As someone on here just said, It's the hope that kills you and indeed it is!!!!
That is an often used phrase about sport but yet at this time of year it is always the norm for me, because without a missed tackle being made in anger everyone across the league who has any sort of love for their club is like me ….. just hoping!
The fans are all about their teams whilst the clubs are all about money now, because TV income is shrinking and IMG are a last real throw of the dice. The game is simply not as attractive to those outside our hallowed circles anymore, we lack much impact from personalities, as our import signings are reduced to either signing ‘has been’ imports or 'chancers' if you like, who want to make a name for themselves here before heading home to cash in and who can blame them?
The game fiddles around the edges with formats, league structures and rule changes but the casual observer and thus the broadcasters don’t buy it at all and offer less and less for the privilege of covering it and after Sky we almost give the rest of the rights away anyway. All this because the game is going backwards yet this week, hope springs eternal once more with thousands of fans, (the real stakeholders in our sport), across the game as a new season starts.
The latest gimmick we are trying is the wheeze of opening the season with the world’s greatest RL Derby, but the reality here in Hull is that starting the season with the biggest game in the city brings the added "bonus" that whoever wins on Thursday goes on with strength while the losers start deflated and on the back foot and perhaps too, a tad low on confidence. I say that because when you play this game a few rounds in you have seen (hopefully) some hope and some wins which you can fall back on if you lose. So, for me this week the stakes have never been higher.
Reading this message board it’s pretty obvious where we all stand on which of those two roles the FC will be occupying come 10-00 pm on Thursday. . Wouldn't a win against the odds be amazing yet who in their right mind can see it? We have injuries in a spine that is anything but established in any case, a suspect back division which seems to find it hard to find the whitewash, several players playing out of position, plus I have to admit a massive pack who are still untried. In addition, we face an opposition who are the self-acclaimed kings of the game. It’s not hard to see why we are so reluctant to even contemplate a win. But these are strange games and can at times be totally unpredictable in fact some would say the more the odds are stacked against you the more chance you have. So we are back to that hope killing us!!!!
We’ll get there get behind the team and do our bit as we always do in such fixtures, in the end we’ll laugh or cry and do it whilst IMG, the RFL and Sky Tv pat each other on their Backs for a job well done. The winners will be top of the league for at least 24 hours, and their fans will think they have finished the season there whilst the losing team will get a big knock in confidence and wringing their hands their supporters will wonder where the next win is coming from if ever!!! However, after such a magnificent opener the game will probably fall on its booty again along with one of the HULL clubs and apparently we all know which one that will be, for like so many others I have never approached a season with more ambivalence as I am this one, yet I still have hope as do all of you because lets’ face it we wouldn’t be Hull fans if we didn’t! As I always say in such circumstances I’ll be watching the whole game through my fingers in a state of high anxiety whilst envying those watching at home who have the added benefit of an off switch and at the very least a settee to get behind. It's a time when I envy those trainspotters and stamp collectors who are every bit as passionate about their past times but who probably have a longer life expectancy. So, here we go again, its Hull FC, against the odds and boy it’s a good job we love 'em isn't it ???!!!!
