New Hull FC head coach John Cartwright has made it very clear what he expects of his players after setting out clear pre-season demands.
In his first interview since arriving in England, Cartwright conceded that it had been a long time since his appointment but that he was excited to rise to the challenge.
It marks the first head coaching role that the 59-year-old will take on in just over a decade with the 2014 season at Gold Coast being his last in the hot seat. Since then, he’s taken on an array of assistant roles and learned from some of the best but it’s now time to step into the head coach sphere again.
As such, that means he is laying down the law and he’s made that clear when outlining the pre-season expectations at Hull FC with the club desperate to put their miserable 2024 behind them.
“Really interested to see how they turn up on day one,” admitted Cartwright, speaking on the Hull FC YouTube channel as he explained the pre-season directive.
“We had a bit of a Zoom meeting after their last game and just without sort of going into too much detail and not wanting to hit them with a whip after the season that they’d had. I wanted them to get away, freshen up, and enjoy themselves, but I’m really interested to see how they come back.
“I made it pretty clear that we didn’t want to spend time when they got back getting players fit. We wanted them turning up (in good condition). They’re professional athletes so I’m very interested to see how they looked after themselves during their break.”
What pre-season will look like for Hull FC
Credit: Getty Images
He would also confirm that the pre-season training starts on Tuesday, just 45 days after the Black and Whites lost their 25th and final game of the season.
Less than 10,000 turned up at the MKM Stadium to watch that defeat but Cartwright will be hoping that his pre-season schedule sees Hull FC reap the rewards with wins and therefore larger crowds.
On pre-season, he labelled it as “the only time that you can gain improvement,” explaining: “Your teamwork will improve as the season goes along but as far as pushing yourself to the limit at training every day, you can’t do that when you’ve got a game at the end of the week.
“So at the moment, we’ve got about a six-week block to Christmas, we’ll have a decent break over Christmas, then we’ve got another four-week block before we start getting into the preliminary game.
“There’s ten weeks there that I’m really interested to see who can really tough that out and come out the other end looking for more.”
Speaking more on the composition of pre-season and who will be involved, Cartwright confirmed that a squad of 30 will be bolstered by six academy products with all 30 first-team players fighting it out for a start in February.
“I think we’ll have 36 at training, six young boys, and the experience they’ll get will be invaluable. And then just 30 guys going hammer and tongs for spots, and if we can do that and come out healthy we’re going to have a competitive side to start the season.”
Later this month, Hull FC will find out their Round One opponents with the fixture release set for November 21st.
