6th or 7th

Tough division this year . I hope our expectations have not been built up too high ?
A top 6 finish is a must .

Think we'll be top4 but got a nagging feeling we'll still fall short of Old Trafford, but then again I didn't see last year coming at all...my crystal ball is on the blink!

Top 4 and a good cup run. Pretty much the same as my expectations for last season.
Hopefully not lost any of that tremendous team spirit we had last year, although I think Frank played a massive part in that. We have strengthened in the backs but look a bit light in the forwards. Hopefully we can do as well injury wise in 2017 as we did in 2016.

As a few others have mentioned we need the younger players to step up and show they are capable as and when the time comes.

Be nice to win more silverware but as we all know those big games are generally tight affairs that are settled by the odd mistake by a player or an official. You need a good run of luck as well as skill to win trophies.

Hope....league leaders and challenge cup and grand final winners
Expectations....a tough start with a few grind out wins with youth taking part in team selections to save the 1st teamers for the tough games and late on in the season with minimum injuries
Prediction....A roller coaster ride with Hull fc again this season...hang on to your hats

We'll be better equipped in the forwards now and more balanced that we won't be carrying a player for more than half the season who barely did 20 minutes a game in the wrong position far too often.
Nice bloke I'm sure, good for morale off the pitch, no doubt, on the pitch he won't be missed in my personal opinion, did some good things but that was far too infrequent for a marquee player.
BAcks we are stronger and if kelly does his thing we could be scoring a heck of a lot more points than last season which would be bloody fantastic

Last year's season could be described as the Lord Mayors Show. Hope this year is not the Dust Cart!

I think with Frank, most of us expected him to slot into the 2nd row channel and make barnstorming runs, rather than predominantly down the middle.

Whether that was purely Radders tactics to play him in bursts down the middle, or Franks fitness dictating his usage I'm not sure.


Whilst his minutes on the pitch weren't great and I agree we should've got more from a marquee player, his stats say that whilst he was on, he was pretty effective (but unspectacular) at getting us up the field:

270 Carries (Manu 278, Ellis 255, Mini 246)
2,162 Meters (Ellis 1819, Manu 1,804, Mini 1,759)
20 Offloads (Mini 14, Manu 13, Ellis 11)
34 Tackle Busts (Mini 91, Manu 49, Ellis 26)

This is what worries me a little about the bench this year, I'm not sure we've replaced his go forward yet.

That's my worry.

Pritchard made made more carries than Ellis or Mini in much less game time
Made more meters a carry than any forward other than Taylor. More clean breaks than any forward than Mini and our 4th top offloader. And personally I believe he got special attention from teams if for his name if nothing else. Seldom got tackled with less than 3 on him. Baring in mind he was 1 of our top clean breakers and metre makers Houghton will defo miss him.
So if you think he was carried I'd say you was wrong personally. Right player brought in at the wrong time. Stats can be miss leading but some don't lie, particularly forwards stats with regards work done.
He'll defo be missed in the forward's. But kelly as a whole add's more to the team and hope the other forwards can add to their games

As we know stats tell you everything...but let's look at it shall we.
Minichello who hardly got subbed all season made 91 tackle busts to Pritchards 34, even jordan Thompson made almost as many TB and yet made 500+tackles in about the same game time Pritchard had.
Minichello 485, Ellis 577 tackles, Pritchard 335, so about 40% fewer.
Pritchard often came on after 20 25 minutes, sometimes even with less on the clock.
for the amount of time he was on the pitch he put an awful lot of pressure on the other forwards at times and first half of the season he was nowhere near fit.
But to the clean breaks, yeah, when you're coming on after 20-25minutes you're bound to be able to make more clean breaks and make more metres right. I mean, that was his sole purpose pretty much as an impact off the bench player and yet far too often that wasn't the case.
How many games would you say he had a big impact, half a dozen, maybe, some impact no doubt but for the 'top' player at the club his return was way way below par as a whole.
IMHO I think we are better off without him, we have enough big props, we can have more mobile forwards such as a Thompson or whoever that are tackling more, making as many tackle breaks and can do more minutes if need be.
It's not all about bish bash bosh.

Can't believe you've watched the game all year and seen nothing
Not sure what the minichello point is about but you've started comparing thommo to frank. Which is fair in terms of game time and role played within the team

Tackle busts frank did make more
More breaks
More try assists
More offloads
More tries
More carries
Nearly 2.2 metres a carry more
Over 800 more metres and regarding tackles ..Frank never made many because he was avoided like the plague. .something I was always suprised people never picked up on more. He missed 15 all year. Puts him 21st lowest hull player. Only lower were players who only played a couple of games. I remember early catalans game. Only had to make 3 tackles. Next game 7. Tremendous defender for a big man
Our bench is weaker without him without doubt. But there in is the problem..A marquee player shouldn't be a bench player tbf

Simple fact, he wasn't worth his salary, even 10% of it would have been generous.

As pointed..He was top of or near a lot of the main forward stats. Among the highest in all of the league in some. He wasn't what we needed tbh. Not for the players we already had on board. But if you weigh all of it up..The buzz he brought..The off field tightness of the group he obviously helped harness and although on field wasn't what we expected he was still no where remotely as bad as some make out. Not even close. His you tube highlights did him no favours to those who don't know any better imo
I'll always regret not seeing him playing wide as an outright 2nd row for us. But given our squad it couldn't happen. Right player wrong time. Is the right decision to let him go though

Sums it up for me.

Statements like "Simple fact, he wasn't worth his salary, even 10% of it would have been generous" are a bit one-eyed really.

He'll certainly leave a hole in our go forward (as the stats point out), but that hole isn't quite as big as one that should've been left by a marquee player, for various reasons.