I'm a big fan of Tony Smith and forever grateful for what he did here for us, but it seems that he just can't build a team of his own. His genius is taking teams full of star players and making them gel into world-beaters. At KR and FC he's had the full cap available but hasn't seemed able to build teams to achieve anything remotely like what he did at Leeds and Warrington.
I remember him saying he coaches to defend and lets the players have freedom to run the attack, but the players he's recruited just aren't the ones to do that. He would have had a chance at success if he inherited the Hull team at the height of Radford's tenure, with Kelly, Sneyd, Shaul etc. Shame to see the decline.
Oh BTW, it'll be interesting to see what sort of bans are handed out for all these offences. If we're comparing it to Vaughan pulling on a player's shirt and getting 4 games, then we should see the three players last night getting more. My guess is we won't. Pele certainly won't get a McGuire-length ban anyway.
Joined: Oct 06 2005 Posts: 2833 Location: Warrington
Well we turned down Hiku due to him demanding to play FB....seems like he's demanded to be first choice goal kicker as well. Won't be long before Peters takes those duties away from him. Hull were woeful.
Snaggletooth wrote:Hiku was a shocking representation of the player we know, the worst goal kicking I’ve ever seen at this level. Mike Lewis was outstanding.
FC will be FC, just as much as we will be the Wire. FC’s owner looked stunned.
He didn’t look the same player at all did he. It could be a slow start, but on that showing won’t be losing sleep on missing out on him.
Hiku is decent enough, but no world beater, and past his best. I was a bit surprised that so many pundits thought he was some sort of 'statement' signing for KR. I'm not sure he's the catalyst they are looking for, and it's usually an indicator of trouble when you sign a player on the conditions that they get to play where they want. Different maybe, if you were to sign a Cleary or a Manu, but not a solid but unspectacular player.
Watched the game live, but on my laptop on SKY-GO to get a feel for how the SKY streamed games will be like to view..
There was a time delay on the commentary by about 20 to 30 seconds (Some might say that is a big plus), meaning that I had already watched the game action live before I heard the commentators describe it.
Is there always a sound delay on SKY-GO, or was it just last nights coverage that was faulty?
Joined: Sep 20 2005 Posts: 1087 Location: The Yard
fez1 wrote:Pele had to go for that swinging arm. It was utterly stupid. But am I the only one in thinking that (thankfully) the fist didn't make contact? However definition of 'punch' is 'striking with the fist'. I suppose the term is used in a more liberal sense in RL.
Overall Hull were woeful and they looked totally disjointed. They didn't do the basics right. They were ill-disciplined. The debutants were very disappointing and they didn't appear to have any sort of game plan. The injuries and (wrong - in my opinion) first sending of didn't help. Jack Ashworth was one of the few Hull players who had a reasonable game. Tony Smith has a massive job in front of him.
KR must be wondering how they didn't score more. And Hiku had a nightmare with the boot. Lewis carried on where he left off last year. Tanginoa was a handful and the Litten/Parcell rotation worked well. Unlike FC, KR looked like they'd been playing together for quite a long time.
Great crowd, shame about game quality.
Both red cards were correct, in my opinion. Even though Pele's fist didn't make contact, his forearm clearly connected with the head and that's enough, especially given how wild the swing was. Some dude on Hull's match thread (currently 34 pages long!) is blaming it all on the ref and giving it 'what's the game coming to if you can't even swing a punch into someone's face and knee them in the head?'. Yeah, right! If players can't understand that you just can't get away with such things anymore - like it or not - we are going to see plenty more cards being brandished. I wonder which Wire player will be the first to cop one?
The Speculator wrote:If players can't understand that you just can't get away with such things anymore - like it or not - we are going to see plenty more cards being brandished. I wonder which Wire player will be the first to cop one?
All I know is, Ben Westwood would play about one game a season from 2024 onwards, if that
I reckon Musgrove has to be the one player I'm genuinely worried about in that regard. He's an enforcer who gets easily riled and is prone to grubby stuff. I'm thinking that as much of a useful addition as he could be, he's also the sort who could lose us matches in the new era. Hoping to be well and truly proven wrong by some strict discipline from him.
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