For me, Clifford saying how easy our preseason was under Smith speaks volumes.
It would obviously explain our lack of fitness and propensity to give away penalties like confetti due to fatigue and lack of intensity in training.
Unless there is a huge sea change in Hull's on field performances, Smith is done for me.

Agree, London clearly have one of the weakest squads ever in SL but at least look organised and arent getting cards every week

Completely agree, sad state of affairs.

he never mentioned finances ,otherwise it sounded very much like another one of tinkering tonys mumblings

We all agree that a change in attitude/culture/mind-set/whatever is undoubtedly required at the club, but that is a mid/long-term stratagem. A process which, hopefully, will evolve over time.

But it shouldn't then follow that whilst that is taking place, we have to perform, in the here and now, at a level which has been, quite frankly, barely above championship standard. Just because a club is in 'transition' doesn't mean they have to plummet down to the depths.

I know they are different, far more successful, clubs than us, but 'transition' for Wigan and St. Helens usually means dropping down as low as 4th for two seasons before they resume their normal trophy winning ways.
'Transition' for us seems to entail scrabbling around the bottom end of the table for nigh on a decade!

This simply comes across as yet another excuse to me, another excuse to mask dreadful mistakes, past and present, which have led to us being barely competitive in 2024. They're fudging the issue as always, hoping that we won't notice somehow!!

While he inherited a much better team that had just had a few medicore months, you could see within a couple of games the impact Peter Sharp had the team instantly looked sharper (pardon the pun) and he arrived mid season with none of his own signings in place.

Even if Tony improved one aspect defence, attack, fitness, discipline while the rest of our game still struggled id at least see some positives.

First rule of holiday camp

Dont question holiday camp

I remember Paul Cooke talking about Peter Sharp once (it was after both had moved on from us) and he mentioned how, in one of the very first sessions he took, Sharp simplified a set-piece move that Cooke-Horne had developed. Not only did this make the move easier to enact, but it also made it more effective with a far higher percentage chance of succeeding. I think that is what you call coaching the best out of your squad of players.

This culture reset is a separate issue to how we are performing (badly) in March 2024, albeit issues which longer term are interlinked, if that doesn't sound too contradictory to everyone!! I'm sure you all get the point here!!

Clifford didn't even so a proper pre season with us. He didn't come until December, all the fitness and testing was already done. I'm not saying it's on par with NRL but he missed the toughest parts

irrespective of that i still dont think we are on the level of fitness we should be to compete with most teams.
Love them or hate them Rovers are a very fit side and were last season too which played a huge part in their success.
Their coach said when he arrived that he would get the team supremely fit and he has and its paid dividends.

Reading the Mail last night I can’t help
But wonder what the hell Uncle Tony is
Banging on about

“My job here is to change the culture”
“I was brought in to manage a culture change”

To me that’s absolute complete BS

It’s Adam’s job to change the culture and always has been!
Adam manages everyone in the Club inc Tony Smith
The fish rots from the head and vice versa
So a culture change for greatness comes from Adam and if it’s failing then it’s Adam

Tony ! Tony ! YOUR JOB IS TO WIN MATCHES AND MAKE FINALS !!!!!!

Jaysus H Christ Tony - don’t you get it ?

WIN baby WIN - the by product of winning is a winning culture !!!!

So by focusing on WINNING all the culture falls into place

Adam and the HR people and managers in the Club can sort the rest of the culture out

Where is the Hull FC Mission Statement ?
It surely mentions success ahead of culture as this business is SUCCESS not a Club to make just better men of men ??

Let’s just assume we have a good culture and we are family friendly !

If we do , and I am sure we do , then surely WINNING is all that’s left for the Coach

If I was the head coach my only job list would be to WIN - I wouldn’t see it any other way

Come on Tony
Drop the culture blurb and just focus solely on WINNING

Probably where we are getting it wrong. If TS is tasked with culture change then he should be in some sort of "Director of Rugby" role with coaches who are responsible for team performance reporting to him. Having a hierarchical structure where everyone understands and fulfills the responsibilities of their role is key to performance / success.

I've no more mental tolerance for Smith and his diatribes and utterances about culture.

Culture is an attitude and ours is poor.

If we were 0 from 8 but showed up with a good attitude i'd be happier than I am now.

In fact the only time I've held optimism this year was when we lost to Catalans. I think, for me, it's not losing I struggle with, it's the way in which we lose.

If he states he is here to shift a culture then he is admitting failure.

We are never going to be at the level of fitness we should be when we don't even have a strength and conditioning coach.

I'd love to be able to tell my boss that yeah I'm underperforming now, but don't worry, it's a long term process and I'll come good in 2 years or so...maybe, but keep paying me well in-between, and yeah things might get a lot worse and all our customers are suffering in the meantime...and things might not actually improve, but yeah, trust me