I was very pessimistic and said 7-10 and even that looks like an optimistic expectation now.

I expected 6th-4th which was clearly well out. Biggest disappointment for me this year overall has been the pack who I thought would be fairly dominant but have held their own at best. Feka, Westy and Ellis apart I've been disappointed with them in general. Early-mid season we did get in field position to score points but I probably didn't factor in a complete shortage of skill behind the forwards - you can't expect to play SL with an abject kicking game and no tactical leader on the field.

I was slightly more optimistic and had us down between 6th and 9th. Even with the squad we have that should have been achievable IMO.

Agreed. I know we lost some players in the off season but I thought that for the most part we had signed decent enough replacements that should have been able to keep us around the level we had previously been at.

My only gripe with Pearson, is that the limited coaching staff employed for the First team.

Regarding Motu Tony, he was in situ before Gentle departed, i.e probably installed on Radford's recommendation.

Comments regarding Brian Smith, I agree.

Smith has the ability to mould a group of players into a team,and improve basic core skills ,
at this moment in time, He is the type of technical coach we need. -IMO

I spoke to a kid I know playing in oz at feeder club level, he spoke about the speed of the game & the core skill level over there, he said they teach it from a very early age, the importance of core skills is massive, when Aussie players & coaches come over here they can't believe how poor ours are, I know this is something PG always commented on getting into our youth structure as early as we can, as he said it is hard to coach the older the player becomes, I believe Brian smith & co can do a lot better job in there own back yard, but wanting Aussie coaches to come here is not always the answer, IMHO it has to be a very good structure from academy to hitting the first team, Leeds & Wigan are coping just fine without an Aussie coach, they are slinging there young kids in who are doing just fine because they are been nurtured right.

It's catching on.

great post.

When Maguire & Brown took over Wigan & Huddersfield respectively, this was the first issue they addressed
- basic core skills.

Wane & Anderson are showing continuity in their methods/structures left from their predecessors

This is our failing - IMO.

Good post. Agree with a lot of what you just said there. However, whilst I agree that Leeds and Wigan are doing just fine at present, I would point out that both clubs have had Aussie coaches in the not too distant past. Just wonder if that has had any bearing on how well Wane and McDermott are currently doing? Are they reaping the benefits of their predecessors work? Would they be doing as well if they were at Hull?

Ultimately we need to get the right structure in place if we are going to achieve producing youngsters. I believe we have the facilities in place from top to bottom but I am unsure about whether we have the quality or quantity of coaching staff necessary to achieve this aim. According to the website we have seven first team members of our coaching staff (one of which is a video analyst). Is that enough and are they the right personnel? Same question for the academy sides. I can't see anyone listed there on the official website so I have no idea who is involved in those areas.

Which is why if we're putting our future in the hands of young players coming through we need to spend money on the very best proven junior coaches that money can buy. Instead we've used these roles as a way of keeping good "clubmen" employed after they've finished. Last has never been tested elsewhere or gained any experience and Horne may well now get a similar role but on what basis? He'll naturally teach them what he's been taught. It's all very well creating state of the art training centres , academies etc but we'll just continue to get the same result unless we put top proven professionals in place to deliver the education to ensure that when a talented kid is discovered he is taught the correct skills , discipline and a professional culture and has all of the tools he needs to make the best of those talents. Maybe breaking this coaching cycle will actually start to see our current culture replaced with something more professional?

I wish Adam Pearson would read and act on these posts - Superb analogy guys.

They probably could do better but we can't carry on in life like this can we? Maybe in a few years when radfords gone we could be saying he & his back room staff set the platform for the next bunch of coaching staff, the talent of players in this town is the best in the country, I have spoke to Cas,Warrington,Wigan,Leeds scouts & they speak of hull as a massive hot bed of rugby, now we are planning for the future from 14 year olds to top level it will only get better but this does not solve our current drop, ( I am no way defending ears in this post either) before I get jumped on like a trampoline.