For the first time in almost 50 days, Hull FC will play at the MKM Stadium on Friday night against the Castleford Tigers. With the players out in the community over the past several days and hoping to win three straight Super League games after victory at Leigh and Catalans, the game is part of the club’s ‘Hull and Proud’ week.
In addition, there are thoughts regarding loan transfers and other such matters, and Hull’s reserves play Hull KR over the weekend. This is the most recent notepad.
Although Hull’s reserves play Hull KR this Saturday, the team would prefer to have its younger and fringe players play every week while on loan in the Championship or League 1.
Ever since Lee Radford took over as manager, Hull has been frustrated with the biweekly reserves schedule. For years, they have expressed a desire for a more comprehensive fixture list.
Will Gardiner, Logan Moy, Brad Fash, and Jack Charles have all played on dual reg at Doncaster this season, while Will Kirby has joined Hunslet alongside Ryan Westerman. With Hugo Salabio on loan at Castleford, Zach Jebson has also played for the Goole Vikings.
Time will tell if they play this weekend for Hull’s reserves, on loan, or on dual reg, but John Cartwright appears to have a better alternative. In response to a question concerning Kirby’s loan, he told Hull Live this week: “They (Hunslet) play every week.” It’s not ideal that the second grade plays every other week. We’ll be lending players out whenever possible to help them perform at a better level.
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.”
