Add in the irony of him complaining about destroying a legacy!

Not saying it's right or wrong if those comments have come from AP or that I agree with the alleged comments , I do agree it's unprofessional and a poor choice of wording used, I just don't see the fuss and hysteria that a certain person is creating over it.

It’s almost as if Pearson & company are getting rid of his mates out of the club. Understandable why he’d be upset, loses the inside connection.

Wakefield who finished last in 2023 and were rigghly relegated have scored more performance points than Hull, Hudds and Cas for the 2024 season. Full time, superleague salaried squad playing against part time teams and they get rewarded more than super league teams.

So it was better to get relegated, this system is so flawed.

Yeah that is frigging ridiculous. Even all the bluster about Max Jowitt breaking the points record, against part timers for the most part.

For reference as bad as our performances have been, we have finished above Wakefield the last 5 seasons or so.

I don't see how a team in a lower league can score more performance points than a team in SL no matter how bad they have been. How can a promoted team get anything more than say a maximum of 1 to 2 performance pts in terms of the grading as the 2 leagues are poles apart. As you say Dave they were a full time full on pro team playing in a lower league against part time teams.
This for me shows once again the IMG grading system offers very little in terms of importance and to actually devalues the whole ideology. .

Clearly a totally nonsense system where it pays to be relegated or play in small stadium.

Rugby League really is a joke sport sometimes. We've got a two match test series coming up which was rescheduled due to a player getting married. Can you imagine any other professional sport doing that?

I agree.

Wakefield will have a lower league performance than Hull, however will have scored additional points for winning the 1895 Cup and the Championship Grand Final. They can not win those points next season (unless they will the Challenge Cup and SL Grand Final), so will lose those points next season.

I think their new owner is doing a good job at Wakefield and their new stand is long over due. However, one major flaw with the IMG points is that clubs like Wakefield, Cas and Rovers get rewarded for having a poorer, smaller ground, as it is better utilised (ave crowd v capacity).

Any team averaging 7,500* gets the same crowd score. No bonuses if you can attract 20,000, or if all your ground is under cover.

It’s mad, but Hull would score more points if we owned our own 8,000 stadium and sold out every week, as opposed to having the best ground in SL and accommodating in comfort, every home and away fan who wants to go to the game.

The deal with IMG seems to be getting more ridiculous with every passing month . And the RFL are paying nearly half a million for the privilege .

Paying IMG nearly £500,000 per year for 10 years to do what exactly?
You are correct the sport has been mismanaged but this deal with IMG will go down in history as the biggest blunder the RFL have ever made.

Think I might retract my earlier comment about IMG...

Surely that was the Stobart lorries?

Stobart deal
Papa John's sponsorship with clubs only getting paid in pizza
Not making the most of opportunities in London, Toronto and Toulouse
Buying the lease to a big hole in the ground in Bradford
Continuing with loop fixtures
Not capitalising on the success of the 2013 world cup
Worldwide talent search for a new CEO that led to someone from inside the organisation getting the role

There's lots of mistakes from the rfl that meant they had to get IMG involved, if IMG weren't involved, you wouldn't have seen clubs like Cas and Wakey making long overdue improvements, the playoffs and grand final seemed to have more media coverage than previous years....I think the stadium capacity is a fair point, our games would have a far better atmosphere if we had a 10k crowd in a 12k stadium rather than 10k in a 25k stadium

While it’s frustrating, I reckon at the moment we score between around 0.4-0.5 from a possible max of 1 point for stadium utilisation, no reason we couldn’t average around 15K if we had a competing side, that would take us to 0.6 points, I doubt IMG will be around for another 3 year cycle but that’s not the point.

For perspective after a quick look at last years attendances as a rough average it looks like Leeds (highest overall graded side initially) will score around 0.6-7 for the same criteria. Wigan will be around 0.5-6, Saints around 0.7 of a point. Those are the benchmark clubs, I doubt they’ll be too bothered about not getting the full point. Rovers will likely score near the full 1 point, but they’d still love a bigger ground though and I’m sure they’d sacrifice 0.2 of a point for extra revenue.

Long winded post but the point being that the reason we are not a grade A club is mostly down to poor performance on the field and horrendous salary cap management. Get the other stuff right that’s within our control and missing out on a max 0.75% of a single point on the stadium becomes much less significant.

With regards the IMG gradings, I would hope there is another phase of grading in the next 3 years.

I think all SL clubs should have a min capacity of 12k with the aim getting clubs towards 15k in the future. There is no point in just growing the game on social media, clubs need to keep growing the number of fans attending games.

SL crowds across the board are actually a lot healthier across the board than league attendances in the 80’s and 90’s. Challenge Cup and Play Off crowds struggle more.

Also there should be attention given to clubs who run Academies. It’s great that there has been ground improvements with scoreboards and advertising boards, but I’m still amazed player development has been ignored as is needed to sustain the future of the game.

Medical treatment costs increased by £100,000. Hardly surprising when staff budgets are slashed by 50%... This is exactly what happens, when cost cutting occurs.. https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... 1729570352

Medical treatment costs increased by £100,000. Hardly surprising when staff budgets are slashed by 50%... This is exactly what happens, when cost cutting occurs.. https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... 1729570352

Dan turning off comments on the article too, embarrassing really.

Just glad to see people are starting to realise the damage AP has done.

Carty here by the end of the week.

Don’t cut support staff budgets, then moan about the direct cost of that.
He’s unfortunately ruining his legacy of 2016 and 2017.
I still haven’t heard any contrition for the last five years, which culminated in whatever last season was.
There’s been a real lack of openness and we’ve all been taken for granted. The shtick has grown old now, and I’m bored of hearing it.
How many other clubs would get the numbers we do to watch the performances we’ve witnessed?

What finished it for me is the completed lack of professionalism this week, with his comments around his failed investment.
To use some of the words he did, when he has daughters himself, was pretty poor to say the least.

To be fair, whenever I look at the comments on the HDM site for articles about us, it largely appears to be Rovers fans trolling so I can't say I'm fussed about them turning the comments off.

His LinkedIn comments looked like those of a desperate man who's lost even more cash. I also thought he didn't look well on his photos with the Women's team (though I do appreciate it's 24 years since he arrived in this City and time catches up with all of us)

But overall he can't mismanage the club, lead it to 2nd bottom and a B grade licence then complain that the 'repair' bill is getting higher. It's like choosing not to service your car then moaning when a new engine is required years later.

It does have a “last days of Berlin” feel about it at the moment.