It's easy to indulge in a bit of chest beating parochialism when you've just produced your best performance of the season, but the same players you are lauding had Hull in a right mess a few weeks back.

You might also like to reflect that on the fact that Wires players whose abilities and attitudes you are comparing unfavourably have got the medals tucked away at home, whereas all the Hull players (and club) have delivered in the same era has been promise, inconsistency and ultimately, failure.

Wow. I can only assume the above is a fishing exercise? By reading this you would have thought it was hull that, in the last 4 seasons had; won 3 challenge cups, won a league leaders Shield and appeared in a grand final.

Just let that be a warning to you.



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You make a fair point. Mr. Zucchini Head seems to have let himself get more than a little carried away. Warrington are a great side who we have beat very rarely in recent years. One match doesn't set a precedent.

I do feel Hull FC are building to something though and like I said a few post ago, we have historically competed with the best of them including only as far back as 2006/2005 when we had a great side. Many Hull fans, myself included feels that Pearson, Gentle and McRae maybe on the verge of bringing that back.

First of all yes I probably did get a little over excited, not just in beating you but in the general positivity around the club right now. However I will stand by some of what I said. Warrington, over the last few years have been great to watch, not only for their style of rugby but for the fact that they have broken the big 4 as we did 7/8 season ago. However, the squad has got old together and I think Tony Smith has made a mistake not recruiting much over the last year or two. Briers, Higham, Morley, Hodgson, M Monaghan etc. They have been the heartbeat of your side but their days are now severley numbered. Someone mentioned the Houghton > Higham claim. If you offered Higham as a swap for Houghton I would laugh you out of there (tbf you guys would do the same with one of my other comparisons, Horne and Myler).

On the whole I do believe Hull have the better squad, of course it remains to be seen whether we will prove it, but imo Hull are going in the right direction and Warrington are not.

Just remember folks, a brain is for life not just for destroying at Christmas.

How about a reasoned argument rather than burying your head. Hull are unlikely to win anything this year (the cup is a possibility)+ but neither will Warrington. No pace, too many soft forwards and your best half back is on the treatment table every other week.

You try to come back with a (slightly) reasoned response and then resort to this! Soft forwards? The 'massive' Huddersfield pack didn't find our forwards too soft. Briers isn't on the treatment table every other week, his career was nearly ended by a neck injury. Don't get carried away with how good hull are - certainly don't get carried away by how bad you perceive us to be after watching us for one game!

Reasoned argument?

After the
X>Y post of yours, you're beyond 'reason'

Briscoe better than Monaghan, Holdsworth better that Briers?

And you want me to take you seriously?

I think the hull fan is getting a bit excited by our excellent victory and good form, there are plenty of things to be positive as a hull fan, but he is going over the top. I still expect you to finish above us and still have a better side than us, although we aren't far off IMO.

I will be very happy if we can match your success over the last few years, everyone goes on about the age of your team, but I have been impressed with your young players like Riley, currie, evens brother and Dwyer.

I'd like us to meet in either the semi or final of the CC as I think it would be a great game.

I'll give you Briers better than Holdsworth, although Briers has got, what? another year in him at best. As for Monaghan better than Briscoe, total rubbish. He's much better in the air than Briscoe, the rest of his game isnt in the same league. Please dont give try scoring records as a measure of how good a player is, especially when he plays in such a good attacking team as you have been over the last couple of years, it means nothing at all. I would wager that Briscoes tries/chances ratio is much better than Monaghans.

If Monas had Briscoe pace he'd be the complete Winger, but don't kid yourself his speed is deceptive, one game v Wigan in the cup were he was caught with a knee injury and everyone thinks he's slo

What a silly debate this is. On Friday we were the best team. Over the past few years Wire have been the best team. Hull fans are rightly excited by the progress we are making, but until we are regularly challenging for trophies then we need to be realistic. Let's just enjoy the fact that we're both going well.

Mr Zucchini Head's post is one of those that only comes up a couple of times a season, a belter.

It also has the special quality of containing every Hull fan's Achilles heel: the built-in dream that Richard Horne is back to a mythical best that someone vaguely remembers from about fifteen years ago.

Hull were better side the other night, no doubt.

I haven't read every post in this thread, of course I haven't, that would be silly, but the last page or two sum up what I expected to see - people reading far too much into Friday.

I've heard all sorts of crap since the game. We're not fit enough. We've lost our spark. We had no ideas in attack. Atkins is poor, Westwood is finished. I didn't hear any of that when we beat Huddersfield 14 days previously so the real question is - what has changed in those 14 days? Some sort of seismic shift in the power balance of RL? All our players suddenly becoming too old? Tony Smith lost it?

Possibly.

Or, did we just get beaten by the better team on the night. The key to the game, for me, was Holdsworth's kicking game. It was superb. Hull were happy to turn us round time and time again, defend and wait for the error. They got it when Briscoe milked that penalty (as, frankly, he should be doing). They were well organised, defended superbly, had a game plan and stuck to it. We did look devoid of ideas attacking their line, especially in the 2nd half. Suspect that was partly due to all the heavy lifting Hull made us do.

I don't know if we're finished as a team. I doubt it. Clearly, the window of opportunity for this group of players is closing. As for Hull, no issue with them pressing the giddy button. They've had a rough few years, seems churlish to begrudge them getting excited about their team - certainly I would be if I were in their shoes.

As a final point, there is a culture in sport to look for excuses or a wider meaning to every defeat. Sometimes, there is one. Somtimes, you just get beat. We won't know about Friday till the season's over but for now, I'm going to assume that it's sport and we're still allowed to lose.