely all of this is a coaching style of play issue? I agree with it btw but why cant dont the coaches encourage it. It cant be that we have bad players who are incapable of doing it. To the poster that said about S Mcrae not playing expansive rugby and us not needing a 7. If thats case give me his team over the expanded version we currently have!

All of our forwards never look to offload because they know instinctively that there will be no support following them!!
King used to offload every tackle, now he is a shire horse trundling into tackles and dying!
No kick chase what so ever, absolutely no scramble defence at all
all basic rugby league to me
whole thing is a shambles !!

Dont disagree with that view. I reckon the words "counter attack" need to be re-introduced also. There vis clearly mush wrong with the current state of affairs. I really do think the whole playing ethos needs looking at. Red, amber and green zones have much to answer for. If we actually looked like we had an idea in the green zone it would help. Back on the scrum half issue, we need a Burrows or similar though I know they dont come around very often.

Rose tinted!!

Manu is the only forwad who consistantly looks to offload.

Moa got into a couple of great positions to off load only to find no one backing up. The likes of Jon Wilkin / Gareth Ellis would have had a field day.

Our offensive line is horizonal. How cvan we expect to break through when we stand so flat.

the crazy thing was, the 3 time we ran from depth and into gaps, we scored!

Too much head down and run directly at the opposition. No one running angles, no one using anything like a side step.

Thats why I cannot understand the championing of certain players we have when in essence they appear to know very little about the basics of the game.

There is no style. 4 drives and a kick or 5 drives and a kick, even in their 30 isnt good enough.

We shifted it wide once and scored early. We shifted it again and Hall dropped it so we didnt try it again. We seem to be playing safe rugby continually frightened of not completing sets. I'd rather we completed 50% of the sets but tried to score out wide rather than safe forward drives all the game.

And very little play.