“I suppose…” – Simon Grix sends message to Hull FC fans ahead of first game

Hull FC face St Helens on the road tonight in the first game of interim coach Simon Grix’s tenure and the former Warrington stalwart has revealed what his side must do to get the fans back on side.

Grix couldn’t have wished for a much stiffer task in his first game in the hot seat with a road trip to St Helens marking an incredibly daunting prospect. He and his side could take faith in the fact that the Red Vee have lost their last two games but equally, that could lead to a huge reaction from Paul Wellens’ side.

Chairman Adam Pearson had claimed that Grix’s name would be in the hat for the job permanently should he win his next three but even if he’s to land the upset tonight Hull FC still face Leeds Rhinos and Warrington Wolves in their next two.

To that, Grix told BBC Humberside: “I think he made a bit of a flippant one there around winning the next three. He couldn’t have given me three harder games to get to audition with.”

He did confirm that he would “love to be a head coach again” but the 38-year-old was adamant that his current focus is getting the club out of the “hole” that they find themselves in.

“Obvious changes to be made” at Hull FC

After the sacking of Tony Smith and rumours of discontent among the Hull FC players, there have been questions of the culture at Hull FC and Grix has outlined that whilst there’s work to do, the club don’t have a culture problem.

He explained: “Well, culture’s that word, it gets bandied around a lot, and I know we’ve spoke about it a lot as a squad, staff. Tony spoke about how he’s big on it, he’s good at developing it, but culture is something that doesn’t just appear, it comes over time.

“I suppose it’s water to a fish, you don’t even realise it’s there once things are singing and going well. Generally, it gets spoken about it a lot when it’s not great.”

Specifically on what the culture at the club is like, he added: “I don’t think it’s terrible here by any means, but I think there’s a way to go on it and some of that comes from the people around the place, personnel and experience and the environments people have been in before.

“I think there are obviously changes that need to be made because you’re not at the bottom end of the table for no reason and that’s consistent over the last few years. We need to change but again that’s people above me to make those decisions around what those big changes you mentioned should be.”

How to impress Hull FC’s fans?

After losing six of their seven Super League games so far, it’s understandable that the Hull FC fans are incredibly disappointed and they’ve shown that on occasion when booing the team off at the half-time and full-time hooter.

Their attendance figure for the Huddersfield Giants game also dipped below 10,000 highlighting that the fans are clearly discontented and Grix has explained how he intends to reverse their attitude.

“Effort areas are really important for us at the minute to show not only each other but our fan base, that has been pretty good and they keep turning up through those sorts of losses, that we care about what we’re doing and if we keep working hard, learn fast, we give ourselves a chance again to be on the end of results.”

Another major issue that he faces is that he’s without two of the team’s quota players after the release of Tex Hoy and Nu Brown but the interim coach answered confidently when asked about them and their departure.

He bluntly stated: “Well they’re not here so they’re irrelevant now really aren’t they? They moved on and we’ve got other kids in there that are chomping at the bit to play and they’re probably a bit green, but they want to be here and some of those young kids are part of our future so I’m more than happy to work with those blokes and see if we can bring them along and bring them along faster.”

Hull FC travel to St Helens tonight with details of how to watch that game and all other rugby league games on TV are available here.