Derby Prediction Thread

For some reason or other, Dave K and ComeOnYouUll haven't felt the need to point out my absence from this board immediately after a derby match (even though I always post win. lose or draw anyway), but in case they're wondering, I left the game yesterday and went to the pub to talk discuss the match with some ex-players, fellow rovers fans and of course to wind up some FC fans.

One of my fellow Rovers fans who walked into the pub saw me and the first thing she said was "You know what you're talking about don't you!" - alluding to our earlier conversation on facebook yesterday morning when I said that regardless of all the tripe spouted about FC not having Holdsworth etc., the only way Hull could win this game was if they somehow managed to repeat the tactics they used last year at Craven Park which was to commit 3 men into the tackle on every tackle to turn Rovers players on to their backs to kill Rovers speed at the play-the-ball but given the recent form of our middle players (who played great against Cas even though our edges didn't play that well), I thought Hull's chances of doing this were slim and none with my only conservative thoughts towards this being that "the match was a derby".

I said to my mate walking up to the KC, that if our 3 starting middle players (i.e. Paea, Walker & Mika) found their fronts during their first respective play-the-balls, then Hull FC were in for a "world of (emotional) pain".

I got a text an hour before kick-off saying Dobson didn't make the 17 which didn't concern me at all - I was actually looking forward to the fact that if Rovers were to win without Dobson, then it would inflict more emotional pain on Hull FC because then FC couldn't use the same old "one man team" or "but we have no have-backs" excuses.

FC kicked off, and all 5 of the Rovers players who took the tackles (including Paea, Walker & Mika) all found their fronts with ease and I turned to my mate and said "we're gonna win this easily" - which is exactly what happened.

The talk by the vast majority of FC fans saying pre-match that FC had a stronger pack, was totally delusional.

There's Micky Paea is the form prop in the competition and has been simply outstanding this year, Adam Walker a 6ft 5 very aggressive and physically strong prop who rarely gets dominated in the tackle, Mika who has been in great form since moving into the middle; he forces knock-ons with his aggressive tackling, off-loads with ease, always gets go-forward and super-fast play-the-balls which win penalties (hence him winning 2 on the bounce to set us up for Welham's try), Lovegrove excellent go-forward off the bench (another failed FC target signing), Tuimavave who is technically superb, and Griffin who is a work horse loose-man. Then there's the likes of Paterson on the edge who always turns players over in the tackle even when it's one-on-one not to mention he's the top tackle busting and line breaking back-rower in the competition.

Hull had O'Meley who's winding down his career before he retires at the end of the season, Watts who's a talented player but seems to be going through the motions now his feet are under the table, Johnson who looks very light-weight and Bowden and Green who despite being big units, seem to lack the physical presence of other players their own size.

In short Rovers dominated the floor in the open exchanges in both defence and attack and quite why anyone would not see it that way before kick-off I can only attribute to the Pinnochio Pearson's "bel13ve" propaganda which has spiralled out of control to the point where it was like "Hull have a better pack than Rovers just because we're Hull and they're Rovers" when in reality Hull's pack got routinely bullied with the only slight reverse coming at the beginning of the second-half which was the residue of Hull having 5 consecutive sets and sheer weight of possession before half-time .

Quote: You know what you're talking about don't you! "It looks that way because it is that way. At one point in the first half I counted. 2 entire sets for Rovers had them land on their fronts every tackle. We had 2 in the same amount. In one set, all 6 tackles had the Hull player on his back. We are monumentally crap at this no matter how you try and dress it up.'"

And then there were the injuries.

Yeaman / Gleeson - would have played opposite each other so equal loss.
Lynch / O'Hara - Both the oldest props in either squad so equal loss.
Holdsworth / Dobson - Both the most influential players of either side so equal loss
McDonnell / Withers - both would be in the 17 so equal loss (the fact we had Carlile for cover simply means we have more strength in depth).
Seymour - wouldn't have played if he was fit anyway so moot point
Ellis - we're a back-rower short with our recruitment anyway hence why Sandercock wanted Ferguson during the off-season.

To add to the above, we lost Burns just after half-time yet the team still had creativity to take the chances that were presented. Simply saying no half-backs equals no creativity is a cop out and a smoke screen for poor recruitment of recruiting one-dimensional players with poor skill sets outside of stereo-typical expectations of their respective positions.

For instance, the wining try yesterday was created by a piece of sublime skill from our left-second-rower - despite the fact he had a fairly quiet game. The bottom line is he came up with a piece of skill in his locker when it was needed when we were short of half-backs - there was no half-back in that particular play.

Sanderock signed the likes of Paterson to do this and as we are seeing more of our signings play we can see that even though we are an inexperienced, ill-disciplined side with lots to work on, there are multiple options available to Sandercock because he has signed players who are technically competent and have quite wide skill sets.

Even one of my mates at work, who is one of the most level headed FC fans I know, believed that if FC had Dobson, they would be a top-four side which says to me that Hull FC as a club have completely lost the plot with how good the actually bel13ve their squad of players are.

FC players gave 100% desire, effort and commitment to the FC cause yesterday but the harsh reality is that they're just not good enough - nowhere near good enough - and signing a top class 7 from somewhere or other will not solve the fact that FC have committed to signing averagely, average players on long term deals. Signing an average centre like Arundle on a four-year deal is pretty definitive of where Hull FC have found themselves.

As far as Rovers go, the commitment effort and desire of the players was outstanding and although FC were totally clueless in attack, it was still a great effort to hold them out for 5 consecutive sets on our line was a pretty special effort as well as the fact the players who were left on the pitch managed to come up with match-winning plays after having all of that defending to do, was excellent.

The top-six (Wigan, Wire, Leeds, Cats, Leeds, Saints) is a closed shop IMO but if the team carry on working hard, we can finish 7th or 8th alongside Bradford.

As far as FC go, everyone knows the drill by now; it's "jam tomorrow"... rlhttps://forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?f

P.S. I hope Hull FC are enjoying their "World of (emotional) Pain" - I am!!!

Quote: General Zod. "For some reason or other, Dave K and ComeOnYouUll haven't felt the need to point out my absence from this board immediately after a derby match (even though I always post win. lose or draw anyway), but in case they're wondering, I left the game yesterday and went to the pub to talk discuss the match with some ex-players, fellow rovers fans and of course to wind up some FC fans.

One of my fellow Rovers fans who walked into the pub saw me and the first thing she said was "You know what you're talking about don't you!" - alluding to our earlier conversation on facebook yesterday morning when I said that regardless of all the tripe spouted about FC not having Holdsworth etc., the only way Hull could win this game was if they somehow managed to repeat the tactics they used last year at Craven Park which was to commit 3 men into the tackle on every tackle to turn Rovers players on to their backs to kill Rovers speed at the play-the-ball but given the recent form of our middle players (who played great against Cas even though our edges didn't play that well), I thought Hull's chances of doing this were slim and none with my only conservative thoughts towards this being that "the match was a derby".

I said to my mate walking up to the KC, that if our 3 starting middle players (i.e. Paea, Walker & Mika) found their fronts during their first respective play-the-balls, then Hull FC were in for a "world of (emotional) pain".

I got a text an hour before kick-off saying Dobson didn't make the 17 which didn't concern me at all - I was actually looking forward to the fact that if Rovers were to win without Dobson, then it would inflict more emotional pain on Hull FC because then FC couldn't use the same old "one man team" or "but we have no have-backs" excuses.

FC kicked off, and all 5 of the Rovers players who took the tackles (including Paea, Walker & Mika) all found their fronts with ease and I turned to my mate and said "we're gonna win this easily" - which is exactly what happened.

The talk by the vast majority of FC fans saying pre-match that FC had a stronger pack, was totally delusional.

There's Micky Paea is the form prop in the competition and has been simply outstanding this year, Adam Walker a 6ft 5 very aggressive and physically strong prop who rarely gets dominated in the tackle, Mika who has been in great form since moving into the middle; he forces knock-ons with his aggressive tackling, off-loads with ease, always gets go-forward and super-fast play-the-balls which win penalties (hence him winning 2 on the bounce to set us up for Welham's try), Lovegrove excellent go-forward off the bench (another failed FC target signing), Tuimavave who is technically superb, and Griffin who is a work horse loose-man. Then there's the likes of Paterson on the edge who always turns players over in the tackle even when it's one-on-one not to mention he's the top tackle busting and line breaking back-rower in the competition.

Hull had O'Meley who's winding down his career before he retires at the end of the season, Watts who's a talented player but seems to be going through the motions now his feet are under the table, Johnson who looks very light-weight and Bowden and Green who despite being big units, seem to lack the physical presence of players their own size.

In short Rovers dominated the floor in the open exchanges in both defence and attack and quite why anyone would not see it that way before kick-off I can only attribute to the Pinnochio Pearson's "bel13ve" propaganda which has spiralled out of control to the point where it was like "Hull have a better pack than Rovers just because we're Hull and they're Rovers" when in reality Hull's pack got routinely bullied with the only slight reverse coming at the beginning of the second-half which was the residue of Hull having 5 consecutive sets and sheer weight of possession before half-time .

And then there were the injuries.

Yeaman / Gleeson - would have played opposite each other so equal loss.
Lynch / O'Hara - Both the oldest props in either squad so equal loss.
Holdsworth / Dobson - Both the most influential players of either side so equal loss
McDonnell / Withers - both would be in the 17 so equal loss (the fact we had Carlile for cover simply means we have more strength in depth).
Seymour - wouldn't have played if he was fit anyway so moot point
Ellis - we're a back-rower short with our recruitment anyway hence why Sandercock wanted Ferguson during the off-season.

To add to the above, we lost Burns just after half-time yet the team still had creativity to take the chances that were presented. Simply saying no half-backs equals no creativity is a cop out and a smoke screen for poor recruitment of recruiting one-dimensional players with poor skill sets outside of stereo-typical expectations of their respective positions.

For instance, the wining try yesterday was created by a piece of sublime skill from our left-second-rower - despite the fact he had a fairly quiet game. The bottom line is he came up with a piece of skill in his locker when it was needed when we were short of half-backs - there was no half-back in that particular play.

Sanderock signed the likes of Paterson to do this and as we are seeing more of our signings play we can see that even though we are an inexperienced, ill-disciplined side with lots to work on, there are multiple options available to Sandercock because he has signed players who are technically competent and have quite wide skill sets.

Even one of my mates at work, who is one of the most level headed FC fans I know, believed that if FC had Dobson, they would be a top-four side which says to me that Hull FC as a club have completely lost the plot with how good the actually bel13ve their squad of players are.

FC players gave 100% desire, effort and commitment to the FC cause yesterday but the harsh reality is that they're just not good enough - nowhere near good enough - and signing a top class 7 from somewhere or other will not solve the fact that FC have committed to signing averagely, average players on long term deals. Signing an average centre like Arundle on a four-year deal is pretty definitive of where Hull FC have found themselves.

As far as Rovers go, the commitment effort and desire of the players was outstanding and although FC were totally clueless in attack, it was still a great effort to hold them out for 5 consecutive sets on our line was a pretty special effort as well as the fact the players who were left on the pitch managed to come up with match-winning plays after having all of that defending to do, was excellent.

The top-six (Wigan, Wire, Leeds, Cats, Leeds, Saints) is a closed shop IMO but if the team carry on working hard, we can finish 7th or 8th alongside Bradford.

As far as FC go, everyone knows the drill by now; it's "jam tomorrow"... rlhttps://forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?f

P.S. I hope Hull FC are enjoying their "World of (emotional) Pain" - I am!!! Fair comment,although at the moment I am used to pain,even the Mariners are beginning to let me feel peed off.