Hull FC have confirmed that John Cartwright will leave the club at the end of the season, but how he’s remembered will depend on the club’s short-term actions.
The Australian will leave the Black and Whites at the end of the 2026 season, one year earlier than he had been initially contracted to.
It’s fair to say that Cartwright took office during a difficult period, taking over after a record-breakingly bad 2024 season that saw Hull FC pick up just three wins from a total of 28 games in all competitions.
Appointed on a three-year deal, many expected a year of consolidation, a year of building and then ultimately a year of challenging but Cartwright expedited the process with the Black and Whites pushing for play-offs last year.
They’d ultimately fall three points short of the top six as injuries came to bite and unfortunately, the club find themselves in a similar position in respect to injuries.
That’s why this next week to month-long period is critical in how the legacy of John Cartwright at Hull FC will be remembered.
Hull FC urged to act fast
CEO Richie Myler has confirmed that the club are ‘in the process of securing the services of a new head coach for the 2027 season onwards’, and whilst it’s assuring that they’re working fast on that, the Black and Whites can’t just cast aside the 2026 campaign.
At this early stage of the season, Hull FC are just two points outside the top six but their current squad likely is not good enough to get them to the promised land, at least not with the current injuries.
Starting full-back Will Pryce went down in round two with a season-ending injury yet no replacement has been sought. Overseas prop Liam Knight has left the club to return down under and now star forward John Asiata has suffered, what John Cartwright described, a ‘pretty bad’ hamstring injury.
That’s not to mention other issues such as Herman Ese’ese (Achilles), Harvey Barron (ankle), Jed Cartwright (hamstring) all remaining out, whilst Jake Arthur (calf), Joe Batchelor (hamstring) and Arthur Romano (ankle) all picked up injuries this past week.
The season is quickly bordering on becoming a farce in terms of their injury issues, much like the 2024 campaign, but the club do have salary cap available to them, as well as an overseas quota spot.
They of course cannot add too many players to the mix but two to three players of genuine quality in key positions, namely full-back, second-row and another body in the pack could transform their season, and with it define John Cartwright’s legacy.
As it stands, that’s a legacy of an overachieving season that ultimately didn’t end in play-off rugby and whilst Cartwright earned plaudits at the time, it was a building block that needed to be built upon. Right now, the club are not using those foundations with those foundations even at risk of being washed away if they don’t act to preserve this 2026 campaign.
Should they allow 2026 to become an echo of 2024 in respect to it being injury-defined and unambitious, then their new head coach for 2027 will be starting from scratch. Hull FC fans deserve more than that and John Cartwright also deserves more. The club need to back him in the market or risk writing their own campaign and one of their best coaches in recent year’s legacy away.
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