Hull FC Are A Bad Joke

Mar 03, 2013 League Freak European Super League News 0

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Another round of Super League and another game in which Hull FC look terrible…

It is something that Hull FC fans have become used to in recent years. A club that promises so much and yet delivers so little. As a Hull FC supporter myself, I find it soul destroying when I watch Hull FC these days.

The hero worshiping of players who have never been any good at any point in their careers needs to stop. There is a reason that over the last decade Hull FC’s best players have been low level imports from the southern hemisphere. Hull FC can not produce a decent young player to save their lives.

I’ve point this out many times before. Try naming a truly great player Hull FC has produced themselves over the last ten years. You can’t!

Normally when I say that Hull FC fans get defensive. They throw up names like Horne, Briscoe and Houghton…because its more about what you’ve done lately in Super League, even if you haven’t done much! I then usually get asked about my NRL club in the Penrith Panthers and asked who they have every produced. Once I get past Fittler, Alexander, Gower, Lewis, Jennings, Geyer, Cartwright, Grant and the like they change the subject pretty quickly.

I’ve been to Hull and I know how much Hull FC means to people there. They are the main sporting team. Sure the soccer club gets some press and Hull KR gets a lot of support, but Hull belongs to Hull FC.

Other teams in Super League would kill to be able to say that about a place the size of Hull. All of the commercial advantages that should be bringing to the club are not translating though, either to the clubs bottom line or on the field of play.

Hull FC should be producing much better youngsters than Wigan, and yet as it stands right now it is not even a contest. Hull FC should not be bleeding so much red ink every season and their crowds should be far bigger.

Most Hull FC fans are so busy staunchly defending the club that they are unwilling to turn the spotlight back on the club. Something is very wrong at Hull FC, and it goes deeper than a few pictures missing at the stadiums bar.

Since Shaun McRae once again was given the reigns of the clubs football operations, has anything positive happened?

On the field the team looks terrible. I watch them play and I can’t see the influence of a decent coach at all. Their recruitment is below average. Brett Seymour has been atrocious, Ben Galea has been the best of them and he has only been so-so. The crowning glory was the signature of Gareth Ellis and right now he looks like he is the worst recruit in 2013….he hasn’t played a game yet! That isn’t even to mention the ridiculous Rangi Chase saga.

I’m sure some people will suggest that you can’t blame everything on McRae….but who does the buck stop with? If you are in charge with putting together what we see on the field, and what we see on the field is constantly terrible…you should be sacked!

Marketing is obviously an issue. Crowd for Hull FC games should be far bigger, although with the way they are playing lately its hard to blame people for staying at home. Even when they do win a few games in a row though they don’t draw the crowds they should be.

Hull FC should be one of the powerhouse teams in Super League. With the advantages they have it is hard to understand why the club finds itself struggling in every single area. It is a big club with all the problems that small clubs normally have.

Hull FC fans need to hold the club more accountable. They need to ask why the club isn’t producing good juniors, why can’t they attract top talent and why do they play some aimlessly every single week. Why are they losing so much money and who managed to let a soccer club get control of the stadium?

Right now Hull FC looks like a rudderless ship. There is no vision, no accountability, no plans for the future and no sign of anything changing. How long is this going to go on for? The owner is already being linked to a return to soccer. How long do you think he will keep tipping money into Hull FC, a non performing club, once he has his hands full running a soccer club as well?

I’m sure Adam Pearson is getting a lot of advice on how his club should be run. He needs to ask himself though, are his advisers giving him the best advice?

I have no doubt he wants to see the club become a success. He wouldn’t have saddled himself with the financial burden if he didn’t think the club could become something special. However, what we are seeing on the field is wearing us down as a fan base, and don’t think that doesn’t also happen when you are an owner. I’m sure the pain of every loss is magnified when you are the one writing the cheque’.

Hull FC needs a complete overhaul from top to bottom. They need to look at how they can improve their junior development, how they market the club in Hull and who they recruit from outside of the club.

I personally believe they need to look at the coach, and I would be looking at the bloke overseeing all of this, Shaun McRae.

I’ve no doubt people will be pretty fired up reading all of this, but I’ll leave you with one last thought.

If nothing at Hull FC changes….what makes you think the results will?

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• Adam Pearson, Hull FC, Marketing, Shaun McRae

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