After Hull FC fans have had to endure a poor start to the season, conceding a record number of points after seven games and picking up just two points, Serious About RL dives into the stats behind their 2024 campaign so far.
Hull FC’s nightmare start to the season continued at the weekend, losing 22-56 to Huddersfield, and conceding 40 points in the first half in a performance that one fan labelled as being “worse than the Hull Sharks’ days”.
Thanks to Castleford’s win over Salford, they’re now second from bottom on points difference.
They’ve also conceded 50 points or more in three of their last four games.
The embarrassing Good Friday defeat to Hull KR also created plenty of anger in the fanbase.
To understand why they’ve been so poor, we’ve looked at some of their statistics this season.
The stats behind Hull FC and their shocking start to the season
Credit: Imago Images
Most cards
With three red cards, they’ve had the most dismissals of any side this year, and their seven yellow cards puts them joint-top with Leigh and Salford.
Playing a man down has in turn led to the team having to make a high number of tackles.
Second-most tackles
With the second-most tackles made this year, you can see they are up against it a lot of the time: a high number of tackles made suggests the opposition have had repeat sets and that Tony Smith’s side have been well and truly under the pump.
FC have certainly had their backs to the wall plenty of times this season – and this can also wear you down.
Their defence looks tired often this season, leading to…
Missed tackles
Only fellow-strugglers Castleford and London Broncos are higher than Hull FC on missed tackles, with 251 in the first seven games of the season.
This, naturally, gives the opposition a few more metres at least each time.
There were a particularly high number of missed tackles in their Good Friday defeat to Hull KR – it looked as if the Robins could score every time they had the ball.
Credit: Imago Images
Most penalties
Many speak of the team’s squad issues this season, with injuries limiting their options.
However, their ill-discipline has compounded the issue, and giving away 57 penalties means they’ve given more away than anyone else in Super League.
In fact, it’s more than double the number city-rivals Hull KR have given away, which is 27.
The battle for metres is always tricky when you give so many away.
Second-fewest metres
Only London Broncos, the league’s bottom side, have made fewer metres than the black-and-whites this year.
This is likely partially down to the fact that they’re playing a man down for longer than the rest of the sides in the league.
In addition, however, it could be put down to their forward pack being weak this year.
Most offloads
With 77 offloads this season, Hull FC are the side with the most of these in the league.
You could argue that this suggests the side are desperate.
Done well, it can be a fantastic tactic, and St Helens, who have had a good season, are close behind in this regard.
However, London Broncos and Castleford Tigers, other sides struggling this season, are also high.
Perhaps more important than the number of offloads is the type of offloads – and they haven’t been put to particularly good use this year.
