I think it’s the fact he hasn’t reported on the Bowden incident

Mr Smailes only reports what he wants to report. There have been incidents involving Hull FC players where he hasn't reported it even though there was evidence yet he reported at the time an unsubstantiated rumour.

What incident?

If it's outside of the sport, then people need to be careful of what they report without evidence, lots of things happen with rugby players, most don't make the papers.

Like what, the Kelly incident, but was that really news worthy? Did other papers report that story or are we just picking on the HDM?

I've seen plenty of stories about drink driving etc for Hull players.

Also reporting that Westerman and Hadley might sign for other clubs, isn't that the same as Sheens.

It's fairly obvious that the Sheens one was more than a unsubstantiated rumour, Smailes had a very good source, you should be worried about who leaked the story.

Mr K is correct here. Remember please that our libel laws require a claim about the actions of living person that could be considered defamatory to not only be true but demonstrably true.

Some evidence for the decision:

If players are not following his instructions - his fault. This is his team of players now and he should be coaching them to follow his instructions.

Players like Addy starting at 9 - he picked the 17, his fault.

Only use 3 subs most of this season - his tactics

Leakiest defence ever - not directly Sheens but he helped put the coaching staff together so ultimately his fault.

Only playing 40 minutes - his team talks must have some part to play in this

Only winning 5 games this season - injuries yes, but see all the above. We have lost about 4-5 games that we should have won from a winning position.

We will never know if keepings Sheens would have been a better option than who comes in next, but for me the above evidence is enough.

This club expected and deserved more - for whatever reason it didn't work out. Move on. Mr H is simply doing all he can to make us better.

Turn out on Sunday to cheer the lads. Now more than ever they need encouragement. The season is far from over yet!

Agree with what you posted,how can a plodder like addy,be put in a key position like hooker,when atkin who is much quicker has been left on the bench,most times till it was too late ie the cup match versus warry.Our defence is comfortably the worst in the league 30pts average conceeded per game,losing at huddersfield when 16-8 up at half time and in control till the half time team talk which helped us conceed 22 unanswered points until a last minute try by us.Early season home to salford and catalans 2 games we were in total control of yet managed to lose and the rot set in.28 nil down to leeds and another 5 mins and we would have probably won,we seem unable to play both halves in a game.Injuries have played a big part,but how many games do expect 2 win conceeding 30pts a game.Good luck to tim for the future,but along with the players the buck stops with him.

Smailes' source on Sheens was what Aaron Bower reported. He had no source other than someone else story yet he still reported it. With regards to the Kelly incident, the YP reported on it along with some of the Aus media but Smailes didn't because he said there was nothing to report. To me that sounds a bit hypocritical. He reported on something he couldn't find evidence for but wont on something where the evidence was in the public domain. I've no problem with him not reporting on the Kelly incident but he should apply the same rules to both clubs.

He’s been shown to be right about Sheens, fair enough.

The Kelly thing - entirely separate, but Smailes made a rod for his own back. Whether it was news worthy is subjective, but subjectively i’d say yes. Some papers did report it. Obviously some didn’t, like the North Devon Gazette, but they have an obvious excuse that the HDM doesn’t.

In fairness, it’s a tough and probably not very well paid job and he’s no doubt got to balance a number of issues both pragmatic and of principle. Also, sports/delinquency news in the HDM - there are plenty of bigger issues I have to admit. It was funny though, and his discomfit was one of the first things that came to my childish mind when the video was circulated.

The crucial one is the the lack of wins we have and the prospect of too few to come.

The three subs thing - with fewer interchanges maybe it makes sense to give the minutes to your best 16, rather than just using the 17th to tick a box. Addy, at hooker - who else is there available? A problem in itself, admittedly. If we were winning neither would matter. For me the biggeest issues are more general - a relative lack of power, strike, energy and smarts. See also most of the rest of the decade.

Atkin.?

At hooker? His lack of size means he’s up against it defensively in the middle. There’s a case using him more and Addy less, but I think that leaves the problem basically unsolved.

I think the loss of so many big forwards to injury maybe distracted us from half our spine being missing, which we’d had time to get used to the idea of. Hall has done well covering Quinlan after Atkin struggled there initially. And Lee is solid enough, just about for a team in our position, covering Lunt - but now he’s injured too.

Ultimately, I think that might have been the final straw - we got a few forwards back and still looked disjointed. Even in victory at Magic, we conceded more tries than we scored and two of our three came off Salford making a mess of dealing with a kick through.