Quote: knockersbumpMKII "Wonder what the average tenure of a coach is in the SL era compared to BITD.
Hull's greatest ever coach, Roy Francis was with us best part of 9 years before departing for Leeds (and winning more silverware there), Bunting was here for 7 years, in the last 30 years I think Radford has being the incumbent for longest coming up to 5 seasons at the end of this campaign and unless something goes very badly wrong results wise (a lot worse than losing 7 on the trot) I can see him being in charge for the next 4 years even if we don't win anything.'"
With regard to Roy Francis are you considering the years he was captain/coach after previous coach Joe Oliver left in 1950? This would extend his coaching time at Hull to 13 years (1950-1963) becoming full time coach in the mid 50's.
My dad became friends with Roy through work in the 50's and I met him a few times. Dad and I went to Hull matches during the fifties including the 2 consecutive losing Challenge Cup finals against Wigan and Wakefield.
In 1968 when I was living in South Africa my dad wrote from Hull telling me Leeds, coached by Roy, had reached the CC final and had bought a ticket to attend. A week or so before the final I received a telegram saying my dad had died suddenly and returned to Hull for the funeral. After I took dad's ticket and went to the match to see Roy finally win a CC final with Leeds beating Wakefield.
By 1969 I had moved to Australia and met up with Roy again when he came to Sydney to coach North Sydney.
I fully support your view of Francis as a Hull coach. In fact in the time I have been watching rugby league(over 70 years) I would place him in the highest echelon of all rugby league coaches.