Zak Hardaker outlines John Cartwright impact and hails returning Hull FC man

Zak Hardaker is more than impressed with what he has seen from new Hull FC head coach John Cartwright so far this pre-season. Cartwright took charge of the Black and Whites in the autumn and he has the task of trying to turn the club around following their disastrous 2024 campaign.

Hull won just three games over the course of last season, and with a raft of new signings to help him, Cartwright will be expected to make sizable improvements at the MKM Stadium. Hardaker is one of those new signings, joining from Leigh Leopards, and he has spent the last two months working under the Australian at the club’s University of Hull training ground.

As such, he’s built up a decent understanding of Hull’s new chief at this point and he has nothing but good words to say.

“He’s great,” Hardaker told FC’s official channels about the head coach. “He’s straight to the point and very black and white, pardon the pun, but he’s very clear on what he wants from us as a playing group.

“The standards around the place, he set that from day one and that’s been pretty high – both on and off the field.

“We’ve been going around the community quite a lot before Christmas and that’s been good to meet the fans but also to get that one club mentality – trying to get everyone on board.”

Cartwright will be assisted by Simon Grix and Andy Last, with the latter returning to Hull FC over the off-season after stints with Wakefield Trinity, Castleford Tigers and Catalans Dragons.

“Grixy was here last year and it was a tough time but I think he’s learnt a lot about the group which is invaluable for the couple of years coming up,” Hardaker added. “Then Lasty, everyone at Hull speaks so highly of him.

“I’ve worked with him with England a couple of years ago and his resume speaks for itself. He’s a really good guy and really passionate about the club and what he wants to do with it and that passion feeds onto us players.

“When you see coaches who are so passionate about the town and the club, you want to do well for them as much as anyone else. They’ve had a really good impact and input. They’ve been getting stuff off Carty and drip feeding it down to us players and it’s really important that we take it on board and give it a good go.”