Hull FC have made significant change, and for the better.
The last eighteen months at Hull FC have all been about change – and change has been gargantuan.
In fact, come the start of the 2026 season, just nine players – Herman Ese’ese, Ligi Sao, Brad Fash, Davy Litten, Lewis Martin, Logan Moy, Denive Balmforth, Matty Laidlaw, and Harvey Barron – survive from the squad that started the 2024 season, and one of them, Balmforth, as exclusively reported by Hull Live this week, is heading out on loan.
That, amid a new head coach in John Cartwright, the returns of Gareth Ellis and Andy Last, and new owners in Andrew Thirkill and David Hood, has seen a true changing of the guard, and it’s all been spearheaded by Richie Myler.
For Simon Grix, set for his third season at the club, it’s changes that needed to happen. After all, Grix, in interim charge back in 2024, saw Hull’s lowest ebb, but now they’re on the way back up and, after a year of restoring pride and the like, are looking to take the next step.
“We’ve had wholesale change,” Grix, speaking to Hull Live, said. “There’s not a lot left in the squad really from the start of 2024, but those changes were obviously required.
“We’ve brought in some experienced players, good players, and a bit of a mix with some younger lads as well. It’s exciting. We’ve tried to give ourselves some depth and add that quality so we can keep going all the way through the season. It’s fair to say injuries took their toll on us this year, and we didn’t help ourselves in some ways.
“We had players playing massive minutes through the season, but our squad depth is a big improvement for us. We’ve got some winners in there as well, which is going to be really good for us moving forward. There’s depth, but there’s competition as well.”
Recruiting eight players – from the likes of Jake Arthur, James Bell, Harvie Hill and Arthur Romano – Hull know they’re not the finished article in what has already been a big turnaround from the depths of an 11th-place finish in ’24, but they’re on the right track.
Looking to progress, they’ve added players to complement what they’ve already got, some of which have certainly been strategic.
“I think we’re better equipped to handle Super League now,” Grix explained. “John Asiata and James Bell are a good example, a signing brought in to complement a player we’ve already got.
“John wants to play every minute of every game, but in a game where it’s so fast and it’s so physical, and it gets more and more so every year, we don’t want to burn him, or anyone, out. Having depth and competition in all positions is something you look for to build a squad and get further up the table. If you keep similar players on the field, not too much will change when players drop out.
“It’s an important thing to have if you want to last the course of what is a very long and demanding season. We feel like we’ve got that now, and that will help us get to the next level.”
For Hull, there’s no doubting what that next level entails. A competitive force in 2025, they just missed out on the play-offs. In 2026, it’s about going one better and becoming a finals team.
“That’s what we’ll be shooting for,” Grix said. “You look back over the season; we were seventh, and there were a few losses in there where you’d like to think, if we had our time again, we would have picked up the points.
“That was the disappointing thing, to look back at some of the things that were in our control that we didn’t quite nail. However, that’s also a good bit of fuel for the fire moving into this season.
“It’s going to be a tough season, as they always are; everyone seems to be recruiting better, and we’ve got to be making sure that we get better in every area so we can go with them. We don’t want to get left behind now; we’re on an upward curve now, I think, and this year was a positive start, and we need to make some positive steps forward again.”
And after a six-week break, Hull will look to take those steps, back at pre-season training for the start of the 2026 season, 45 days or so since the last campaign ended.
“It gets to this stage where you’re getting close to the start date, and you start thinking a lot more about it, reflecting on last year, looking at things to improve, and such,” Grix added. “We’ve had six weeks off now and we’re looking forward to getting a new team together.
“We’ve got quite a few new faces to integrate into the group. It’s going to be good. We’re looking forward to getting started.”