cooke was never that good at Hull. At the time there was a lot of criticism that we were one dimensional and all we had was his cut out pass on the left. He certainly has ability but has always suffered from being inconsistent. He's only been a big loss at Hull because we've failed to replace him. There are plenty of better halfs around but we seem to have been incapable of picking one up. His loss to Hull has seemed worse due to 2 years of injury and indifference from Horne, 1/2 a season of a half fit head, a full season of an injury prone dykes and a season of the dog turd thorman. In the season he left we finished 4th despite a poor start.

His partnership with horne was certainly better than the sum of teh 2 individuals since

I'm maybe not understanding but youre saying Cooke wasnt that good at Hull yet he was our main weapon and we got to finals and won silverware with him here. Youre then saying we didnt replace him properly which is why we've suffered, that doesnt back up the theory that he wasnt that good at Hull does it?

I'm not saying he wasn't a decent player but wasn't this all time great some people seem to remember him as. He was certainly never anywhere near GB standard for instance. He was our main weapon mainly because we had no other weapons and I'd have said Richard Swain (who has been our biggest loss BTW)was far more influential in leading us to silverware and finals than cooke ever was. We have been playing with injured, poor or no half backs for most of the time since which is down to poor recruitment rather than the loss of an individual.

Do you understand now? Are you a rovers fan in disguise?

I kind of understand what youre saying, i dont agree. I'm not a Rovers fan in disguise, you do know that FC fans are permitted to have differing opinions dont you?

He's not an all time great. The arguement was that Cooke was our main attacking player. He was exceptional at the job he did for us, not just decent imo. He didnt have an all round game and meant we were one dimensional, but he gave us what we havent had since, a cutting attack. (i agree, we had no other weapons, that shouldnt water down the role that Cooke did, effectively he played 2 or 3 peoples roles)

I agree that Swain has been our biggest loss overall, however in attack its Cooke.

Yes we've been playing with poor players or injuries since Cooke left which is the reason we've been poor, but to go back the the original arguement, Cooke leaving is the reason for that! If Cooke hadnt left we wouldnt have made poor recruitment or brought in aussies with poor injury records, on that basis i'd say youre wrong to play down Cookes role at Hull as been an exceptional player and our key attacking weapon.

You contredict yourself in that post.
Cooke was the creator of 73% of your tries with much more then just a cut out pass.

1st time we've ever agreed i think, i must be wrong.

I meant with your seeming inability to understand a simple concept. Most Hull FC fans differ in their opinions from mine but most eventually realise I was right in the first place



We never had a "cutting attack" when cooke was our main playmaker. In 2005 we were only the 6th highest scoring team in SL and in 2006 the 5th highest.



Or head or dykes (both of whom were much better players than cooke but blighted by injury




cooke leaving is the reason we haven't had a decent 1/2 back since? One way of looking at it I suppose but I'd say the failure to replace him with one of the numerous better players available is another.

His role at Hull was pivotal but it doesn't mean it he was exceptional (which he certainly wasn't). At rovers he isn't even as good as canberra's previous 3rd choice half back and I doubt there'll be a queue of top clubs wanting to sign him for next season

In 2006 we scored 124 tries and cooke had 24 assists. How is that 73%?

Depends where you get your stats.
Last year Kris Whelham missed more tackles alone then the whole team according to to the Engage site

5th or 6th is pretty good, compared to 12th or 13th like we've had since. That seems pretty cutting to me in comparison. Youre seeming to not get this fairly simple concept!

Actually GML's selling Cooke short. 2.4111328125:5