Hull FC boss reveals ambition that drew him to Super League

Hull FC head coach John Cartwright has outlined the ambition and desire that brought him to Super League after arriving in the country.

It’s been a long time since Cartwright was first announced as the successor to Tony Smith following his sacking back in April but the new head coach has finally arrived with the club starting their pre-season efforts on Tuesday.

Upon arrival, Cartwright gave a sit-down interview with the club’s media to outline what fans can expect and near the top of the list were his plans regarding pre-season and the fact that he is expecting a fit and healthy squad to be ready to go immediately.

He’ll have uncovered if the players did turn up fully prepared during their first sessions but it’s unclear what those sessions and what that style of coaching is with Cartwright not having held a head coach role since 2014.

Who is John Cartwright?

After leaving Gold Coast Titans, the 59-year-old has served under a number of high-profile coaches as an assistant and he explained that he’s now ‘much better prepared’ to be a head coach after learning from some of the best.

“I feel I’m way better prepared to coach a team now as a head coach than I was when I first started back in 2007,” Cartwright explained of his days at Gold Coast where Cartwright took the team from their foundations to lead them for seven years.

During that time, he would guide the club to third and fourth-placed finishes but silverware eluded him. Reflecting, he explained: “In those early days at the Titans, we had some good success, but I feel I’m now much better prepared.

“I’ve been really fortunate to work with some of the best coaches in the business and just seeing just how they. I can’t be a Ricky Stuart, I can’t be a Des Hasler, I can’t be a Tim Sheens, I’ve got to be me but I’ve got to take the best parts out of those guys.”

Hull FC boss reveals Super League ambition

John Cartwright now steps into the head coach role at Hull FC but he admitted that returning to the role of head coach was something he had to consider but ultimately decided upon in recent years. He even claimed that he believed Super League would be where he first took on the role again.

The Hull FC boss admitted: “The challenge itself is huge for me. I haven’t been a head coach for a fair while. I sort of tinkered for a while whether I wanted to get back into that. I probably made my mind up a couple of years ago that I did.

“I thought it would be the Super League. I thought this would be where my opportunity would come,” Cartwright explained before reflecting on his time in England as a player, stating that the atmosphere was something that had been calling him back for decades.

“I played over here many years ago at Salford and I always said to myself that I would come back, I love the football that much and I love the atmosphere and the crowds that much, that I’d always come back.

“At stages, I probably thought it wasn’t going to happen, but to get the opportunity to come and coach just a famous club as Hull FC is. It’s something I’m really looking forward to but I also feel the pressure of it as well.

“It is a very famous club and I certainly would be doing everything to make sure that we give our supporters something to cheer about.”

It’s unclear what the realistic expectations will be for Hull FC under Cartwright. Whilst they have undergone a squad overhaul and recruited some big names, the Black and Whites are a club who have not made the play-offs since 2020 and have not finished higher than sixth since 2017.