The thing that Friday's defeat and the current supremacy of Leeds have brought home is how far off all clubs are from these two in terms of quality and depth across their organisations. Even a club like Warrington with their own, purpose-built stadium, coach most on here would jump at, and way more resources than us via Moran look like amateurs relatively speaking.

Five years ago, gaps in first team quality could be plugged far more easily with players from Australia so homegrown reliance was less important, but the days of SL attracting the likes of Trent Barrett, Richard Swain, Stephen Kearney are gone. Competition now is therefore more than ever about financial depth and infrastructure investment to deliver internal talent pipelines. It's not surprising therefore that regardless of the RFL trying to create a level playing field with the salary cap, success will be directly proportionate to off-pitch investment (financial and knowledge).

The Challenge Cup assumes massive importance currently IMO as our one chance of success, which makes it all the more galling to have lost as we did. However it does accurately reflect the continued and glaring recruitment inadequacies at half back the club have, with no one with the experience or capability to manage a high stakes game.

I don't know enough about what goes on behind the scenes to know whether Radford has the potential to be a good SL coach and is hamstrung by an imbalanced squad or not. But when you compare how much back room support the likes of Wane and McDermott have, with tens of assistants, he's at a massive disadvantage and that issue won't be resolved. The question then is how well we should be doing against the rest and the answer there is clearly better than we are. Cas and Widnes are the surprise packages this year, one bringing in a clever, experienced coach, the other persisting with one some would have bracketed with Radford. As a consequence of reducing attendances and therefore available cash, I expect we'll stick with Radford and hope for a Betts style improvement.

Whilst I agree with most of what you've said Mrs B, I think the thing with Warrington was until this season they were up there competing at the top level on all fronts but the inevitable happened as everyone knew they were an ageing squad and now this season find themselves in a period of transistion, they have a raft of newer players and injuries to key personnel to contend with but due to the quality of their coach and infrastructure I think they will recover soon.

As with Betts a highly regarded player who's been there done it on both sides of the world he was unlucky in his first stint of coaching to be replaced at Wigan. He then crafted a good championship side which has taken a season to turn into a decent SL team.

Neither can be compared to Hull as in both cases the backroom set up appears far better then ours and both coaches I rate better then Radford.

I wanted Lee to succeed but even with failure to bolster the back room staff I dont think currently he's up to the task. If Pearson had gone with a better coach from the off I believe with the current playing roster we have we'd be 3 to 4 wins better off.

Some good points. I agree that Warrington have been a force in both comps, but IMO part of the reason for that was what I've also said is a reason we're not capable of challenging, ie a game-managing, experienced half back. Betts is an interesting one - my point really was he looks like he's coming good after a long (relative to Radford) period of learning and has grown with the club rather than being dropped in without experience at a club with stated ambitions of top 6. The better option could have been another Gentle style Aussie assistant, but it's difficult to get the best ones here, even amongst assistants. Maguire apart, it seems like the top quality ones view an NRL assistant role as a better career move than uprooting the family to come here to clubs with much lower levels of resource and unrealistic expectations.

The comparison with the other clubs and their backroom staff has been a real eye opener for me. I realised our backroom staff was small but I just presumed that was the norm amongst all clubs (with the exception of Wigan and Leeds). To see us ranked so low was shocking.

My message to Adam Pearson would be that this should be addressed as a priority. He has done a wonderful job of fixing the lack of investment in our training and youth facilities by our previous board but without a decent amount of staff in place then we will never use those facilities to their full potential. That will be a big factor in why Wigan and Leeds are so successful. It's not just about having teams full of youth/local players or having the best facilities for them to train in, it's about having the right personnel in place to maximise your assets.

I am not saying that we should suddenly up our backroom numbers to Wigan's level. I realise that wouldn't be financially viable and that Wigan probably have such a large number due to the success they have had over the years and the financial rewards that brings. But surely we are in a position to make some kind of an increase? If AP truly wants to turn FC into one of the top dogs in SL as he has previously stated then this is an area that needs to be looked at and improved.

Now I am not saying that is the answer to our woes. There is a definite issue with players attitudes that needs to be sorted out. Nor do I believe Radford is good enough to be coaching at SL level. But not having the support he or any coach needs within his backroom staff is not helping him. If AP truly believes Radford is the man to bring success to Hull FC then give him that support and at least give him a fighting chance.

It may just be that not all staff are listed on the website

AP has two choices for me,

Get rid of Radford and look to bring in a more experienced coach.

Or, stick with him, bit get him some support and also back him with some money, we need a big improvement in our recruitment, Pearson needs to give Radford that backing. If we any big signings in the bag, it needs to be announced now so the fans can see what Radford is trying to do,mot address our squad problems.

The main issue for me is the losses at home to Widnes and Wakefield . No game is a certainty but those defeats hurt.
Wigan are a great side and to lose to them is more bearable . If we had won the other 2 games , Friday would have been easier to take.

It might have been but it was just the way we capitulated to a team missing 7 first team players thats sticking in peoples throats imo

Yes. I didn't expect us to beat Wigan but I expected a better fight from the team. For me that made Friday just as soul destroying as the defeats to Widnes and Wakey.

The lack of reaction from the players after the Wakey defeat was disappointing.

Think the team is low on confidence, we need a win, this weekend is still a winnable game and a must win game for Radford and the players.

A great summarization Doc.

The way things are, I doubt we can attract any proven coach ,given the staffing resources available.
Blaming the players, is a difficult scenario, as I feel they're not been adequately prepared, as they are suffering from a lack of professional preparation due to lack of resources.

Radford : its difficult to gauge, if he's the guy to take us forward,as he could point the finger ,at insufficient investment on the coaching side.

Pearson has tried to spend up to maximum on the cap, hoping this would be a band-aid to remedy the situation, but its not working.

I just wonder, if now ,AP has called time on investing further cash, the McDonnell situation could be an example of this, as he has only 5 months left on his contract. AP also stated he would install a Sports Science Dept,

Does anyone know, if we have one??

Going forward, if AP decides to stick with Radford, he has to give him ,further resources on the staffing side.

If not, crowds will drop, and its extremely difficult to attact these fans back.

I could be wrong, but I personally think it was probably radford who advised Pearson on back room staff, probably told him, we don't need this , this and this , think radford was pretty confident he could kick this teams in to shape all on is own! He's learning the hard way

I think we're going to have to wait and see what signings we make for next year, before we know what direction A. P. has decided to take in respect of further investment in the team. It appears he's going to stick with Radford.
I don't know if Radford will make a good coach, what I do know is, he needs some help right now. Also, looking at the team, I'm not sure a better coach could get more from some of them, which in turn doesn't help Radford.
Please, Please Mr. Pearson, get someone in to assist/coach Radford.

The Wigan game though , bearing in mind they were on to third and fourth choice replacements and had their rotation hampered with injuries during the game , illustrated just how far away we are from what we want. That's what made it so much more important than just another defeat to Wigan of which there have been many down the years for good and poor FC sides. There is just no sign that we are going to catch them up , quite the reverse. It was men against boys and those Wigan boys will get better. Some talk about future internationals in our junior ranks , they'll find it tough to be that when there are such talented kids at Wigan and Leeds who look to be ready now but are third and fourth choice and just can't get in those sides. IF we had the right set up and reputation we could look to attract those players and offer them the chance now but why would they come currently? I thought when AP took over that we would build something that was attractive to the best players at whatever age and wherever they're from. Instead we've seemingly turned inwards and put all of our eggs in the "traditional" , local basket.

He won't and he could all the help in the world (not that he will get it..last minute larries on the kicking coach was another shortcoming/failure to address months before the season started.
Radford clearly just does not have the skillset to coach at this level, he cannot fathom what the problem is which is equally scary from a fans POV. He is so far out of his depth it isn't funny and this is all down to Pearson.
Yes he might have invested in other areas but looking at the overall picture just investing in one or two areas just isn't going to cut it.
So far it's a cut price coach, hardly any backroom staff, kicking coach (if indeed this is actually true) who did a few hours & certainly wasn't before the season started I can assure you from what followed in the first game.

Seriously Pearson is totally to blame here, as well as Radford and I've said before, RAdford should have had the decency to say no I'm not ready, I'm not even close to being ready. It shows what a selfish person RAdford is, that he hasn't backed up on him saying he'd walk away if he failed, well Lee, you've failed..miserably...just do one Lee for the good of the club..and Pearson..put your money where your mouth is or sell us on to someone who gives a and is fully committed instead of going for the cut price options all the time and not investing in ALL aspects that will help us become successful.