The optimist in me thinks that, baring been unable to replace Mau, the squad on the whole has improved. We've brought in:

A young exciting Full Back with plenty of pace
A very consistent Centre with plenty of utility value
A half back who is arguably one of England's best talents
An NRL standard half, who is 'too good for SL'
And a exciting impact hooker, who for me, is one of the most under rated signings by any club this off season.

Not to mention the likes of Cator, Carlos, Savelio who will all feel like new signings after their dreadful luck last year.

We have shown promise for the past few years, its keeping players fit and not fading off in the 2nd half of the year which will determine our year.

Maybe i'm buying into the annual pre season hype, but I think with what we have, there is good reason to believe we must be challenging for a top 6 spot.

All aboard the hype train



To be honest, I'd be happy with a play off finish. feel we're in a big group of clubs that could finish anywhere between 5th or 10th.

Genuinely feels like the club has 'rebooted'. A change in recruitment policy, new backroom staff and training facilities.

Can't wait till SKY start calling us the entertainers

Trueman isn't close to England's best talents

If he was he would of played for England by now

I'm encouraged by hoy and Clifford and players in great form in super league in dwyer and Sutcliffe

Your obsession with judging players based on International recognition is getting beyond a joke now. Mikey Lewis is an outstanding talent along with Harry Smith, Pryce and Dodd, none of these have played for the full England team, but it doesn't make them some of the most talented SL players, same with Trueman, You constantly criticized Connor, who not only has been capped by his country performed very well too, you can't have it both ways.

Difference is Trueman has played at cas for years and has more SL appearances than Dodd, pryce and lewis put together

The others you mention have just started their careers

Trueman is decent enough but to label him one of the best english talents is just ridiculous he's done nothing of real note yet

Typical hull fc hyping up players the second they sign for us

The margins in sport at this level are very small and it often doesn't take a huge amount to turn a team from mediocre to decent. Look at Huddersfield and Wigan, really disappointing in 2021. Wigan got a new coach but didn't change the team a huge amount, Huddersfield also made only minor adjustments, and just like that they were both up at the top end of the table. Look at Leeds. A complete lost cause under Agar (tbf the Kangaroos would look like a list cause under Agar), a new coach with some different ideas comes in and they nearly go and win the big one.

We were poor last year but we aren't a total basket case, we just needed to change a few things. Our spine looks miles better. We will miss Connors creativity but we will have more of it at 6 and 7 and we will definitely have a lot more pace and a better kicking game. Dwyer will inject some speed around the ruck. Bonaire said we lack strike at centre which may be true, but in Carlos and Sutcliffe we have two very accomplished and experienced players. Carlos, Savelio and Cator returning is a big boost. That's all without mentioning Smith. For the first time in ages we have a proven experienced coach who knows what it takes to do well in this league and who will set up his team to play in a positive exciting way.

I aren't buying into any hype, this is just my own views. Making a final is probably a pipe dream this early in Smith's tenure, but I fully expect playoffs and an improved season.

Improved season isn't much tho

Given how bad we were last season

we was only our toulouse wins from been in a relegation scrap

He has also missed alot if rugby through injury which has set back his career a bit.

Also he made the Great Britan squad in 2019, that's a pretty good achievement.

Wonder when the squad numbers will be getting announced for the coming season?

I wonder what Hoy and Clifford are making of the weather.

Bet they think it's cold

bit of luck, this cold spell will be the coldest this winter, may as well get aclimatised now

February and March might have something to say about COLD. Nowt compared to 1947, 1964 and 2011. My daughter’s birthday is mid April and we’ve had snowball fights to celebrate it. A cricket match in Derbyshire was snowed off in 1976, The summer of all summers

worst winter of all was 1962/63.continuous snow on the ground from boxing day till mid march.decimated rugby league fixtures for 3 months,games were still being rearranged for late may.

last winter was quite mild compared to the beginning of this winter, not just for rugbys' sake but for everyone struggling to heat their homes, lets hope we have a similar one

But coldest December since 2010!

Sorry, your quite right 1963 it was. There were some flat top garages near Bean Street, we climbed on top of them and jumped into the snow drifts.

Shaw totally writing us off, grading our recruitment at a C and having us 11th below Leigh, we won't win the league, but I'm very confident we will at do better than that.

Recruitment is much better than a C on paper, big improvement than last season, player for player.

wouldn't worry about Rovers fan boys' predictions! (Dobbins 5th proves that!), he has history of negativity with FC!

Thought it was Appleyard who wrote those articles first time I saw them

Clearly a clickbait article.Unless we have a disaster with injuries not a cat in hell's chance that we'll finish 11th.

Reading the HDM comments is very amusing. A couple of FC fans still in denial that your franchise isn't in precarious state. The positive strides made over at CP are hard to stomach.We have surpassed you and on opposite trajectories now. Still early days but our goals are now loftier than just winning the derbies. Granted us fans will still put extra value on those points but we will start looking upwards not behind us at failing business's as Hull City's owner described you lot.
Hard putting any positive spin on this even for the FC loving local media. Freezing your tatties off on the mud won't sit well with Taylor's inner circle of players. No stadium or training facilities of your own. No capital just booming costs and mounting arrears each season. Dire times but if all you can afford is a trip to Clee and a bag of chips then that's as good as it gets. Reading of Tex Hoys reservations over leaving Aus I'm sure that will make things much clearer for him.

Bit early to be on the drink

Love to know what Hull have done to make that Shaw so anti FC.

His prediction makes no sense to me, you can’t use the reason of “they’ve got a new spine” when A, it’s way better than what we had and B, two of them have played each other for years. What makes it funnier is that he then goes on to place Leigh, who’ve basically changed their entire squad, above us!

Says that it’s rare for a new coach to have an instant impact, yet we have just seen a mid season change of coach get a side to the grand final.

Don’t get the use of Smiths first year at rovers as an example either, completely different situation what he overtook at that lot.

Like I’ve said previous, far from expecting us to be world beaters, but to put us down as 11th is nothing but click baiting nonsense

you can tell he had one hand inside his pants typing that!