Hull FC host Castleford Tigers on Friday night, with the side in action at the MKM Stadium for the first time in nearly 50 days. The game is part of the club’s ‘Hull and Proud’ week, with the players out in the community over the last few days and looking to make it three Super League victories in a row after wins at Leigh and Catalans.
Elsewhere, Hull’s reserves also clash against Hull KR over the weekend, while there are also musings about grass pitches, loan moves, and the like. Here is the latest notebook.
Grass pitch solution
Hull FC are still looking for a more permanent grass solution, with the grass pitches at their University of Hull training base ‘too hard’ to train on. Currently, the squad are training on the 4G surface on site, but there is a desire to get out on grass this summer.
Where that leads Hull in the future is currently unclear, but it’s interesting to note Hull’s partnership with Cottingham Tigers this weekend – with the local community club hosting the reserves derby between Hull and Hull KR on Saturday afternoon.
With the first-team squad using the swimming and recovery facilities at the nearby Total Fitness gym, would it be viable to see the two clubs link up more in the future? And with financial clout in co-owners Andrew Thirkill and David Hood, this could be more than just a fantasy, with the club again looking for a permanent solution.
Head coach John Cartwright told Hull Live this week: “We look at everything. But the simple answer is we’ve got no option at the moment (to train on 4G). The grass pitches are too hard, and until we can find somewhere permanent, we’ve got to stay on as consistent a surface as we can.”
Could a long-term partnership with Cottingham Tigers be the answer? Significant investment would need to be spent on a surface at the Hilltop site, but it could be something that the club at least looks at. Obviously with this reporter being a former Tiger, there’s no bias here.
More loan moves
Hull’s reserves are in action against Hull KR this Saturday, but the preference from the club is to get their younger and fringe stars out on loan in the Championship or League 1 and playing week in, week out.
The biweekly reserves calendar has long been a frustration for Hull, right back to Lee Radford’s days in charge. They want a fuller fixture list and have shared that desire for years.
Will Kirby has joined Hunslet alongside Ryan Westerman, while Will Gardiner, Logan Moy, Brad Fash, and Jack Charles have all played on dual reg at Doncaster this year. Zach Jebson has also played at Goole Vikings with Hugo Salabio on loan at Castleford.
Whether they play on loan or on dual reg or for Hull’s reserves this weekend, time will tell, but there seems to be a preferable option for John Cartwright. He told Hull Live this week when asked about Kirby’s loan: “They (Hunslet) play every week. The second grade play every second week, and it’s not ideal. Whenever we can loan players out and get them playing at a higher level, that’s what we’ll be doing.”
As for Westerman’s Hunslet debut, which saw the side lose to Oldham, Cartwright added: “It wasn’t a good day for the team, so it was very hard for a centre to make his mark. It’s just about him going out and getting tackled by big strong men, running against big strong men, and picking up experience.”
It’s likely that the duo won’t be the last loan moves that we see this year.
Ollie Holmes tribute
Davy Litten says Hull FC dedicated their 34-0 victory at Catalans Dragons to retiring player Ollie Holmes. The back rower announced his retirement to players in the lead-up to the clash with Litten laying down the incentive for the squad, who scored six tries in what was a fine win in Perpignan.
He told Hull Live: “Oggy announced his retirement that week, and we pledged for him—he didn’t want to retire; he was forced to retire—so we wanted to get the win for him, ourselves, and the coaching staff.
“It’s been coming all year, a good defensive performance, and Lasty (Andy Last, assistant coach) was buzzing with it, but it means nothing now. We’ve got a tough challenge on Friday night, and we’ve got to go full steam ahead into that.”
Asked what meant more, the 34 points scored or 0 conceded, Litten said: “The nil. You can win 1-0 like Leigh did and still get the two points. At halftime we all looked at each other in the eyes, and we said, ‘We’re going to keep this to nil for each other.”
Looking for attacking improvements, Litten added: “We didn’t really look at the good things from Catalans—we looked at the things we need to improve. That’s our attack. We might have scored 34 points, but our attack was off—our tries were off effort areas, and push and stuff like that. We’re looking to rectify that, and hopefully coming into the Castleford game, we’ll be able to do that.”
Home comforts
Hull will be looking for some home comforts against Castleford this Friday. The side are targeting a first home win of the year, having lost to Rovers in both league and cup, Wigan twice, and with a draw against Leigh from their five games so far. In fact, they’ve played 11 of their 16 fixtures so far this year on the road and finish the season with nine of their remaining 14 Super League games at the MKM Stadium.
Paying tribute to that support away from home, Litten said, “It’s always like this at this time of the year. There’s work on the pitch, and we have to play a few weeks away, but the fans have been exceptional all the way through the year after such a tough year last year—they’ve turned out for us in big numbers all year. We want to get a home win now for them.”