The Black and Whites have a common theme here and it’s not pretty
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Recent Hull FC seasons have had a common theme, and it's not pretty. Whether enjoying a promising start or whether playing catch up, the end of the year has seen the side fall off the rails.
In fact, whether a top four team, a vanilla mid-table side or one struggling at the bottom, Hull's finshies have rarely been different, with the side falling off the rails when it gets to August and September.
That pattern has been there to see since the club's 150th anniversary year back in 2015. Here Hull Live takes a look at those run-ins.
Read more: Hull FC and Hull KR's run ins as both clubs fight for Super League play-off place
2015 – Hull secured their Super 8s spot with a Derby victory in the penultimate regular round and then lost to Wigan 12-48 the following week. In the Super 8s, they won just one of seven games, with a heavy 16-46 loss coming at Warrington. Big injury crisis, admittedly, but not excusable to that magnitude. It was a poor end to a season that had more downs than ups.
Season Finish: 8th
2016 – Following their famous maiden Wembley win, Hull won just one game after the celebrations died down; an 18-12 victory at Wakefield with defeats coming to St Helens, Wigan, Warrington and Wigan again in a Super League semi-final. Top of the league at the Super 8s split, this was Hull's golden chance to win the competition, and for whatever reason, staying in the pub too long, taking the eye off the prize, etc, etc, they blew it.
Season Finish: 3rd
2017 – Hull had a slightly better finish than 2016 with two wins post Wembley victory; Wakefield at home and Castleford's 'Reserves' away. Defeats came at Leeds and, controversially so (via Liam Watts' red card for a challenge on Michael McIllorum), at home to Wigan, before Hull lost at Leeds in the Super League semi-final. Yet again, it wasn't to be, with the side's form dipping when it mattered most.
Season Finish: 3rd
2018 – The 2018 season saw a really poor start in terms of results but at least the massacres were absent for now. After a mid-season revival that saw Hull get to sixth position and secure their Super 8s spot, they, with another injury crisis, lost the final eleven games of the season, including a humiliating 10-72 defeat at Wakefield and a club record 10-80 defeat at Warrington. Still shuddering.
Season Finish: 8th
2019 – Peak Jekyll and Hyde, Hull's 2019 campaign was the sublime to the ridiculous. There was no inbetween, but after a topsy-turvy year, the side went on the slide, losing five of the last six league games to miss out on the newly formed top five play-off system on points difference in a season that included 12-63, 62-16 and 55-2 defeats.
Season Finish: 6th
2020 – After a sluggish start that saw the end of Lee Radford, Hull, under the interim care of Andy Last, shook off some embarrassing defeats against Salford (54-18) and Wigan (36-4), managing four wins from five to finish the farcical COVID interrupted 2020 season. That was enough, after the goalposts were moved of course, to reach the Super league play-offs in sixth position. That brought a trip to Warrington and a fine win, with Hull then humbled at Wigan in a game that saw them just eighty minutes from what would have been a home Grand Final.
Season Finish: 6th
2021 – After spending many of the opening rounds in fifth, fourth and even third place, Hull won just one of their last ten Super League matches in a slump that saw them finish in eighth position. A dismal end to Brett Hodgson's first season as head coach after such a promising start.
Season Finish: 8th
2022 – So far, a similar story to last year, 2022 saw a promising start with Hull fifth and even fourth for a fair part of the season. However, after just two wins in ten, and admittedly with an injury crisis, they've dropped down to ninth spot with the door to the Super League play-offs closing fast.
Current position: 9th
So, there's the theme, and it's not a good one. How can Hull rectify it? Well, again, that's the tough question, and no matter what the players and coach say about working hard, doing what they need to do, etc, it rarely pans out that way at the back end of the year. Is it attitude? Is it mentality? Is it fitness? Or a combination of all three? Who knows, but it's something those at the top will be having a strong look at as they conduct the next post-mortem.
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