To say John Cartwright’s focus is on what Hull FC do now is an understatement. The Black and Whites boss isn’t interested in appraisals or pats on the back for the season’s start – just full focus on what his side does now until the end of the season.
For the Aussie veteran, that’s what matters, and that’s where Hull will be judged, with complete and utter attention on nailing the necessary improvements and fix-ups to ensure they keep up standards and don’t suffer a season drop-out.
Unfortunately, that has been a reality in recent years, but Cartwright is hard at work to ensure that doesn’t happen this term. Speaking to Hull Live, the Hull boss has conducted training this week, with discipline the key focus as they prepare for their next game at Leeds next Friday night.
“We’re not playing, but we’ve trained Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday,” Cartwright said. “We’ll give them the weekend off. We’ve just focused on discipline; you can’t fix everything in a week, but that was one area that let us down.
“There are things that we can control, and there are some things that you can’t control – but the things that we can control are the disappointing ones, as they’re in our hands. We just didn’t give ourselves the best chance to win the game last week, and the main reason was our discipline. So that’s our focus, improving that.”
Asked about the season’s start Cartwright continued: “All that matters is what happens at the end, so I try not to get too caught up in that. We’re sitting inside the top six, so someone has got to knock us out.
“Again, that’s something that I think is in our hands. I don’t want to judge where we are at the moment. We’re only ten games in; we’ve played nearly everyone, and we’ve got a fair read on the opposition and ourselves, and there’s a lot of improvement in us. It’s a dangerous word improvement; it’s what you do at the end of the game. We still haven’t played to our potential.”
Asked how they ensure the familiar drop-off doesn’t happen, Cartwright’s reply was to the point, with key traits identified that Hull must keep up as they head into the summer.
The head coach added: “Hard work, mate. It’s about self-realisation, honesty, and hard work. I wish I had a magic wand, but I don’t. I’m confident that when we are near our best, we can compete with everyone. I think we’ve shown that. We just haven’t been anywhere near our best for the last month.”