Pretty grim read
Gareth Ellis says Brett Hodgson's downfall at Hull FC was pinning his hopes on Jake Connor and trying to build the team around him.
Ellis was Hodgson's assistant at the Black & Whites and spent over a decade at the club as a player and coach. Hodgson departed Hull FC in September 2022 after winning just 25 of his 64 games in charge.
Tony Smith then took over as head coach and Connor left to rejoin Huddersfield.
Ellis believes the main issue during Hodgson's reign was the faith placed in playmaker Connor, and when that experiment failed, things at the MKM Stadium with the whole team turned "pretty toxic".
"Jake Connor was very talented but completely different to Josh Reynolds, who at least was trying hard but not quite producing the goods," Ellis writes in his autobiography Never the Easy Option.
"Jake was, intermittently, coming up with them, but wasn’t such a hard worker and that led to consistency issues.
"Brett, particularly at the start of his time, threw all his eggs into the Jake Connor basket. Knowing his ability, he felt that he could get him onside and mould the team around him, which would have been the perfect scenario.
"But he never did. Once the experiment began to fail, Brett jumped into picking Jake out in video sessions, which meant he got a bit shirty in return.
"Before he knew it, Brett had lost everybody. It got pretty toxic towards the end.
"That’s not a slight on him, more that he was an inexperienced head coach trying to find his way and it was a bigger job than he’d anticipated.
"It’s not all about rugby in that role.
"It’s managing people, emotions and different characters.
"The best coaches can do that, whether everyone likes each other or not.
"Somehow, they can bring a group together and there’s a real skill to it."
Since leaving Hull FC Hodgson has served as defence coach with English rugby union national team and then with the Wallabies, both under Eddie Jones.
Ellis writes that at the end of the 2022 season the club was "all a bit of a mess".
"Players weren’t on board, just waiting for the season to end, and that was being reflected in the results," he said.
"The worst was the penultimate game of the 2022 season, at home in the derby, when Rovers with fifteen men took us apart.
"It summed up the depths we’d sunk to by then and where everyone’s head was. Unacceptably, the team just gave up in the most important fixture for the fans.
"There was no way back for Brett after that and a good few players were waiting to see what happened to him before deciding on their own futures, especially the experienced guys like Scott Taylor and Danny Houghton.
"It was intensely disappointing for everyone."
One of my Xmas prizzies
