Returning Hull FC man labelled ‘invaluable’ as John Cartwright hails impact

John Cartwright believes the return of Andy Last could prove to be ‘invaluable’ for Hull FC heading into the 2025 season. After spells with Wakefield Trinity, Castleford Tigers and Catalans Dragons, Last has returned to the MKM Stadium to work under Cartwright as an assistant.

It’s a role Last is more than familiar with at his hometown club, of course, having spent 15 years in the Black and Whites’ backroom staff before his exit in December 2020. In that time the 43-year-old held various roles in the academy and first-team set up and worked as a number two under Lee Radford before taking the head coach reins on an interim basis during the pandemic.

Last led Hull to a play-off semi-final but ultimately couldn’t do enough to land the job full-time and his exit came as Brett Hodgson was appointed to succeed Radford.

Four years on, he returns to his beloved Black and Whites and Cartwright can already see just how much love and passion he has for the club and the shirt.

“Yeah, the longer I’m here the more I’m excited about what Andy can bring,” Cartwright said about Last and his return to Hull FC. “He’s already addressed the players on a few different issues and you can just see the passion in his voice when he talks about Hull and how much it actually means to him. Again that’s invaluable.

“For me, wherever I go I just want to win and you can’t do it without having passion for the job you do or a love for your players and a will to give the fans something to cheer about as they walk out of the ground.

“But for Andy, he’s lived it, he’s breathed it and he’s had time away, which is always good as a coach. I can see the excitement within him too when he comes bouncing back into training.”