I've been following for about 25 years, we've had worse than this.

Plenty of people I know have supported AND played for the club for as many years.
Please do not insult me by suggesting I would be a mouthpiece for fans like yourself

I'm not disagreeing, what we haven't had is worse than this for no good reason.

We've had times when we were skint.
We've had times when just about everyone else in the league was genuinely better than us.

What we haven't had, in my memory, is the opportunity to kick on as a club and simply not taken it for reasons other than Rugby League decisions, that is what people mean by decline, it's a decline in ambition and expectation.

If you want to start slinging insults around then I suggest you find someone to spar with that gives a monkies what your opinion is.

I know a fair number of former players that agree we are in decline, you don't agree, which is fair enough. There really is no need to descend this into some playground cat fight.

But we stand a good chance of finishing above 11th, which would technically halt the decline.

The only other occasion that springs to mind was the deliberate dismantling of the 1991 Premiership winning team. That has very close parallels to what has happened over the last few seasons.

The Liverpool teams of the 70s and 80s never rested on their laurels when winning everything.

Whe they won the league they would go out and buy the best players available to keep eveyone on their toes.

I'm not saying we have done that, but as you say, we reached a high level and have just back almost happy with that level instead of kicking on.

There was a reason for that though, Brian Smith had almost bankrupted the club so we had to sell of players to pay off creditors. (One of whom, if I recall correctly, was HMRC?)

I really have no intention or desire to spar as you put it.

The decline for me relates to the inability to press on, evolve and improve upon what we achieved (cup win and runners up in league). We have, as stated in prev post, rested on our laurels and taken our eye off the ball so to speak.

As Kosh states this has similarities to the 91 side, i hope we don't end up going down that road again!

Our board are like the elders of Troy...we have let the gaurd down allowed the enemy in to the back yard and we are suffering for it! '"

I think it's probably worth pointing out that my view of us being in decline is in no way linked to the success of Hull KR, I don't really care what goes on East of the river, I just want Hull FC to be successful, and we aren't.

Lets face facts, the CC win and CC final appearance have diverted attention from some very poor seasons.

I don't think I ever knew the details, or if I did I've forgotten them. I just remember feeling betrayed at the time as the players we all thought would take us onwards and upwards were shipped out.

in 1991 we never had an A grade licence though

Most all clubs go through various periods of decline.

Thats life.

For me (performance wise) the whole of SL is in decline at the moment.