,

Is that so I thought he got young player of the year and was nominated for rookie of the year. And an Knights call up

Looks that way about Crooks, such a shame as he is the most naturally gifted back we have, with a good coach and support of players he would be a great centre, I think if he goes, it will be a decision we come to regret.



I think Cunningham still has a future at Hull, think Radford is holding him back (wrongly IMO), but will play off the bench next season.



Not too bothered about Thomspon, started teh season great, but his form tailed off and the last few games he played, he was disappointing, his defence needs some serious work to play in the forwards, I'd look to play him in the backrow from now on.



Green and Bowden are about the same level IMO, some games they are excellent, others poor, both need to be more consistent, will be a good fight between them for the 4th prop next season.

Think we need to realise with Ben Crooks that sometimes it's just not the clubs fault that things haven't worked out and the finger of blame needs to be pointed at the player. Easy to blame the club and coach, especially this year.

Not quite sure I understand your point. At Cas Westerman won SL Young Player of the Year and was called into the full England squad (only to get injured before the international games). Since moving to Hull he has not regained his spot in the England squad until this year and has not performed as well as he did at Cas (from what I have seen).

Why? What has Ben Crooks done wrong? Missed some tackles yes but what about the inept displays of Whiting at centre.he has also missed tackles and has been run around easily by anyone with a bit of pace yet Radford continues to play him.That said he will be dropped for the next match.

You cant blame Crooks at all for being disillusioned the way Radford has treated him.Even when Yeaman was injured recently and an ideal time to give Crooks a run Radford overlooked him and played an under19 rookie.

We have an incompetent coach and it will be travesty if he or any other flair player is hounded out of the club by Radford because they are not a tackle machine.

You're going only on what you've seen on match day, there's 6 other days in the week that require a certain level of effort and commitment to being a professional RL player. It's not even a secret, there's plenty on here that know what's going on with Ben, some issues are beyond even Ben's control, but most of them are his fault.

I think he was talking about Arundel.

There is no such thing as a dummy runner, although plenty run like dummies.



Option runner is the term these days, all runs should be timed so that they can be hit on the flat pass, that at times creates more destruction than the poorly timed pass out the back. The whole attack structure needs all the cogs in time to make things happen, but we have slow distribution and our pivots go sideways so we run our outside players out of space.

Basics are a must and no team at any age group should neglect them, no matter how good you are. Not sure on FCs sessions but When Sandercock was at KR had started every day off with basics and had that running right down the structure.



I'd guess Leeds, Saints, Wigan etc will all do similar.



As for working on players skills, how long do you think it takes to correct and re train a bad habit at the high levels. A lot longer than people think, if they haven't developed certain skills at a young age, they may never master them, can slightly improve but you'd be surprised.

Well maybe you would like to enlighten us with the Ben Crooks behind the scene story.

All I see is a very talented young player who at the moment is being frozen out of the club because of an incompetent coach.

You have to play to the strengths of flair players.We know Crooks has a weakness in defence but a good coach will work on that.You can also protect him a little more by playing someone like Ellis on the right for several games.

You cant blame Crooks for being disillusioned.

That's because this incompetent coach sees nothing more than tackling,and how many metres you make returning the ball.

I can quite easily blame Ben for choosing a bird over his RL development. If Liam Watts was being as unprofessional as Crooks is there'd be uproar.



Like I've said, easy to blame the coach when you don't know the full story.

well if you know the full story then tell us as you know it

Choosing a bird sounds more like pub talk to me.

Being made a scapegoat and continually left out of the side even when replacements who have taken his place have been even worse probably has more to do with his disillusion than anything else.

Wasn't in pub when Lineham told me, as for the other stuff, drop AP a line, he'll tell you.



Makes no difference if I put everything I was told on here or not, you still wouldn't believe it. Best to ask those at the club.

Radford is worse then Agar and that takes some doing, but like Agar he seems to be immune to getting the sack even though he is probably the worst coach in super league

Not being funny but how can I or others form an opinion if we don't have the information you tell us you have.

If Lineham has told you certain things then its hardly confidential so will do no harm if you divulge on here all you know about the Ben Crooks situation and why he isnt being considered for selection.

I am certain I am not the only Hull Fc supporter who would be interested

That's a fair enough point, I'll happily tell you that he's basically not doing the extra work the club have asked him to (ie bulking up) because he's more interested in his girlfriend and he hasn't been the same since he met her. But I just don't feel it would be right to spout off certain other things I've been told, because quite frankly I'm not sure I believe it all.



All I said in the first instance was that sometimes these things aren't the clubs fault and the finger of blame lies elsewhere. It happens, prime example for us is Danny Brough.

Maybe Ben Crooks just doesn't want to end up looking like Popeye!

Unfortunately for the lad Radford has no time for pace & flair & seems to want all players to mirror

his own robotic `bash & grunt' style of play, consequently our threequarter line has been transformed from

a potentially exciting one last season, to arguably the slowest in S.L.

`Bulking up' doesn't work for everyone - ask Tommy Lee.

If we lose talented young players like Crooks for whatever reason, then our `off the field' management is almost as

bad as our performances on it. - What happened to Pearson's constant quotes about `young players being the future'?

Regardless of who is the coach the club is clearly putting a massive emphasis on promoting/developing youth players who are believed to be good enough. I seriously doubt there's ever been a time when this policy has been clearer or more important. If there's one thing that Radford can't be accused of it's closing the door on youth players - there's plenty of ammunition to fire at him regarding other things such as attacking structure and organisation as well as first team selection, but certainly not promotion of youth.



The big question isn't over whether Ben Crooks has the attitude required to make it as a SL player, but whether we've enough high quality talent coming through to make this policy work in the medium term.

to be fair, bulking up Crooks is the one thing i'd agree with Radford on, his defence isn't up to scratch for a SL centre. You don't want him to loose that electric pace, but a balance between pace and defence has to be found somewhere or he won't progress.

There is a big emphasis on youth which could be applauded. We could take to the field next Friday with 17 from the academy all born in the HU post code area and despite a defeat we would spin it as the youngest team for a generation and all Hull born and bred. Sadly though that policy will get us nowhere as the players will not develop into the stars that they could potentially be.

We have blahed on about our youth set up for years. But they have not really developed as we would have liked. When was the last time we produced (either club in Hull) a genuine full international player who has had many years at the top and not just the odd season. In all that time though how many players have been like Tommy Lee (easy target) who will be the next best thing.

The coaching set up at the club has lurched from one disaster to another. There has been no great progression or development and with the current set up I personally have absolutely no faith that this current crop of talented youngsters will develop as we would all hope to see.



Given the situation with Crooks (whatever the speculation / facts are) it appears that we have had a dream team member plummet the depths very rapidly and that can not all be down to the player himself. Man management / welfare checks seem to be lacking. I stand to be corrected on this matter though.

I don't disagree he needs to be stronger, but it won't happen overnight & he was pretty good last season until his injury. - What's changed?

I haven't seen anything in Whiting or ,Sa's performances (as centres) to indicate that they offer anything more than Crooks.

Whiting too slow, & I must be missing something as I just don't get the hype with Sa'. - average at best

Sa is another who fits the Radford requirement,no flair,no pace but can tackle and return the ball.

We really have to get some pace into the backs of this team.Even Tom lineham has lost pace since his injury and couldn't even catch Arundel who is hardly a sprinter.

tbf arundel no slowcoach over 30/40m and lineham imo still off full fitness, crooks and sa would be a good centre pairing imo, but rumour has it we are after another,

U are the epitomy of a hull fc knee jerker. He's spent 2yrs in union. In his own words dilluting his own skills. He's moved home n swapped teams mid season having not played for yrs. What would u be expecting n in a struggling team too! Better players than him would struggle!!