John Cartwright insists he isn’t putting any pressure on his Hull FC players as far as a top six finish in Super League goes. However, there is a clear attitude and performance expectation from the head coach.
After a dip in form that culminated with a disappointing defeat to Huddersfield at the Magic Weekend, that expectation was made reality again in recent games at Leeds and Leigh, with Cartwright labelling the two performances as the most consistent his side has been all season.
The challenge now is to replicate that standard throughout and stay honest to what they set out in training. That’s based on nothing less than sheer, honest hard work, effort, discipline, and sticking to the game they know works best for them.
Do that and be consistent with it, and in Cartwright’s view, Hull’s fate will take care of itself, with the side still well poised after a dozen competition games. They sit just one point off both Wakefield and St Helens in seventh spot and are only two points off the top four.
“I’m not putting any pressure on the players – as far as the top six goes, you win games, and that will look after itself,” Cartwright, speaking ahead of Saturday’s game in Catalans, said. “There is no pressure from me about where we sit in the table or the top six.
“Obviously, we all want to be there, and we are competitive people. It might be a cliche, but it’s just about improving every week, whether we win or we lose.
“A good example of that was the Leeds game – we would have won nine times out of ten with what we produced there; it didn’t happen, so we can’t get tied up on where that left us on the ladder or whether we would make the top six – it was about improving on that performance at Leigh, and we did. Going into this week, it will be exactly the same attitude.”
Reflecting on the season as a whole, Cartwright is content, while knowing there is plenty of room still to grow. He continued: “In certain areas I am really happy with where we are going, but there is always room and scope for improvement.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries along the way, so seeing different guys get some opportunities has been good as well. We’ve brought some new players in since the season started, and they have really helped us, but I’m not basing the season at all on getting wins and our table spot.
“Again, it’s really important that we improve from week to week and that our attitude stays the same – it’s been a little bit bumpy, I suppose, in some games, but consistently we’ve been okay. That’s what I asked from them all the way through: to be consistent with their efforts and consistent with the certain things we want to achieve in the game.”
He added: “Leigh are a good opposition, and whenever you beat good opposition, you must be doing some things well. I just liked it on the back of the Leeds performance. I thought that was a bit of a line-in-the-sand game for us.
“I’ve said it before, but I really rate Leeds. I think 1-17, they’re as good as anyone in the competition, and their form of late is proving that. To go there, and while we didn’t win – you can’t always win – you can play well and not win, but as long as you don’t dwell on it, then it’s not a massive issue so long as you back it up the following week, and that’s what we did against Leigh.
“The way that we started and the way we got through the second half, we didn’t come up with any points, but with the injuries and the change of the momentum of the game, I thought we handled that pretty well. We never looked like losing that one.”