Hull KR owner Neil Hudgell has spoken about the club’s recent transformation that’s led them to Challenge Cup success, whilst noting the importance of two 2025 signings, as well as what recruitment looks like going forward.
The Robins ended 40 years of hurt just over a week ago at Wembley and they made sure to celebrate it on Friday night at Craven Park when they dismantled Catalans Dragons 68-6.
It was a dominant performance that would precede the Challenge Cup trophy being paraded around the stadium, however, club owner Neil Hudgell had spoken ahead of the game to Sky Sports to discuss the club’s recent success.
Joking that he had a ‘rash’ from how many men had kissed him in celebration after that 8-6 win at Wembley, Hudgell was asked about the club’s recruitment and what ‘virtues’ they had sought in the players signed over recent years.
Hull KR looking to build on ‘momentum’ of Wembley win
Hudgell, who has owned the club since 2004, noted that a ‘team-first’ mentality was the secret to recent successful pieces of recruitment, pointing to examples of that mentality from the club’s Wembley win.
He explained: “Some of the takeaways for me last week are when you look at things that go on in the margins is the lads that didn’t play, and how they’re celebrating success.
“It’s very easy if you’re not selected to sulk off and go into a corner, but they look after themselves, the police themselves. There is a culture within the club that’s never been there, and it’s just growing year on year.”
Imperative to that culture in 2025 have been the additions of Micky McIlorum and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves with their impressive trophy hauls outdoing that of the rest of the squad combined. McIlorum has three Super League titles and a further four Challenge Cups, whilst Kiwi icon JWH has three World Club Challenges and three NRL premierships.
Hudgell noted just how far the club has gone to be able to lure in such a duo and be trusted with the final years of their career, as he explained: “To have Mickey Mac and JWH spend their final years here shows the trust from them that this has been an environment where they can finish their careers on a high. The lads that are behind them are drinking up that knowledge.
“You get momentum, don’t you? Once you get the momentum, once you get out that bottom end of the table and you start to believe that the dynamics all shift, and there are people now who want to come here. Even five years ago, we were at the bottom, and you’re picking up who is left.”
No longer simply ‘picking up who is left’, Hull KR are already on the recruitment hunt for 2027 and 2028 according to Hudgell with the Robins looking to build on this current success.
“I think about people who aren’t here” 🥺
Hull KR owner Neil Hudgell on what it means to be the 2025 Challenge Cup winners 🏆 pic.twitter.com/sHeOO58ZxJ
— Sky Sports Rugby League (@SkySportsRL) June 13, 2025
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