When Hull FC signed Cade Cust, the club’s plan was to play him off the bench in a ’14’ role – the number he has on his back – with the player covering both the hooker and half-back positions.
However, as pre-season training progressed, it soon became apparent that Cust’s future lay in the starting side and in the halves alongside Aidan Sezer. And while Marc Sneyd was very much on Hull’s radar after Jordan Abdull’s January departure, it turned out that the answer was already in-house.
Once that half-back spot opened up, Cust, who already had the respect and understanding of head coach John Cartwright from his NRL days, knuckled down in training and soon earned the respect of his teammates.
In fact, Cartwright, who worked with Cust at Manly, backed his fellow Aussie to the hilt – and he’s paid back the faith. Debuting against York Acorn, Cust then scored a brace of tries against Catalans in a Player of the Match display, a feat he has achieved twice more this year in what has been an encouraging start to his Hull career.
After spells at Wigan and Salford, he’s very much at home, settled at a new club and coach who believe in him. That, in a nutshell, has proved to be the difference.
“It’s just a confidence thing,” Cust, speaking to Hull Live, said. “It comes from Carty and the confidence he has in me. He just tells me to go out there and run the ball. He makes it very simple.
“He’s been really good – he’s old-fashioned and hard. When you go out onto the field, you want to get the job done for him. We see how much effort he puts into coaching, so you want to go out there and do him proud.
“He wears his heart on his sleeve. There’s so much excitement going through him, but it’s good to see, as players, just how much he cares.
“I just feel really comfortable here. I think the last couple of years – especially at Salford and my last year at Wigan – I had a few bad injuries, so just getting my body right and being able to play week in and week out, you get a lot more comfortable.
“I’ve settled in really well. My partner and I are really settled here – and knowing Carty, the way he is and how he speaks to me, I’ve really found a home for myself. I’m really enjoying it, and I’m really happy.”
And while content with his form and his life on and off the field, Cust knows he can still get better, having come to Hull after up-and-down spells at both the Warriors and Red Devils. That’s something he doesn’t shy away from.
“Definitely,” he replied when asked if he has a point to prove. “I said that when I signed here. I wanted to come here, prove a point, play good rugby, and be successful. I think I’ve settled in well, but I know there’s plenty more to come.”
Another cog to Cust’s wheel is his half-back partner Aidan Sezer. The duo are far from the left and right side players akin to the modern-day game, but more an old-school six and seven combination.
Sezer leads the side with John Asiata, with Cust’s instructions to follow the play and run the ball alongside Will Pryce. It’s a combination, given Pryce’s mid-season arrival, still in its infancy, but one Cust is backing to hit its straps given one key component: time.
He explained: “Seze is a dominant half and very experienced. I just need to keep chatting to him and pop up where I need to be. I know when the right time is to take the line on and when not to – so I just chime in and play my role and defend well.
“The partnership has been really good so far, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season holds. I just want to keep on building partnerships with Seze and with Prycey.
“He’s got the x-factor that every team needs, Prycey, but it’s just a thing that’s going to take a bit of time to get that cohesion and get on the same page.
“When that spine changes, it does throw you out of whack a bit. There are a lot of new players in the team, and we’re not going to be on the same page every week. Again, it’s going to take time, but I think we’re heading in the right direction. We just need to put our best foot forward now and get some wins.”
Looking to do just that, Hull face Leigh Leopards on Thursday night, aiming to end a run of four successive defeats. Knowing a win will put them back inside the play-off spots, Cust wants to build on last week’s display at Leeds – for what was a much improved account, especially in terms of discipline, despite the loss.
“We’ve hit a bit of a form slump lately, but hopefully we can right that wrong on Thursday,” Cust said. “We know we’ve got some things to fix up there – we know our discipline has been pretty off the last few weeks, but for us, it’s just getting back to playing a simple game and knowing our roles to get the job done.
“We’ve set that as a standard now going forward. Last week was a step in the right direction – we didn’t get the win, but it was an improved display. After Magic, we spoke about our discipline and how we need to improve it. We have got to get that right. We don’t want to be going down to 12 men – it takes too much energy out of you going into the back end of the game.”
One of Hull’s two red cards this year was handed to Cust, with the half sent off after an awkward contact with Arthur Mourgue in the derby last month.
“I wasn’t in agreeance with it – I can’t disappear,” Cust recalled. “We’re both competing for the ball. There’s a still photo about with my hands like 10 cm away from the ball. But what’s done is done – it’s in the past now, and we can’t dwell on it.
“We’ve got to look ahead, and Thursday is going to be another tough game – Leigh are one of the form teams in the competition at the moment, and they’ve got strike players all over the field, but we just need to focus on ourselves – if we put an 80-minute performance in, we’re confident we can get the win.”