It also puts some much needed cash into the club if we can win the C/C

We won't be handing it back over easily.

There are broadly two types of patience. The one based solely on stoicism and the one where there’s also some hope, where you’re keeping an eye out for green shoots.

If (and that’s always a huge caveat) things go as some on here are predicting, I think Smith might not see out the season. Coming in around 8th, if part of that relative success were based on improved late season form, I’d be slightly surprised if he’s still around to oversee it. Unless there’s mitigation around bad luck with injuries or something like that.

Worry about your team. We will worry about ours. Jeez season hasn't started and on about Smith going. . Rumours about Peters not being flavour of the month with some of the players with your lot. The way Dobbins are being talked up if he doesn't win anything this year will he be gone ?

I think things would have to go really badly for Pearson to even consider sacking Smith. Radford is the only coach he's sacked during the season. You could argue his patience with certain coaches has been his downfall.

The majority of Hull fans know what we're in for this season. A long slog that will more than likely see us finish inside the bottom 4.

Be interesting to see how Rovers cope with the pressure. Must be the first time since the 80s since you've got genuine expectation?

I think we’ll find that Uncle Tony has already signed his replacement in Simon Grix. He’ll definitely be at the club for the foreseeable future, moving upwards to run the playing side of the club as Director of Rugby. I didn’t think that you’d swallow all the hype coming out of East Hull and the directors worth £500 million according to a certain poster on here with multiple identities.

By end of the week the dobbin trolls will be quiet on here.x
Said before, kr over achieved last season. When push comes to shove they will fail as wigan in particular showed them last season.
Apart from Wigan and saints, I’d fancy our chances against the rest.
Our main weakness this season will be player durability..

Think you should change durability to ability

Depends what you mean by expectation. The great cu£tures of Wigan and Saints will see one of them win SL for the umpteenth time. For the first time in a long time I wouldn’t hypothetically snap off the hypothetical hand offering fifth.



I don’t necessarily think Rovers are about to do anything crazy like make the ultimate outcome of SL seem in any way uncertain. One day something interesting might happen again, but it remains very unlikely. But I can acknowledge that and still think Smith has expended more goodwill than even those who hold the goodwill realise. It is a stock that can be replenished by outperforming the very modest expectations being outlined here… but if it’s not, I just remember Rovers fans being comfortable talking about patience [iin prospect [/icirca Craig Sandercock.

I’m having flashbacks to a lot of “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and very little “Rome wasn’t built on a super-tight budget”.

But for griffin brain fart send off they could have beat saints in the cup.
It’s the mental and physical durability
Hopefully the new players and Grix will help bring that to the team.
We’ve not played a game yet but some posters are writing the season off.
Yet the dobbins are unstoppable?
If the dobs can get to a cup final. And play off game then so can this team.
It’s a team we/you support , so support them and give them a chance

I do remember a certain coach called Smith, who came to Hull when we were basically skint. He signed players such as Brian Blacker, from Barrow, and developed the likes of Russ Walker, Damien McGarry, Brad Webb , Paul Welham ,Greg Mackay into a useful team, and based our foundations on a big front row, Dannatt and Harrison, much like we have Pele, Ese Ese and Sao They played in two Premiership finals, against the star studded Widnes team, lost the first valiantly, and that lot then got given by him to Cleal, and did pretty well, in the second one, didn't they? Smith can only do so much, I agree, but if he can maximise this teams abilities, then we will go a long way to bringing back the sense of camaraderie, that has been lost between the team and the fans, unsurprisingly when we witnessed the blow out scores of seasons past.

Would have taken Noafoaluma - Salford getting a great winger, and better than anything on either Hull clubs books in that position.

I would have taken Penrith’s second string but limited cash and quota spaces limit us to who and what class of player we can sign. Like a previous poster said, it costs money to pay players off and that cash still counts on the cap.

Agree and why most sensible and realistic supporters know that we are at least one more recruitment cycle away from genuinely being back in the mix. We should certainly be in a much better position come the next off season for recruitment. Plus the young players coming through will have had another years experience.
That’s why whilst this season we are unlikely to trouble the top sides hopefully the groundwork put in place during last season and through this off season will pay dividends long term.

Still at least two seasons off I think, unless we can recruit two wingers, a centre, scrum half, hooker, second rower and a loose forward for 2025