John Cartwright on Hull FC’s loss, the meetings to come, and whether the game was his last as head coach of the club.
John Cartwright waves to the Hull FC fans.(Image: SW PIX)
Hull FC coach John Cartwright took an emotional press conference following Thursday’s 24-14 defeat to St Helens. Here is everything he had to say on the loss, the meetings to come, and whether that was his last game in charge of the club.
John, what happens now?
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve got a couple of meetings early next week and I’ll be a little bit clearer then on where we go from there.”
Do you still want to be here until the end of the season?
“It’s a difficult one. I certainly don’t want to let that playing group down. Sometimes these things aren’t in your hands. I don’t want to talk about it too much. It’s the unknown. But I’ll be a little bit clearer next week.”
How are you feeling right now?
“I’m really humbled, to be honest with you. I’m really disappointed for the players that we didn’t get a result. They gave it everything, but it was probably a continuation of some patches that we’ve been delivering.
“In the second half, we just turned some ball over when we had a real chance to go for it. There were a couple of questionable things that happened; it doesn’t matter now, but sometimes when things don’t go your way, they don’t go your way.
“I’m so proud of the playing group. Whoever we put out there, they just keep turning up. I’m really humbled and just very proud to be part of such a good group of guys.”
If this is to be your last game, how do you reflect on your time at the club and in the city?
“At some point I’m going to finish here; if that’s a week, a month, or a year, I’ll always have fond memories. The town has taken me in. I’ve got a good group of friends who will be friends for life. I love the town. They love their team. They are very passionate about it and very friendly. The playing group I’m involved with are as good a bunch of guys as you’ll come across.”
How did the players react to the press conference and then again after the game? They huddled and waited for you to finish your Sky interview before leaving the field…
“What I love about the game is there is no “me” – it’s “we”.’ When I told them what happened, I just felt warmth and love, basically, and it was the same then. Maybe they know something, I don’t know, but just to have every player waiting out there as I finished interviewing, it was one of those moments. I’ve never had that before. But that’s the sort of person I am. I was like that as a player. I was that as a coach. If you don’t have connections, it doesn’t matter how good you are; you won’t win big games. It’s the first thing you have got to work on. I’m just so proud of the connection they have amongst themselves. Whatever happens, I’ll always take that with me wherever I go.”
You had a lot of love from the home crowd tonight…
“It’s hard to put it into words – you don’t expect that and it’s not why you do the job. I think it says a lot about the people in the town. I was told before I got here that as long as the team goes out and has a crack, the fans will get behind them – and they have. While the results aren’t showing at the moment, they’ve got a team that they can be proud of. I see nothing but good things ahead for this group. When the club can field its very best side, I’ve got no worry about who they come up against. No matter who we play, it’s a battle, it’s a fight – we give the opposition a fight, but we just lack the little bit of class to get over the line.”
Were you surprised by the reaction of the fans?
“I was. We improved our win/loss ratio last year, and while we’re not travelling all that flash at the moment, just to see that, I didn’t know what to expect, to be honest, but it was more humbling than anything else.”
The management had boos when they appeared on screen. What did you make of that?
“The most important thing out of all of this is the club. The club is made up of its fans, and the most important thing now is we all put the club at the very head of the list. That’s what matters.”
How have you managed your emotions this week and tonight in particular?
“I wanted to deal with it as soon as I possibly could. We dealt with it and we had a couple of days off and then we came back in and had two really good days of training. We had a light session yesterday (Wednesday). I was really confident. There was extra emotion, but the way we prepared was business as usual.
How big has Jed (Cartwright, son) been for you?
“He’s my best mate. I talk to him all of the time. He’s become my minder over the last couple of weeks. I’m just lucky that he’s here with me.”
What did you make of the game?
“I thought the start of the game was as good as we’ve started all year. With ball in hand, we looked as good as we’ve looked. We looked fast, we looked sharp – they were on. We just missed a couple of opportunities, I suppose, especially in the second half. We had the ball in good field position. There were a couple of kicks that went astray and a couple of dropped balls. The crowd was involved and we looked like we were going to be threatening and that just took all of the air out of us.”