The Robins are preparing to enter a new era under Nathan Cayless
New Hull KR head coach Nathan Cayless
The Hull KR of today resembles a different club to the one Willie Peters joined ahead of the 2023 Super League season.
For one, the Robins are selling out Craven Park week in, week out without fail. The club have developed under Peters from their academy output to their standing within the game itself with Rovers now considered across the competition to be one of the major forces.
And, perhaps most importantly, after a trophy drought of 40 years, KR are now certified winners.
The Robins famously won the treble last year and they enter a new year under Nathan Cayless as the reigning world champions.
In that respect, there’s worst jobs to step into for the former New Zealand international, but following on from the club’s greatest head coach of the modern era comes with a huge slice of expectation and scrutiny. too.
How Cayless deals with that will ultimately be the difference between success and failure at Craven Park.
The hope will be that he comes in, forges his own path and creates his own legacy in east Hull, building on the work Peters did during his four-year spell.
He’s been allowed to make his mark on the squad with three or four new signings from the reserve grades he knows well having spent much of his career at that level.
That should help him create a clean break from what has gone before and by all accounts, what he will be asking and expecting of his players will differ from Peters, too.
Indeed, Cayless is his own man with his own beliefs and rugby league philosophy, but Willie Peters’ shoes are big ones to fill.
The very nature of this article is a prime example of it, but for a large period of his first season with the club, Cayless will be compared to his predecessor and what has gone before. That’s only natural after such a period of success and positivity at the club.
Handling that the right way will certainly ensure Cayless embarks on his Hull KR journey on the right foot.