Hull FC man on “night and day” changes, competition with Hull KR, and expectations

Hull FC winger Tom Briscoe has spoken about the club’s strong start to the 2025 season with the Black and Whites flying high in third in Super League.

John Cartwright has helped transform the club with Hull losing just one game so far in 2025, a result that they have since avenged by knocking Wigan out of the Challenge Cup.

That’s set up a Challenge Cup quarter-final against Hull KR which marks the first time the teams have met in the competition since 1986 and Briscoe has commented on the state of rugby league in the city.

Speaking to BBC Humberside about life at FC, he noted the air of positivity across the city as a whole: “Where we are at the minute, it’s great. It’s great for the players, there’s a buzz about the place, the fans are loving it, there’s that competition again with Rovers, so no, I think the city’s in a good place at the minute.”

A win on Thursday night against Castleford Tigers will propel the Black and Whites to second in Super League, at least for 24 hours, giving fans of rugby league in Hull a rare sight to see their teams first and second on the table.

Hull FC man on “night and day” changes from 2024

It hasn’t just been results that have been great for Hull FC this year, the club have also reinstated some good will with their fans after losing plenty in their torrid 2024.

With just three wins all year in 2024, Hull FC have already surpassed that and we’re not out of March which highlights the immense turnaround and Briscoe spoke on that contrast when asked if the club are ‘defying expectations’.

“Not from a players point of view,” he responded, adding: “I think the team we had and the experience that we brought in is doing the job that we got brought in to do.

“It’s night and day, the place at the minute from last season, which is where it needs to be. So, no, it’s where we expected to be as a team, but on the other side of that we’ll leave that to the fans.”

He put some of that down to the club “reaping the benefits” of a tough pre-season but explained that the primary driver for change has been something else.

“I think in and around training, the attitude,” he revealed.

“I think when I came in it were a tough place to be. Obviously, the results before I came in and what had gone on with the coach getting sacked and stuff. It’s hard to get out of a rut like that and the amount of players that came in, the change was ridiculous.

“Every week it was a different team and you can’t go about like that and you can’t win like that so I think there were no surprises with how we were going about last year but this year the players, the experience, the consistency of the team, it’s all coming together.”

Briscoe added: “By no means are we a finished article. Obviously we’ve got a lot to work on during the games that we’ve played so far. We’re really happy with where we’re at and the results we’ve been getting, but we know there’s a lot of work ahead.”