John Cartwright is more than pleased with the way Connor Bailey has stepped up from the Championship and settled in at Hull FC.
Bailey made the off-season move to west Hull from York Knights, where he has spent the last two seasons starring in the Championship. The 25-year-old played an instrumental role in the Knights’ success last season, scoring nine tries from the back-row to help the club to an 1895 Cup win and the League Leaders’ Shield.
Ultimately, his time at the LNER Community Stadium ended in Championship Grand Final defeat, but Bailey well and truly managed to establish himself as one of the second tier’s most impressive during his spell at York, totalling 63 appearances and 19 tries.
He’s no stranger to Super League, though. In fact, that’s where his career started having worked his way through the system and into the first-team at Wakefield Trinity as a youngster.
However, he made just five appearances for the club before joining Newcastle Thunder and it’s probably fair to say he has unfinished business in the top flight as a result.
He’ll be determined to put his best foot forward in west Hull, then, and it seems the move is paying off, with Bailey catching the eye of head coach John Cartwright early on.
“Training-wise, he’s fitted in really well,” Cartwright told Serious About Rugby League. “He’s hardly missed a minute of training.
“He tells me he’s the best shape that he’s ever been in and I like the way he’s competed physically. It’s a bit of a jump from Champ to Super League, but I really liked what I saw [against Huddersfield Giants on Sunday].”
Bailey made his first appearance in black and white on Sunday afternoon when he was surprisingly selected as a stand-off against Huddersfield in a pre-season friendly. It’s a position he has played before, albeit several years ago, but he looked comfortable enough and at the very least he provides Cartwright with further creative cover.
“I’ve had to play him out of position a bit,” Cartwright said. “We’re a little bit down on halves looking forward to the Wigan game.
“He’s played a little bit of six as a younger fella and I just like the way he handled it, he was happy to play six and we said we’d get him plenty of time in the back row and he did a really good job with both.”
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