Optimistic

Disappointed.

Dissapointed

Embarassed

Resigned

Content.

supercalafragalisticexpialidoshus

alwaysnextyear

Philosophical

You been tugging over Mary Poppins again?

Exasperated

I’m looking through the teams prior to kick off yesterday and I’m thinking Wigan are better at 1, 2 and 5, Hull are better at 3, 4 and 9. The half backs give or take – Miller and Holdsworth’s Warrington semi final performance would make them superior, I remember when Wigan signed Matty Smith people on here were raising eyebrows and saying they wouldn’t want him at Hull. Up front I wouldn’t swap any of theirs for O’Meley, Whiting or Ellis.
The difference between the two sides is mentality and professionalism. Wigan have had a few bad defeats recently with injuries and a cup final coming up but ordinarily the distance between their best performance and their worst is miniscule. Wigan just have a professionalism about them, and a mental strength, to enable them to perform week in week out for nine months of the year which means they’re always there or thereabouts when the trophies are handed out.

The difference between Hull’s best and worst performances is absolutely colossal. Look at the way we played at Warrington in the league and cup and the way we’ve played the likes of London and Wakefield this year. Look at the home and away performances against Castleford. We have a bunch of players, and I always think of Westerman when I’m saying this, who are unprofessional and not mentally right to compete at the very top of this game. They can turn in a tremendously consistent display and systematically take apart a brilliant Warrington side, but then the next week it’s “oh it’s only London Broncos” and they start throwing silly passes around and knocking on etc. That makes us dangerous on a one off basis but kills us in the league. It’s why I thought we’d win yesterday, but you can’t turn it on and off like a tap and yet again yesterday you’ve got them all throwing ridiculous passes around and knocking on. And once one of them does it, they all start doing it. We were attempting some outragous dry weather 13 pass 7 offload moves yesterday on tackle two when losing by eight points with half an hour still to play. Why is there nobody out there calming everybody down, making them complete a few sets? Concentration, professionalism, consistency.

They don’t need a coach, they need a shrink. Or a bloody good slap round the chops.

Scott Taylor would walk into any side.

That's not as far fetched as it sounds.

Leeds employed the services of a Sports Psychologist some years ago and they're far from the first sports team to benefit from it

Gutted

But still proud of what them young Hull lads and rest of the team achieved getting there. Too many errors cost us the game but I feel the effort was there, just nerves or trying too hard instead of enjoying the occasion was the problem, not a lack of effort. We have future England stars in our team and a very good young scrum half who's only had half a season to gel. With the pack we have to go with it we can still go further this season if they learn from yesterday.

Maybe when I re-watch the game later on TV I'll change my 1 word to disillusion but for now I'm looking forward to more finals that will come.

Which young Hull lads?