Why's that then?

stupid comment how could you possible KNOW that.

I sort of agree, he is a decent finisher and thanks to his league routes as a full back he seems to know where to pop up. However I don't think he's all that special. If he came back he would be a good player no doubt, but not the superstar he is in Union. imo of course.

He'd be the best fullback by a mile at Hull!!

At Hull yes, but there would be a few ahead of him in Superleague.

Watching the Cas/Wakey game last night, i would forget about Obst and look to sign Rinaldi, Obst isn't a halfback and is no better there than the back up players we have for that position, Rinaldi is a good and cleaver hooker, woudl be great to have him on the bench.

Also I would keep an eye on Johnson, looks a good prospect for the future.

We all talk about the loss (and non replacement) of cooke as the tipping point in our recent decline but I believe that the loss, an non replacement, of swain is what has really hurt us. We haven't had the direction a top side needs from dummy half since. Say what you want about berrigan, but he didn't go anywhere near filling the hole swain left. I also don't see houghton on his own as the answer to the problems.

Think the Cooke situation has always had us playing catch up in recruitment though.

Agree about Swain, him and Cooke leaving has really hurt our side the last 4 years.

I am very happy with Houghton though, although worried about the expected minutes him will be asked to play this year (although Swain did it and nobody complained about that).

I heard some very positive things about Newton and also Cunningham jnr, so hopefully these will provide back up to Houghton in years to come, that doesn't solve the hooking position this year.

I'm sorry but you are way off in my opinion, Swain was important no doubt, and Cooke was made a better player plying in the same side as Swain, but in terms of our downfall losing Cooke was far more important, just the sheer number of try's we scored through Cookes assists alone backs this up, that's not taking into account try's scored by Cooke, and breaks made from his cut out passes or kicks which he wasn't credited an assist for.

Take away his assists (I'm sure he was top or thereabouts in SL for two or three seasons) and it goes a long way to explaining why one of the best attacking sides in the competion has evolved into one of the worst, even bigger then any Agar factor, but many Hull fans chose to ignore this because he turned out to be an bsolute scumbag.

I suggest you go back and watch some games from the time swain was here. He had us moving forward out of dummy half instead of backwards or sideways which is pretty much what we have had since.

Whilst cooke was important, we were regarded as one dimensional at the time because everything we did went down the left hand side through him

Just to back up my point about Cooke Ive looked up the assist stats for 2004, 2005 and 2006 before our major decline, in 2004 Cooke made 21 direct assists, in 2005 he made 29, in 2006 he made 24. Our highest after Cooke left in 07 was Dykes in 08 with 13. You could argue that since Cooke left the assists have been spread more evenly, but our dire points tallys for these seasons suggest to me that we have missed Cooke badly and hasnt been replaced as an attacking force in our side.

Im not doubting how good a player he was, and Im not doubting how much we miss him, but see why above post to why I suggest Cooke has been the bigger loss, especially in terms of the amount of trys we score as a team.

I agree Swain left a huge hole, his abilty to get away from dummy half and engage the the markers and first defenders is something we miss. Monaghan at Wire does a similar job although Swain was a bettr defender. Houghton scoots well but lacks this part of his game right now. I'd love Hull to try for someone like Randall and pair him with Houghton.

In fact that would be great recruitment, Chase, Sammutt and Randall.

Swain was a class act but lets not forget that Berrigan 1st didfnt have the armoury around him and the times he played in a different position for the team cannot be dismissed .He was carrying knocks for long enough putting his self on the line .Same as Smithy really and after 2 seasons of that i reckon he would have liked others to take the strain Agree about Houghton at the minute but shows promise of being as good as Jacko