Hull FC: Tony Smith unleashes on media stating “look at my past” in defence of underfire job

Hull FC boss Tony Smith has fired back at media and fan speculation in a press conference consumed by him outlining his “qualifications” as a head coach in what was a defiant speech following another heavy loss.

Hull FC fell victim to another wide-margin defeat at the weekend when a Leigh Leopards side without star players Edwin Ipape, Lachlan Lam and John Asiata, managed to win 54-4 leading to a chorus of boos at the MKM Stadium.

That marked FC’s fourth loss of the season with the sole win coming against promoted London Broncos by a score of 28-24 with a last-gasp winner ensuring the Black and Whites avoided an embarrassing defeat.

Whilst they may claim to be historically bigger than their cross-city rivals Hull KR, the current times are unfavourable to the West side of the city with no play-off appearance since 2020 whereas the Robins appear to be a team on the rise.

Heavy defeats to their rivals in two of the last three derbies will only add to the pressure that Tony Smith is under, as will losses such as the weekends but speaking to BBC Humberside, Smith outlined that even the best teams can suffer heavy defeats.

He said: “One year that won the competition with Leeds Rhinos, we got beaten 70-6 I think by St. Helens and won the competition that year. It happens, you have days where you can get thumped. Even when we get to where we want to be, we’ll still get thumped sometimes.

“We’re a long way off being a consistent performing team. My job is to try and get it so heavy losses are not so frequent and it’s not often but we as a club, we haven’t had success in being a top, front running club for many, many, many years. Our last successes was some time ago and we need to stop that and we need to change that.

“I was asked to come in here to this club to change the culture and it is changing. It is changing within. Anybody who’s about it and around it will tell you that. The players themselves will see some things changing and tell you so. It won’t happen quickly and it won’t happen overnight, it rarely does. But I was asked to come in and help change things in that respect.”

There has recently been plenty of criticism among fans and even former players with ex-Hull FC man Jamie Shaul taking to social media to suggest Smith’s time has come, commenting ‘Tony out’ on a former teammate’s Instagram post.

“I think my qualifications are ok” – Tony Smith’s defiant defence of his job

Smith then tangented off from his current role at Hull FC and instead outlined his stellar coaching career with the longest-serving Super League coach reeling off his accolades in a bizarre Jose Mourinho-style monologue.

He reasoned: “If you look at my past, my first job was with a team that was on the verge of relegation each and every year at Huddersfield and we turned that around to become a fairly successful club in terms of they’re always up and around the mid, maybe top of the competition, which was nice to leave that in that way.

“My other qualifications for this position was probably next job, Leeds Rhinos hadn’t won a competition in 32 years and by the time I left there we’d played in three grand finals, won two of them and probably should have got a Challenge Cup as well.

“Warrington weren’t part of the big four and by the time I left there, they had been in four Challenge Cups, won three and made three Grand Finals. Turned that one around as well and now talked about and been part of the Big Four for a number of years.

“Then went to another perennial yo-yo team in Hull KR where they were up and down, bouncing in and out of Super League. By the time I left there, we’d played in a couple of semi-finals.

“So, I think my qualifications are okay for this one. Maybe I’ve got lucky at all those places. Maybe I’ve had a whole lot of luck or maybe I turned the culture around at places and that’s what Adam knows. I think he got asked this sort of this line of questioning yesterday where he went, it’s just a non-question and it is. We’re just cracking on with going through the processes.”

“Let’s work harder” – Tony Smith’s message to Hull FC players

Pivoting back to the here-and-now Smith spoke on the weekend’s defeat and what will be done to remedy it, whilst suggesting that performances this far have been “spirited”.

“This season, if we’re gonna be judged on that performance alone, well, it wasn’t great,” he accepted, adding: “If you wanna have a look at some of the other performances, we were pretty competitive and we were pretty spirited.

“Let’s work harder. Let’s make sure that those sort of days don’t happen as regularly. They’ll always happen. They will always happen. If you’re going to be competitive in sport, and you’re going to have to be prepared for a bad day, sometimes, you just don’t want them very frequently.

“We need to toughen up, work harder. All those things are being addressed. We’re aware of them but we’re just not going to fix them overnight. We’d love to go, right, we talked about it, it’s fixed. It doesn’t work like that.

“We certainly need to keep on evolving and getting stronger and making sure that we come and become one of those competitive teams. That’s what we’re striving to do.

“That’s what I got hired to do by my owner and chief exec, and they’ve been great. We’re all united on that. We understand exactly what’s needed to happen and we’re going through those processes and I’m grateful for that support.”

‘Don’t write us off yet’ – Super League campaign far from over for Hull FC

This weekend marks Round Six of the Challenge Cup with Super League teams set to enter the competition and Hull FC have been drawn against Huddersfield Giants, a game that FC will surely be targeting as a get-right game to try and turn their fortunes around.

When asked about the prospect that the Challenge Cup could be FC’s only avenue to silverware this season, based on the club’s poor Super League start, Smith was once again defiant and called on fans and media to not overreact to just five games of the season.

He argued: “We’ve got more than just Challenge Cup, we’re five games into a season and I think you guys have already planned the celebrations at the end. It’s just crazy. There’s gonna be ups, downs, twists and turns in both competitions. It’s way too early.

“If you’re insinuating that this is our only hope to any success in the season in the Challenge Cup then I tend to disagree and haven’t given up hope on making our Super League season a successful one.”

The coming weeks will highlight if this season will be a successful one in Super League for Hull FC and their next game in the competition is the biggest there is for them, the derby on Good Friday.

FC managed to secure a win at Craven Park last season and Smith and his side will be hoping that they can replicate that to kickstart their campaign and finally forge the culture and success that Smith explained he has been hired to bring.