John Cartwright has conceded that Hull FC’s confidence has been ‘dented’ after recent results. However, the head coach maintains the belief that his side can get back to earning their desired results so long as they keep up the ‘mettle’ within their performance and add some ‘polish’.
The Black and Whites avoided defeat in eight of their opening ten games this season but have lost their last three – a reality that leaves them clinging onto their current play-off position.
And while there is no panic with 17 rounds still to go this season, Cartwright knows that his side needs to pick themselves up quickly and ensure they get back to the standards set earlier this year.
They are boosted with the return of Brad Fash for this Friday’s clash at Leeds Rhinos and have comeback dates in sight for the likes of Jed Cartwright, Jordan Lane, and Liam Watts. That will help Hull’s cause, who, along with Oliver Holmes, have suffered from a back row shortage that has stifled other positions with players covering elsewhere.
Cartwright is still happy with the conduct of his squad given that reality but has also conceded the need for improvement. That improvement is centred around the discipline aspects of Hull’s game, with Cartwright desiring some leadership from his senior players – starting at Headingley for what is an important fixture against a Yorkshire rival.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, the head coach said: “There is definitely mettle there in our performance, but we want more than that – we want to be a consistent football team. We had a tough run for a while, playing Wigan three times and Hull KR twice, and confidence is a funny thing. You can talk about it all you like, but you get confidence from actually going out and doing it.
“We were on the wrong end of the scoreboard for four of those games, and it’s dented our confidence a little bit, but a week away, and we’ve got some good senior experienced players in our squad; it won’t affect them too much.
“We’ve just got to get on with it against a tough side that is going really well. It’s a good opportunity for us, but we need to be better. The week off for the players has come at a good time. There’s a lot of experienced boys in there, and I expect them to lead the way when we get back on the field.”
Elaborating on the week off, which saw Hull train before having a few days away from camp, Cartwright continued: “It’s been pretty refreshing. We trained through last week, and they then had the weekend off, spent some time with their families, and came back in on Monday. We had another session today (Tuesday), and they’re in good spirits. We’re looking forward to Friday night.
“It’s nice when you get them (a rest); you do your best, and you try to take advantage of them, but I suppose as a coach, you just want to keep playing. After a win, you want to keep the roll going, and when you lose, you want to get back on the park pretty quickly.”
After a positive start to the season, Hull’s big challenge is to not let the season fade away, with Cartwright focused on improvement.
He explained: “We are competing very hard – we just didn’t play well to what we consider as playing well within the four walls here against Huddersfield. It was the first time we were really disappointed with what we turned up, but having said that, we were able to stay on the scoreboard with 12 men for that whole second half.
“We won similar games earlier in the year. I’ve said all along that we haven’t put anyone away on the scoreboard by any stretch; we’ve won a lot of close games, and the fact is you don’t win every close game; you’re going to lose one sooner or later, and that was Huddersfield.
“Maybe we started to read the papers a bit and get a bit carried away. But the fact was that we only won close games; that’s a good sign of our mettle, but in a lot of those games, there is room for a lot of improvement in us football-wise. In the last two weeks, some errors and discipline areas have been addressed. Hopefully, we can fix them.
“We’ve had two good weeks to address it all, but the proof will come Friday night. The players are buying into how we are trying to develop the team and get to where we want to be.
“We just want to be consistent every week and get to the level where the fans know that the side is always going to have a crack no matter what. If we could get a bit of polish on the end of it, that would be great.”
Touching on that expectation, Cartwright added: “That’s the nature of the competition. Everyone wants to win – fans want to win – and if you don’t, they look for change pretty quickly.”