Hard to believe you can be young player of the year last season,and surplus to requirements this season. He didnt seem to need to bulk up (as radford put it) last season,so whats changed. Tackling is not the lads strength,but its a technique thing the coaching staff should be helping him with,he has a rare talent,he is a natural try scorer which you cant teach and his talent IMO has been wasted. I would be amazed if he ever played for us again,regardless of us keeping his registration or not.I feel his situation has been handled very poorly.

My thoughts exactly. A very frustrating situation, whats the point in bringing the kids through to let them leave like this(with 2 years left on his contract. His partnership with Lineham should have been with us for years to come.

Its now standard for us, sign 32/33 year old every 2 years.

Its a very sad state of affairs

I do. As long as said 34 year old can tackle, not get caught out in defence, has more weight and doesn't rely on his winger being fit.

Why are people so bothered when we have a wealth of talent in that position? Is it once again the "He's from Hull, he must be of international quality" badge that so many have worn in this insular city?

I want us to win trophies and compete. YOu wont do that hanging onto players who were only ever good at Doncaster.

Won't be a popular post but spot on IMO.

Actually its a load of nonsense.

He is not from Hull.. the fact is -he was selected in the Dream Team for Hull FC (not Doncaster) last season
is an indicator of his talent.

I dont subscribe to the theory, of importance of players with a HU postcode on their birth certificate,
my attitude is. if they have enough quality and ability to play for Hull FC- irrespective of place of birth.

Bulking up and defensive frailties are coachable, however.... this is dependent on the player's attitude
and the coaching staff's ability - IMO.

sometime these faults (tackling and positioning) are coachable, but sometimes things are just rooted too deep. last season, he was a unknown quantity, burst onto the scene and nobody knew about his good and bad qualities. they were then spotted and exploited.

crooks and lineham had a cracking first season, that cant be denied, BUT so did kevin penny.

I like to see players coming through our system and make a name for themselves, but if it doesn't work(for whatever reason) like it hasn't with crooks this year, and there is someone out there better then its progression.

I want Hull FC to be challengers for titles, don't care how it comes, if I means losing a player like crooks and getting a player better but older, then so be it. no point in playing young kids threw the system just because that's the in thing to do.

Just very very disappointing. I thought he was a player with natural talent rather than an athlete trained to play rugby and it's sad that , either as a result of his poor attitude , the club's inability to coach and manage him or some other unknown reason , we won't get the chance to see his potential be realised or not in an FC shirt. It's sad that kids with natural instinctive ability have seemingly , these days , to give way to robotic power when the thing most people agree is missing from our game is guile , skill and grey matter. It's ironic that he's going to try his hand in the NRL a place where you would have thought he'd have no chance if he's too defensively frail for SL. I guess it will at least be interesting to see what happens. I'd love him to succeed and then come back but that combination seems unlikely.

good luck to him, the chance to live and work in Aus for two years is a great opportunity, hope he grabs it with both hands.

What a sentimental bunch we are there's a tear in my eye reading this thread.

Unless Sa is 34 then we haven't replaced Crooks with a 34 year old. Good luck to him in Aus.

The club will retain the player's Super League registration, with the exclusive right to re-sign him should he wish to return to the UK.

I believe this will only have value if he returns within the next two years as he was contracted to FC for those two years. If he sees his contract out in Australia he will be a free agent.

and the award for stating the obvious goes to...............

As has been mentioned before, Kevin Penny was a dream team member after half a season. Thats not always a good indicator of long term talent.

I am surprised at those who say this has been handled badly. Badly by who? The club or the player?

Pearson clearly stated on the radio in the run up to the final game of this season that Crooks has a long term future at the club. At that point in time this Ells deal will have been either done or virtually done, which indicates either Crooks has said he wants to come back to Hull or the intention is to farm him out to get experience in a better competition than the Championship.

No. It's an indicator of how well he played [ilast season[/i.