Disgraceful Hull FC hit lowest ebb as deep issues show in Headingley humiliation
Hull FC’s 2024 season has been one of the worst in the club’s entire history. And as we keep saying, it could yet be their worst ever, with a first Super League wooden spoon still a genuine possibility.
The situation Hull find themselves in is nothing short of scandalous, with a shocking sequence of recruitment and retention over a five-year period spearheading the club to its current plight with just three wins to their name all year. Again, that’s nothing that hasn’t been said before with a squad that currently lacks the necessary desire, quality, leadership, and accountability to be a competitive outfit in this competition.
For Hull, it's an extremely long road back. And it’s been laid to bare now as much as ever, with the Black and Whites thumped 68-6 at Leeds Rhinos on Friday night in what was another pathetic attempt at a Super League standard performance with all the superlatives—bleak, pitiful, horrendous, diabolical, woeful—coming to the fore.
Read more: 'We're not tough enough' Simon Grix's frank Hull FC assessment after Leeds drubbing
This is as grim as it gets. Hull should be nowhere near their current scenario, but when aforementioned recruitment, retention, and the like have been as bad as they have been, mixed in with a group of players that evidently don't care enough to make a difference, this is what you get: a team at the bottom.
Succumbing to their 22nd defeat of the season, Hull are exactly where they deserve to be. They know that, and there has been, through the voices of Simon Grix and Richie Myler, two people that have hardly been here long enough to be bearing the biggest brunt, an acceptance to it. It's a tough acceptance, but that's the reality. There's no hiding from it.
An unprecedented season, over 40 players have been used, there's been more ins and outs than ever before, injuries galore, suspensions, no continuity, abject showings, and more. It's all been a mess—a set of events worth it's own Netflix documentary.
Sure, there's context, but context doesn't wash with displays like at Headingley, not when just several weeks ago we were all praising a team that had just beaten Wigan Warriors, and even in defeat was throwing the dice and having a genuine go. This was dreadful. Ten tries conceded. 14 goals. And there could have been more. It was that bad.
In truth, Hull were so far off the pace, it was like Geoff Maltby competing with Usain Bolt in a 100-metre dash. And like the Benidorm star, Hull talk a good game, but they struggle to back it up. The gulf between the two sides was massive. It was a disturbing account, but it's nothing not seen before, with desire, energy, and urgency all lacking as Leeds took them to the cleaners.
It was the end-of-season washout that is obligatory with end-of-season Hull performances. They have done the same thing year after year. It's why the job at hand—to change mentality, behaviours, etc.—is so colossal. It's why it may take another cycle at least, dependent on the sort of impact John Cartwright can have as the club's new head coach next season, to get all of the cogs spinning. It's why Myler, who has a huge task to turn it around, has already set realistic expectations for next year.
Right now, this is up there with the worst rugby Hull have produced in the Super League era. It’s abject, woeful, shambolic, and the rest. It's a squad that right now looks outward rather than inward, a group that needs some big figures in the dressing room, ones who can galvanise and get people to go with them. Over to you, John Asiata and Jordan Rapana, marquee men for 2025, amid several professional types that will aim to improve standards at the club.
In the meantime, it's hard to comprehend just how bad Hull have actually been, but this is the result of years of decline; it's unacceptable, and should they finish bottom, they deserve the humiliation. Their saving grace could be IMG-ball and a set of pillars they score high in. As for the rugby, though, Hull hit their lowest ebb. They were pathetic, defensively all over the place, and in attack, lacking both cohesion and direction to move forward with any sort of efficiency. The end of the season can't come soon enough.
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