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!

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.

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.

its not hard to see wher smailes comes from my take on it is dont take him to seriously he has a job to do ,pay peanuts thats what you get , only yesterday in the chip holder he reported that fc had 17 players missing for the catalan away game what made him report that crap a couple of months on, only he knows

New coach announcement 1930.. I'm hoping it's Morgan but probably Ford

Smith it is... pretty happy with that

Excellent bit of business. Onwards!

Was great for us at Warrington, hope he goes well for you guys. Good luck to him and welcome back to SL

I agree not a long term solution,but a better option than addy imo.