Outright 3rd after 13 rounds. I was not expecting that.


Starting to get our home form back and if we can do the French at the KCOM on Friday we could open up a little cushion on the chasing pack.
Cas have Wires and Wakey away to Huddersfield respectively, so both fairly tough.
Would be nice to have a four point advantage in 3rd after round 14.

Certainly handily placed coming up to the midway point of the season.

Catalans on Friday is a vital game for the reasons as pointed out by my honourable friend, the member for Withernsea.

Warrington away... well lets not talk about that but the Magic game is another one that we should be winning.

We had a [iRadford Out[/i thread less than a month ago.


Outright 3rd behind the two acknowledged class acts in the comp after losing our first two games.
Get Radders signed up for the next three seasons.

Hang on a minute. I'm confused. Mrs. B said we would struggle today with Wakefield's super duper set of forwards?

Good to be in 3rd. Lots of teams are misfiring this year, but you can only beat what's in front of you as they say. Hopefully we can consolidate this position in the coming weeks and find out best form at the business end.

3rd is very important with the new playoff structure. Has to be our goal now.

I thought we would, especially with Mini, Bowden and Lane missing and losing Hadley mid game plus Ellis in the bin and Paea off for a head assessment. Forward battle result very pleasing and unexpected from my perspective.

Fair enough. As I said pre match, I felt it was a game that we should be winning. Wakefield's pack is good, but it's only Fifita that is really top class. As a whole they are well behind the likes of Saints, Cas and even Catalans imo. It becomes a better result when you take into account Faraimo dropping out of the squad and the in game injuries.

Good to hear of your new found optimism and expectations.

To be fair Patton, after the Wire and Wakey debacles even my long association with the happy clappers club was tested and I was in the “I’m not sure about Radford” camp. The amazing trip to Catalan and Rovers win, brought me back down to Earth. Saints away has been a graveyard for FC, especially the good sides of the Eighties, shellackings by 60 points, a regularity!! I’m a happy bunny again, Radford IN.

Shame we threw away the 2 points at the dobbins or it would have been even better

They spawned a try with 6 seconds to go as opposed to us throwing it away.

And now for some common sense - we're third in a dogpoo super league and about a million miles away from being a Super League winning side. Only Saints are quality, Wire are reasonable, the rest are dross - SL this year is really poor on the whole as it has been for many years - a decent coach can make their team run away with it ala Saints

Third place flatters us massively - against Saints we lost 62-16, against Wire we lost 63-12 - both utter drubbings - we're miles away! But if people want to stroke themselves to sleep with grins like cheshire cats because were third but still miles off then good for you

Nothing new found about it. Go have a look at the prediction threads in pre season. I said we would make the playoffs with a bit to spare.

Still doesn't mean I think Radford can take us where we want to go. We are a mile behind Saints and Warrington. But as I have said before, I really hope to be proved wrong, and if we can finish 3rd and go into the playoffs with a healthy squad, well maybe I will be. You've got be in it to win it.

Yes he is back, how can you say 3rd flatters us, yes we are 3rd because we have won more gamnes than the pack below us, yes we are 3rd without really playing well consistantly.

I am not super happy with how we have played this season so far, but I am super happy we are 3rd and that is because I am a HULL FC supporter, unlike you.

[size=2003rd Yippee[/size

Dreary dreary me. Give up and watch that dire team on your doorstep. That could really make you ill.

Saints were outstanding last year too, I mean they only lost two games over the regular season...that superleague trophy must look great in their cabinet...oh wait

Seb makes some valid , very negative , but valid points , great to be 3rd and a great win today under a lot of pressure to win at home , I think 3rd is realistic with how poor the rest of super league is , still been the best of a bad bunch I’ll take , if it gets us play off football

Only 10254 attending today says that im not the only one who isnt convinced

Lets be realisteic - if this team was consistently playing well, not getting battered and really properly challenging consistently then that attendance would have 4-5000 more on it

But whilst people keep thinking average is good that is never gonna happen

I never expected much from this season for the simple reason that I didn't think our pack was good enough to match it with the likes of Saints, Wire, Catalans and Wakefield. Without wishing to dwell on the past, the decision to get rid of Watts and not replace him still baffles me. And as others have said we've never really replaced Ellis or Pritchard like for like (the former being irreplaceable full stop, the latter having been subsidised). Layer on the long term absences of our contracted first pick props Bowden and Green (here we are almost in May, 2 bench appearances from a possible 26) and the questionable form of Paea last season - just felt like the right platform couldn't be laid by Taylor on his own as he had tried to do in that glorious run of 11 defeats at the end of 2018. We have excellent halves IMO - the best trio in SL quite possibly, two very good centres in Carlos and Griff, OK wingers and a very handy full back, but without the right foundations that's just vanity.

So given our injuries and suspensions I'm very pleasantly surprised with our league position at Round 13. Our lack of grit in the "middles" has been exposed against the top 2 but there are some positives in the forwards. Paea has been much better this year, Mini looks to have renewed energy, and the resurrection of Ellis has been critical. Encouraging to add Savelio (although short lived) and Green had some real grunt in his carries today which was good to see. Just a couple of weeks off Bowden's return too. I'd also say that Houghton is having his best season in 3, loads of zip round the ruck.

What I do like as well is that we can score points and are more exciting to watch. Having spent years watching 9s, projects and crocks try and get us round the pitch in the halves, it's great to have Sneyd with the ability to pull the strings line up with Kelly and Connor (2 of the biggest talents I've seen in Hull shirts) - what we try doesn't always come off like that almost try in the first 5 minutes today - but they back themselves and have a go. This season I don't think we'll trouble the trophy cabinet unless we can get our best pack on the pitch consistently, but we are offering more with ball in hand and I'm enjoying watching Carlos' footwork, Griffin's punch, Westerman's lines. At the same time we're integrating Masi and Lane and giving chances to the likes of Wynne (looks a right player). We're 3rd in points scored, that has to be pleasing. We're clearly behind the top 2 as our blow out scores indicate, but like you say, maybe in the event we can hang on to a play off place, they may have 14 out and we might be somewhere near full strength.

Thats a much nicer more balanced post you - weve not seen that for a while

We had it in the bag then took it out of the bag and threw it away

To be fair you could argue we stole the points in France, so maybe these play a draw.

Blumming heck the love in continues.
A very balanced post for a change as has been stated and 1 I agree with.
Now that warmed my heart.

I doubt it. Not against Wakefield.

What today did show (again) it that there isn't the appetite for Sunday afternoon rugby. Today was necessary after the Easter weekend to give the players an extra couple of days rest but it proved that we should stick to Friday nights were possible.

Good post.

See Tinkerman, I told you she could be a really good contributor when she isn't just trying to wind people up.