Exasperated Simon Grix labels Hull FC ‘disgraceful’ amid effort question

Simon Grix was left questioning his Hull FC players’ effort and desire following his side’s 39-20 loss to Castleford Tigers on Saturday afternoon. The Black and Whites, who have won just three games all season, fell to yet another defeat at the MKM Stadium as they failed to prevent Castleford from running in six tries in the contest.

Hull hit back with four efforts of their own with three coming during strong spells either side of half-time, but they were ultimately second best as Castleford moved to within a point of ninth placed Huddersfield Giants. In truth, with both teams having little to play for and at the wrong end of the table, it was a predictably low quality affair.

Grix understandably wanted to see so much more from his side, though, with the interim boss labelling some of his side’s defensive work as ‘disgraceful’.

“There were a couple of lapses in the first ten minutes and they scored tries, but after that, for another 20 minutes or so, our defence was disgraceful,” the interim Hull FC boss lamented.

“It’s real tough to come in here, because for me, I think people took some shortcuts today and took some easy choices, when our game is full of tough ones, and you have to do them on repeat if you want to be in games and win games. I thought some shortcuts were taken and sadly, I’ve got to be the one that comes out and fronts if, but forgive my language; they’re half-arsing it, getting back onside, line speed, not doing it properly, and then this is what happens to you.

“It’s really disappointing. I thought last week, their actions really did match the words. We spoke about how they got hold of it a bit and there was a bit of talk this week about what they were going to do. But as I’ve said on occasions this year, we turned up again thinking it was just going to happen again, and we got what we deserved.”

When asked how to address the situation, Grix added: “We need to get the 17 blokes in here along the rest of the squad and ask them. I don’t have the answer. We’re in a difficult spot.

“We can go on about it every week with the amount of change and all of that sort of stuff, but I don’t have the answer to how you can give it your best and leave it all out there one week like that and then turn out that rubbish the week after. Maybe we get up next week and we get the actions in line again; I don’t know. It depends how important it is to the people in the room.”