well that was hard going wasn't it? But although its only the start of 2024, and some would say early days, for many of us in reality its all pretty depressing yet quite predictable in many ways.

I guess really you can’t go too much on the first game of the season but the signs were there for all to see against Wigan as well and we all tried to make excuses and indeed, this week we did suffer as much adversity as you could probably have in one game but that’s no real excuses because it was very very poor. we have made pretty second-rate signings when judged against some of our piers in super league. Smith isn’t a miracle worker and although I’m sure he picks the players he wants to bring in, his choice is restricted by the budgetary constraints put upon him by the owner through the club’s financial situation.

Adam is the owner and yes he’s brought us some great times, the best day of my life in fact and we’d have been stuffed without him and I really like the bloke.
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However, he says he would welcome investors to the club but would he??? Because to me reading between the lines and knowing in the past how he runs his organisations he does seem to like to be the sole boss of things and had another investor or two been attracted to the club I think we would have signed better players year on year (including a couple of Marquee signings that used to be the hallmark of the club in the past) and replaced the class we were losing. That’s the crux of the issue for me because Smith is just playing the cards he is dealt. All this last big payday stuff is rubbish, he a proud man and proven to be a bloody good coach, but it’s just bricks without straw.

We haven’t had a real in your face leader since Ellis and we certainly haven’t replaced Sneyd, Swift or Connor or latterly Clifford when top clubs would have recognised them as the bed rock on which we build a team for the future and probably persuaded them not to leave, in fact at other clubs having seen the progress made they would possibly have been content to stay. Good teams get good players and add to them and when they have difficult, but gifted, individuals (like Connor) they manage them. I know players cite family reasons etc for moving but it’s a short career and if you’re getting well paid and can see a future to win trophies whilst getting exposure and acclaim from the fans then generally you don’t move. As far as imports are concerned we are now resign to signing players coming here to make a name for themselves and then go back home more lucrative deals (Clifford) or teams with better prospects (Satae for example).

Covid certainly hasn’t helped but since 2016/17 everything has slipped back at our club, if we sign quality players they seem to have injury baggage, good and great players have been replaced with mediocre ones, we have had two cheap and cheerful coaches before Smith came along and the ‘smokescreen’ of youth development and the cost of it, has been used to disguise somewhat just what we are signing to replace the quality players we lose. We all love the youngsters coming through of course we do but Super League is a brutal affair and as such you can’t play more than two or three greenhorns in a team for any length of time, it just doesn’t work. It’s a long road to the topped and many youngsters fall by the wayside, but across the main squad you have to focus on replacing like for like otherwise you go backwards.

The only thing that hasn’t slipped back is us lot the loyal and long-suffering fans because if anything we have grown in number since 2017 or at least stayed constantly at a level many clubs can only dream of. I know people who can no longer go who still buy season tickets just to support the club. Perhaps had we all voted with our feet a few years ago then things might have changed, just to ensure we survived, but why worry too much about a backward progression if the stakeholders continue to support? Now we already have a ward full of casualties, a loss to start the season off against the worst of enemies, the morons baying from the east everywhere we go and no cap space (apparently) to change things, even if those players were available. So once again it’s going to be a long season, but one year the fans might just get fed up and see what is happening and then we are in trouble, but for now forget coach’s owners and players our greatest asset is us lot the fans!!!!! I remember perhaps 15 or so odd years ago on here the famous Hutchie saying that we were ‘the cash cows of the club and being hauled over the coals by the then board for saying it. I wonder if he has a feeling of de je vue now?

So that's my take on it however, having come down a bit from last night for me a season ticket holder of 64 years the club appears to be slipping back from being one of the games top set ups to mediocrity at best, trouble is we all love em and many of us always will, but surely we can't go on like this? perhaps I'm over reacting, old people eh???? Just my view on it all, but I'd be interesting to know what others think about it all! It's not knee jerk after one game just a real concern for where we actually are!!!

AP stated earlier this year that the Covid loan would be paid off later this year.

Thats the type of view youd expect from a short minded person who wants instant success. The only way this club will succeed is to do it for themselves and to do that we have to bring our own through the ranks and then compliment them with the correct overseas signings.

Your the type of fan who sees whats on the pitch and not the work off it. Massive efforts have gone into the training facilities and making our youth academys one of the best in the country.

It was always going to take time to plug the gap from youth team to first team. Smith might not be the coach that sees the job through but he will start us on the right track, one thing for sure is when he speaks them young kids and senior players listen.

We could spend loads of money on bring players in to only make the top 4 like our so called neighbours. But simply it doesnt work over a long period of time, ask Pearson, Davy, Beaumount, Koulash or even Richard Branson.

The longest this club has being on a play off run and reached a grand final was when we had brought through alot of our own young players and developed them into first team players.

Coincedence ? I think not.

If I had a quid for every time Seb said that Hull are finished and he's not going any more I'd have enough to pay off the club's Covid loan.

Indeed , And we could kick out the garbage that's ruining our game .
I wounder which insurance company the NRL are using ?

For me, much as I hate to say it, there is little doubt that we are to be second best in the city for a while at least, but perhaps there is some hope with the players we have coming through. I was proud of their efforts last night. Smith is the most experienced coach in the British game and has done it time and again so I wouldn't agree that we should get rid because who better would we get in. At least he is someone who everyone at the club respects and he's pretty switched on as far as the game is concerned. As for the comments on Adam going, firstly, I see someone said if he went we would be in trouble, fact is if he went we would, in a short time, be no more. If only for the debts he is guaranteeing. However as I said right at the beginning of this the issue for us is that with Adam leaving the case is we have no other board members with the cash to keep the club afloat in such a case or to inject money in so that we can for instance pay transfer fees. You see, I'm convinced that although he talks a good game about wanting to attract investors, I feel that he likes overall control and being a one man band, and has shied away from that road so far. I think with the exception of Smith we have both on the field off the field and in the back office gone for cheap solutions. Rover power board approach is the way forward and does at least prove that there are people who want to buy into or at least invest in RL clubs. The conundrum is I guess that with Adam that won't happen but without him it could but we would be sunk before anything could be put in place.