And the fairplay index league thingymebob!

Succesful season if you ask me!

Lasty said on KCFM last night that we've had 15 combinations at 1,6,7 & 9 this year.

And our defence, which has been shocking in the last two years.

Whiting has only missed 3?

He's missed more, but that was down to not being selected as he wasn't match fit, rather than being injured. I tried to base it on their inavailability for selection.

How about this stat:
We need a proven quality coach to get the best out of the players at his disposal.

All of them have been garbage!!

While injuries have been a factor I still maintain that better coaches would have got more out of the available players, we still have some fine players in the squad.

In a lot of games our defence was fine but we had no idea with ball in hand, fair enough if we have to use makeshift HB's but how about some planned moves (and the inside ball to Danny Tickle on the burst doesn't count) ? We are all over Hudds at home for the first 20 minutes, other teams would have scored at least 3 tries, we got nowt. On most occasions when we get in the "red zone" we don't even manage to get a repeat set of six because we are so clueless and our tactical kickings so appalling. You have to ask yourself what they do at training all week.

Spot on, the 17 we have put out there for every single game has been good enough to win that game imo, with the correct coaching and tactical approach to the game.

Whilst I agree about the coaching issues I also think it doesnt necessarily matter how good the 17 players are if there is no continuity. To have 6 different full backs and a silly amount of half combinations couldnt possibly bring instant success because we have never had a settled team all season.

I cant remember a single game when our squad numbers 1-7 played together never mind for a sustained period!

Having said that a quality number 6 I still believe is needed for next season to work along side Long. If we are hoping for Long to lead the attack single handedly then we may be in for more disappointment.

I agree to some extent about continuity, but to counter argue that, what do the players do in training? Every game last year our 6 and 7 didnt even look like they knew each other. We didnt put 2 passes together. I dont blame continuity there, i blame a lack of basic skills and poor preperation/training.

I suppose its similar to when Leeds play without Sinfield or Saints are missing Long and Cunningham.The players that come in are still skillful and obviously train together but the team simply do not function as well together.

Its no surprise to me that the top 4-5 teams in super league also have the most settled pivotal postions over the season.

Saints? Theyve not had settled pivots all year. (but i agree in general)

The issue for me is when those clubs lose their pivots they still play to the same game plan and look like they know each other. They dont do things as slick but they can still pass the ball. We just lose all ability to do anything.

Saints were settled until Longs recent injury and look what happened to them then!

Its not the reason for Hulls poor form but i is certainly a major factor.

A poor scrum half signing and the loss of form to R.Horne need to taken into account but it was a very tough year injury wise.

I agree, but i also still firmly believe we had a good enough 17 turn out every week to win, and we were poorly coached around our defensive line speed, kicking game etc

6 different full backs

Wrong 7 get ur facts right you

sorry boss have i missed one out,your never wrong are ye

Byrne, Hall, Whiting, Rich Horne, Tony and Tansey all started games at full back and Thorman had a brief spell there off the bench.

We had five different starting full backs in the first 15 games.

Thats who i forgot

Its easy to forget about Byrne. That last ditch try saving tackle where he winded himself was a cracker.

I think that actually shows our total lack of creativity in the opponents twenty and what we have all been shouting for for years a pair of top class halfbacks who actually know what their doing.

Agree. Better half backs who know their job and have authority in that position would have made a big difference.

Dont know much but apart from the Half back problem (which I agree with you) a proper full back really helps - No one ever thinks about what the players on the field are thinking. We need dare I say it a Briscoe - |Wellans - Keegan - Kemble etc etc

Now we've got a quality full back - Tansey.