I counted 10 missing from what we’d of considered our strongest 17 at start of season. Through injury, suspension, released or dropped. Then add on Jack Brown and Mitch who would be in for them. No team can compete like that.

However, consistently allowing our backs to take the first 4 carries in most sets didn’t help. The only time we made yards or got a quick ptb was through Ese’ese or Pele.

Pele stats are poor, should be double figures.

We need to either move away from backs doing all the work or get some mpre powerful backs, same tactic as 2017, when we had the likes of Fonua, Talanoa and Griffin

Yeah I saw that he only he had 5 carries. Just pointing out that the only time we got a quick ptb was off one of his or Ese’ese’s carries. But we only completed 19 sets, so he probably was only on the pitch for 9 of them given his minutes. When only 1 forward is getting a chance to drive the ball in, hard to get in double figures for carries, not defending him btw, needs to do more like Ese’ese having 12 carries is a great effort from him

I'm not normally one for calling players but Pele was horrendous last night. Just one carry in his first stint(18 minutes) Came back on in the 61st minute and was off again in the 77th and recall he did two carries.
Like Ockunbor, he just doesn't look interested.
Just shows how appalling the recruitment has been.

i agree with you jake.sick of women commentating at mens games,rugby,soccer and cricket.they have their own games,let them stick to them.as soon as they start talking,i switch the sound off.

Think we really need to try something different at 9. Danny didn't run the ball once last night, maybe scared of taking a big shot to the ribs. I don't know. But in the short time on the pitch Balmforth had he looked much more energetic than Danny has done all season. Everything Houghton does is telegraphed. At least on a couple of occasions Balmforth ran one way from dummy half then switched play back the opposite way. It's nothing impressive but it's just a simple move that causes the defensive line to reshuffle.
Even Danny's defence is showing a lot of cracks now. Left absolutely flat footed when Batchelor ran between him and Laidlaw.

I don't rate Smith at all, but once Trueman is back I'd be tempted to go Trueman and Charles in the halves with Smith and Balmforth sharing the 9 duties. Wouldn't be against Hodgson getting a go either once we get a couple more forwards back to help him out.

That is fair but even if we’re just talking about last night, it reflects the fact that Hull FC have chosen to base their depth almost entirely around inexperienced academy products. It’ll be interesting to see if that tendency is quite as pronounced after Myler starts to reshape the squad.

I tried swapping out Rovers players, trying to pick fair equivalents. The starting 13 looked fine, although after Storton the bench was youthful. Not a 17 to be able go to Saints and expect to win, but much better than nowhere near competitive.

And it’s not like things were better when a fair proportion of the players you list were in the team. Or you’ve had to face other teams at their strongest every week (Leigh missing Lam, Asiata, Ipape and Amone, Saints missing Walmsley, Dodd and Clark).

I get that the performance was always going to be seen through the prism of this being a new dawn, and you’d be ‘pulling together’, rightly…. if it had happened with Smith still in charge though, I doubt anybody would be offering those mitigations. Tbf, that’s why he had to go.

The Pele t shirt was a really good marketing ploy but his onfield performance has not furthered any cult status recognition.

Most teams use their outside backs on exit sets

Not as much as us though, we seem to 4 or 5 every set, I'm all for the first couple, but when you have backs like ours, the forwards should be doing the most work.