Hull FC have endured a torrid year.
Hull FC captain Aidan Sezer.
Paul Cooke has labelled Hull FC’s season as a ‘recipe for disaster’ and has called for actions to speak louder than words as the club looks to propel itself up the Super League table under Steve McNamara next year.
The former Black and Whites half-back, who scored the winning try for the club in the 2005 Challenge Cup final, has also defended former teammate and friend Andy Last, who has picked up a ‘really difficult’ situation as interim coach this year.
Losing two of their last 15 games going back to Good Friday, Hull have drifted to 13th spot in Super League after parting ways with former head coach John Cartwright and are just two points above Huddersfield Giants, who they lost to last week, with six rounds of the season to go.
And that reality, with contracted players reportedly told they can leave Hull and look for other Super League clubs, has led the club to its current position.
Speaking on All Out Rugby League’s Back 10 podcast, Cooke said: “Too much noise comes out of the club and too many players talk the talk and don’t walk the walk. I get fed up of speaking about them. It hurts me as a player who played for the club; you get accused of being an ex-player who’s bitter and you’re not; you can only say what you see.
“They’re not playing great. I think that the difference between them and Huddersfield is that the Hull staff still remain without a head coach; they’ve got an interim head coach, and that’s really difficult. But then you look at the flip side with Liam Finn; he got a tune out of Huddersfield when Luke Robinson left before Jim Lenihan came in. I’m not blaming the staff. I think there’s been so much fundamentally wrong with the club over the last year and 18 months, where there’s such a rebuild that does need to happen.
“A season which promised much after an improvement in 2025 has delivered very little and it was a game that looked between the bottom two. When you consider the 90-odd missed tackles, that’s not Super League standard, is it, from Super League standard players and I think both clubs will have a turnaround of players.
“It doesn’t help that Hull FC have told players who are on contract to try and find other clubs, and it doesn’t help when players are left out of the team that don’t travel and aren’t there and not part of the squad. There’s illness, injury, and whatever else within the club. There are so many things that are fundamentally wrong that need fixing.
“And I don’t blame the coaching staff that are there either because they’ve inherited all of this. Nobody asked for the club to get rid of John Cartwright. Then Cartwright’s son ends up leaving. There’s lots of noise around all of that and not playing. John Cartwright from Catalans said that his son’s fit to play on social media, which I think is a no-no. You know, leave the club alone when you’ve gone.
“Then Andy Last inherits all these problems where players are being told to leave the club because they’re under contract next year. So there are all the jitters around that and nervousness for players. It’s just a recipe for disaster and disaster it’s become.”