John Cartwright is expecting a battling performance from Salford Red Devils, with a stern warning given to his Hull FC side.
In fact, in Cartwright’s view, Salford’s ‘journey to hell’ this year, which has seen them face severe financial difficulties including a sustainability cap, player departures, late salary payments, and more, has galvanised the side and brought a siege mentality. And it’s that fight that Hull are preparing for on Sunday, with the two clubs meeting for the first time this season.
Asked what he expected from Salford, Cartwright replied: “What they’ve been giving: the fight. They look like they’re improving to me; results don’t indicate that, but you’ve got to be in a position that they’re in to know exactly what they go through.
“Footy is a tough game physically, but when you’ve got mental challenges off the field as far as whether your pay cheque is going to be there, players coming and going, and the viability of the club, it’s tough. It looks to me like they’re galvanising around that, and it’s a dangerous game—anyone who goes there thinking it’s going to be easy is in for a battle.
“The club has been to hell and back as far as survival is concerned, and sometimes that can galvanise you as a group. We have to expect their best come Sunday. There’s no sympathy in football. The week has been getting us ready both physically and mentally for a tough game. If you expect anything less, you’ll get the same result as last week.”
For Cartwright, there’s also some nostalgia on Sunday, heading back to the club where he spent one year as a player in 1997. Well-known for his playing career at hometown club Penrith Panthers, it’s the then City Reds where Hull’s head coach brought the curtain down—one he has fond memories of, with the side making a Challenge Cup semi-final that year.
“It’s been a long time,” Cartwright said. “For a while, I did keep up contact with some guys back from Salford, but a lot has changed since then. I’m really looking forward to going there, and I’m sure that there will be some fans there that were there at the time when I played—if they’re not too old by now. They’re a great club—I had a fantastic time there, and hopefully, I can bump into a few guys from that era.”
And on Hull’s attitude, Cartwright’s message is simple: “We’ve got to be tough on ourselves—it’s more a battle with our minds this week rather than worrying too much about the opposition.
“It’s something I’d always encourage anyway; you’ve got no chance to win any game if you don’t sort your own backyard out, so it’s more about our emphasis on that, knowing your opposition and knowing what to expect, but for us, it’s a really important game. We’re over the halfway mark now, and we’ve put ourselves in a position where our destiny is in our own hands, so it’s a really important game, and we’re treating it as such.”