I won't comment too much on Abdull's fitness until I see him next year.
Can fully understand why people are sceptical over the signing. His conditioning last season was terrible and way below par. However that doesn't mean he's going to be in the same condition next season when he runs out for us. Or if he is in that condition, im fairly confident he won't be running out for us.
If he can get his body right, I think he will do well for us. Possibly very well. But certainly an improvement over anything we had in the halves this season. Might be in the minority but I have faith he will put the work in and look the part next season.

Jon Clarke here for the first 2 weeks of pre season before flying back to Australia.
There is another new S@C coach also who will be working alongside Tom Bennett.

Have we had any confirmation yet of what Gaz Ellis' role is now? Could it be he's moving into strength and conditioning?

Thats great news, as Tom Bennett is still unqualified....
Pearson's decision last November, to only employ one fitness trainer (who isnt qualified) meant the squad could not physically compete in SL. , this created more injuries, unfortunately , we only had trainee physiotherapists from Hull university ....

What did I say about Balmforth and his weight 2-3 months ago ? !

He’s 10kg heavier than Harry Grant and I implored Denive to reduce his weight and increase his fitness so he can make tackle 52 rather than 22

I’m pleased for any player that loses 9kg and now I can’t wait to see how he will
Benefit on the pitch

Jordan next

So by my reckoning we have gone from a backroom staff of
Smith, Gene, Grix
Unqualified S&C and trainee Physios

to

Cartwright, Grix, Last and Ellis
Highly experienced Physio and another one advertised
New S&C coach and Jon Clarke as a consultant.

Definitely a huge improvement and shows the money saved the last couple of year under Pearson.

Got to be either Covid loans paid off or investment coming in

Did we even save any money though? Pearson already said medical scans alone cost 100K extra, then there’s the cost of making all the short term loan signings directly related to our lack of fitness and injury problems, that’s without factoring in the lost revenue etc by the drop in crowds as most of the season was dead rubber.

Thought it was interesting a couple of months ago then Saints posted big losses but Eamon McManus said that cutting costs would be worse long term for the club, maybe he saw Hull as an example of how not to deal with the challenges of Covid loans and lower TV revenue.

I agree that we haven't likely saved much money, if any. I think it's clear that Pearson tried to cut costs and it backfired on him big time. McManus's comments at the time certainly read to me like a veiled criticism of us without naming us directly. Was a lot more respectful than a certain other club owner has been all season.

Maybe McManus is in a better financial position to underpin those losses. I don't think he's the type to criticise other clubs, be it veiled or otherwise. Hopefully we are now in a better financial position and we can finally start moving forward again.

I don’t think he was having a dig, just that he knows it’s probably a false economy doing things on the cheap. It was AP himself who revealed the extra 100K on medical tests and I’d imagine that’s just the tip of the iceberg if you really dug deeper into the money we’ve lost over the last few years because of the off field roles cut backs, the amount of money we’ve spent paying off players must be eye watering, that might not have had to happen if we had a DOR in place.

Anyways we are still here and a still SL club, after Covid you have to give Pearson credit for that. If investment has been secured that’s great, but however it’s been funded it’s looks like we are more of a professional outfit going into this pre season then we have for a long while.

If you guys can get Abdull trim and motivated it will make a huge difference. Do that and you have a top player because his ability isn't in question.

He is as good a kicker of the ball out of hand as there is. And his high bombs go higher and have more spin than anyone else's. They are in the air for ages so the chasers have loads of time to move in and the poor winger/fb is under tremendous pressure.

Unfortunately despite this there are now 3 coaches who decided he wasn't worth the trouble, Radford, Peters and McNamara. This is because he really does struggle to stay in shape and is injured so often you just can't rely on him.

Willie Peters took one look at him when he came back to training last year, took the 7 shirt off him and did a deal to offload him to Catalans. McNamara thought he had a brilliant deal but.......the shape Abdull was in during his spell in France was truly shocking and McNamara decided not to take up his option on Abdull.

Rovers are very happy that we won't have to honour the long term contract which Abdull had at Craven Park thank you Hull FC for taking that off us.

I expect Abdull knows he is in the last chance saloon and he'll start the season strong most probably. Maybe Radford, Peters and McNamara were wrong to give up on him. Maybe.

When does pre season start? Wonder if Walker will still be with us? Be good to have him for a year, give us some good options in the backs and give Moy a year to develop.

Walker looks like he will be still here. I just don't see a spot for Morgan Smith

That's good news, heard Smith had signed for Sheffield, but ma6be that's fell through with the Aston thing.

Probably get loaned out if he is still here.

Starts Tuesday (I think)