Hull FC haven’t made the play-offs since the 2020 season with the club having suffered some tough times of late, forward Scott Taylor having been with the club throughout that play-off drought and the recently retired prop has revealed just what went wrong for the club in recent years.
Taylor called time on his career at the end of the recent campaign, finishing his career with over 300 Super League appearances and over 178 total appearances for his beloved Hull FC.
He had revealed to BBC Humberside that he had considered going for one more year but explained he was eager to go out on top physically. He also explained what exactly had caused the club’s poor form across the past few years, something he attributed to failed recruitment relative to the Challenge Cup winning days of 2016 and 2017.
“The Lee Radford era ended then Covid hit and then obviously the club went forward with a new coach coming out of the Covid pandemic for a couple of years and that just didn’t come off for whatever reasons,” Taylor told BBC Humberside.
“I’m not going to sit here and point blame at people, but it didn’t work out and it did get in a bit of a mess. I do feel like obviously there might have been one or two poor signings.
“Whereas, I think when you look back on 2016 or 17, when you look back now and you think, how did you fit all that team in that cap and then players, but obviously to get me, Carlos Tuimavave, bring Danny Washbrook back, Frank Pritchard, Sika Manu and just some absolute steals. When you look back at that team you think no wonder we won stuff in 16-17.
“I think since then obviously a few signings haven’t paid off, I think a couple of stuff’s gone against us and I think obviously last year it was Tony taking over a team that wasn’t his and having to try implement his stuff. You can’t change a team and culture overnight.
“So, going forward this season, it really is Tony’s team. Everyone who’s there, Tony wants there. He’s either signed them or wants to keep them. So, I think he’ll be a better judge of Tony and the team this year.”
He is positive for the season ahead though, outlining the key issue that the club have addressed being the size of the pack, the team having previously been undersized something that Taylor knew all too much about given his position.
He added: “I feel like we’ve been too small in the pack. I think me as a big guy, I’ve been one of the biggest now for quite a few years. I think the fact we’ve gone out there and signed Ese’ese and Pele, we’ve added some real big stars to that pack. We sort of built our success on in 16-17, having that pack in the middle to lead us forward.
“I think we’ve made some smart signings to complement that as well. I like the sign of Nu Brown, who was going to come in there and maybe cover at half-back until Trueman gets back, or he might cover at hooker because even though he’s one of my best mates Danny Houghton can’t play forever as much as people think he can.
“I think the recruitment’s been smart, I think look there’s no question they probably would have liked one more maybe a back-rower or a half-back because of Trueman’s injury but the squad’s more than good enough to go out there and do a job.”
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