I think the Op has a good point.

The article on the official website would lead you to beleive that the "big guns" would be playing...
rlhttps://www.hullfc.com/article/32683/radford-confirms-team-selection-for-sundayrl

Indeed. “This is the last chance for us to get some more minutes into the senior fellas and they’ll all be getting 30 minutes each,” said Radford.

However he left out Ellis, Paea, Houghton, Heremaia, Feka, Pitts completely.

What sort of coach picks a team without a hooker in it? Sure the scrums are meaningless but Heremaia or Houghton would have got us moving in a match where the pack had no go forward at all and hardly got us out of our own half.

The backs apart from Talanoa (who was injured) where the likely starting team against Catalans,

Green, Watts, Thompson, Westerman and Whiting, would be in the 17.

So thats 11 players from the 17.

We already have 2 injured, what if Ellis had played and broke his leg.

I actually wish we had played less first team players.

This is the least of our problems at the moment.

Sort of agree with your last comment, but the first half and the Bradford game are a concern.

Agree with the hooker comment, very strange decision to play a big back row forward who has never played hooker there. Could have played another young hooker or at least a halfback. like Abdul there.

Maybe Radders has seen enough on the training field to warrant his team selection for the friendlies. Maybe just having the players getting a runout was his plan and picking youth was in anticipation of having to use the young lads to cover for injury at some point during the season. Let's hope his plan works for the sake of him, the team and us fans. If winning friendly games was his aim then I'm sure the strongest 17 would have taken to the field in each of the last four games.

Well he did. 11 (12 if you count Talanoa who probably was due to play) of his likely team against Catalans played against Featherstone on Sunday.

A majority if my maths is correct.

I am actually in disbelief at this post first of all it is a friendly, now if fans think that these games count for anything they are delusional bordering on madness. You cannot play the first team all of the time i.e. injuries occurring in these games, second point how many points did we lose or what cup have we been put out of, thirdly Featherstone are the best side in the championship by a country mile if anyone thinks that a team made up of the majority of under 19,s are going to win then if that is the case maybe we should field a side of young players in the championship. These games are for players to get some proper intense game time this cannot be achieved in training. And finally if you get disappointed and upset about these games do like myself and don't attend until the real season starts. simples

Personally thought 4 friendlies was 2 too many.

Liked what Gentle did with 1 half fringe/young players the other the first team which in a way is what they did yesterday although the lack of a recognised 9 was odd. I was disappointed to not see some of the other first team players but then Watts and Green hobbled off and thought knowing our luck if Ellis or Paea had be playing it would have been them hobbling off. Pitts may have to have another go at prop unless Radford feels BTW is up for the job

Radford took players off during the friendlies when he was happy with what he had seen in their performances.

A debatable technique, I agree, but the idea was to give other players the same chance to prove themselves.

The obvious downside is the risk of weakening the team too much, which clearly happened, but it did give everyone a fair opportunity.

Match fitness doesn't seem to be as important nowadays. Half the squad against Catalans won't have played for 3 weeks.
Players coming back from injury are never match fit anyway.

I was baffled by some of the combinations used yesterday. I'm not panicking over the result but I can't see how anything useful was learned yesterday. There seemed to be no attempt to get a settled half back pairing for starters. Playing on a tight pitch without a recognised no 9 hardly helps, its almost like it was planned to make it as difficult as possible.

It must be some cunning plot that I'm not party to - it better had be!

As it is though I was more than happy to support Whiting's testimonial, the game itself left me feeling it was a total waste of time as far as preparation for the season proper goes.

If that's how you feel, then don't go.

i know its a friendly and can't get to carried away with result but i can't help thinking this would'nt happen to wigan.at the end of the day wether their training or playing friendlies thier fulltime pro's.i'd expect this under the softly softly gentle approach but radford was brought in to change the attitude and taking culture at our club.after bradford and now this it looks like he's got hell of a job infront of him.the result may not matter but your own personal performance always should.

Watch the highlights of the Leeds v London XIII, admittedly London had mostly fringe players but Leeds looked extremely well organised considering it was a 'friendly' against much lower opposition. They also had most of their first teamers on display