John Kear and the underdog story went hand in hand. And it was Hull FC where came one of his biggest tales. A tribute from Andy Last.
John Kear celebrates Hull FC’s 2005 Challenge Cup win.(Image: Getty)
It’s the 27th of August, 2005. The Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Jamie Thackray drives the ball in for Hull FC. The referee blows for a penalty. Seconds pass. The hooter goes. Hull kick the ball into touch. The Black and Whites have done it. Challenge Cup winners once again.
Paul Cooke, scorer of the winning try just minutes before, leads the player celebrations. And then comes the Hull head coach, John Kear, into the shot.
Flat on his back after falling over the Powergen advertising boards. Fists in the air. According to Cookie, the hometown hero, he looked like ‘an upside-down turtle’. He had only gone and done it again.
John Kear was the king of the underdog. If Sheffield Eagles’ 1998 triumph over Wigan, the biggest shock at Wembley of all time, wasn’t enough, the Castleford-born coach went on to mastermind another victory in a European capital, and this time for Hull, defying the odds to beat another red-hot favourite side in Leeds Rhinos.
And make no mistake about it, that Leeds team, led by Tony Smith, were huge favourites. They had their golden generation. Rob Burrow. Danny McGuire. Kevin Sinfield. They all played. So did Gareth Ellis – now an adopted Black and White and very much one of us. But this was Hull’s day. And it was Kear’s mastermind.
Kear, who sadly passed away aged 71 on Sunday afternoon after travelling back north from Wembley, commentating on the sport he loved the day before, assembled a belief in Hull’s 2005 squad, a swagger, and a confidence. It was destiny. The first time Hull brought the cup home in 23 years. It was magical.
“He just knew that it was ours to win,” Hull FC interim coach Andy Last, part of the 2005 squad as both a player and assistant coach, said. “He was a great motivator. He just knew what he wanted from his team, and he knew what he wanted from each player, and he was very, very focused on that Challenge Cup.
“He went down the route of the underdog, and each round, he built it up perfectly. We had Super League opposition in every round, so it was a real challenge.
“Our first game was at Wakefield and we played unbelievably well. Danny Brough played at nine along with Motu Tony because Richard Swain had broken his arm a couple of weeks prior. We were a little bit disrupted in that position but John had a plan and Motu and Broughy did a great job.
“I remember the game; Cookie laid on a couple of tries for Yeamo (Kirk Yeaman) and Chris Chester, and we just had an awesome game – we defended brilliantly. And then the following round, we played Bradford, and then we played Leigh, and then we destroyed St Helens in the semi-final, which was arguably the best performance I’ve ever seen from a Hull FC team.
“It was a star-studded St Helens team who just had Daniel Anderson come in as head coach and we destroyed them. The game plan was centred around Broughy and Cookie’s kicking game, kicking behind their wingers Ade Gardner and Francis Meli. They did a great job and played unbelievably well, and then in the final, it was all about our belief. We just knew that we were going to win.
“Leeds had a bit of disruption with Keith Senior’s injury, but the job that John had done in getting the boys mentally ready for that game was second to none, as good as I’ve ever seen. He just spoke all the time, but his words and his messaging were all about our belief and our mentality, and this is our game; we’re ready to win this, and we just went out and executed accordingly.
“Even when Leeds went in front, the lads weren’t fazed by it, and we knew we had that strength in character and belief to get the job done. The spine of Swain, Cooke, and Richard Horne with that special play, and Cookie scored under the posts, and the rest is history. It was an unbelievable year for us.
“John was integral to how he managed each individual from the senior players, like Swain, Shayne McMenemy, Chris Chester, etc., to the emerging talents of Richard Whiting and Danny Brough. He was a great man manager, a great mentor, and just a champion bloke.”
But off the field, Kear, a coach for over 700 games with Hull, Sheffield, Wakefield, Bradford, Batley, and more, was also a giant. He was kind, caring, compassionate, and committed. He was rugby league purity, an icon, a man who cared deeply about the sport and never missed an opportunity to champion it from his coaching interviews to his punditry.
Those qualities aren’t lost on Last, who played under Kear for one game before helping him out as an assistant coach, also winning the Academy Grand Final that year – and the impact goes deep.
“I got the news on Monday morning,” Last emotionally recalled. “I had just finished the Hull FC staff meeting and my phone started going crazy in the drawer, so I pulled it out and it was Cookie. He told me to give him a call asap. So I nipped out of the office and obviously got the sad news.
“He told me he got a text in the early hours of the morning from Dawn that John had passed away. It was a massive shock. I took a moment of reflection for myself, got upset, and then started yesterday’s meeting. I just addressed the players, and I told them that one of our legends as a Hull FC coach has unfortunately passed away.
“For me, he’s someone I will sadly miss. He gave me that guidance and that opportunity from a coaching point of view, going to the first team as the second assistant alongside Rich Agar.
“Even up until two weeks ago, on the coach on the way home from Leigh after a disappointing loss, John messaged me saying ‘Keep your chin up, Andy; you’re a great coach and a great man and you’ve got integrity, so keep doing what you’re doing. You know where I am if you need to speak and have a chat.’
“That just shows what type of guy he was. He was always there for other people. He was a wonderful man. It’s a sad loss for our club and a sad loss for the game, and I’m absolutely gutted for Dawn, who was his soulmate.
“But he’s had a great life and he’s impacted a lot of people. He was a big personality, and he was always there for you. That’s the type of guy he was and that’s the character of him as a person, but it also shows that rugby league community that we all keep together as coaches and support each other, and John was certainly there for me if I needed it.
“I learnt a great deal from him. He was a great mentor, a great bloke, and he did a wonderful job at getting that team ready to win the Challenge Cup back in 2005.
“I’m forever grateful to John for allowing me to be part of that great day. He gave us an absolutely unbelievable day and it’s one of those moments that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”