Making the most of it. : Sat Apr 20, 2019 1:26 pm
Long, self-indulgent, autotherapy post...I think there’s a danger of overreacting to derby results, especially an extreme one like yesterday. But I had lovely time at the seaside instead of watching yesterday’s game (very good choice with hindsight) so I don’t think this is that. We’ve had enough cack results over the last ~7 years that I employ a degree of pre-emotive disappointment. And maybe i’m mellowing with age.
Maybe though now it is time to re-embrace the the plucky underdog tag. The ‘ambitious club, looking to compete’ thing generates some positivity during the off-season, but year on year it becomes a harder sell.
I also think it might help re-inject some urgency. There are other clubs who have similar, or even less resource to work with than us. They live hand to mouth, but to some extent it seems to focus minds, whereas we seem to drift along being patient and waiting for the metaphorical punch in the face.
It doesn’t help that we’re playing small ball yet again. I know it is much more down to injuries this year, and finally efforts were made to address it during the off-season. Do other people think we’d get better value trying to compete physically first rather than outplay opponents? The quality needed to do the latter successfully is probably out of our reach, imo. We sometimes characterise Hull as a power first team but I don’t think any of our halves would get in their team - and we’re trying to win by playing footy.
I think Sheens has done a decent job. But we are crying out for some bloody-minded ruthlessness from the top. In some ways we need to be patient (there’ll be defeats), but in others (e.g. building to improve over 3 or 5 years) it is a luxury I don’t think we can afford.
