Mahe Fonua has reflected on a challenging 2020 campaign for the Black & Whites ahead of the side’s return to the KCOM Stadium tomorrow afternoon for their latest clash against Castleford Tigers.
Hull will play their first game on home turf in over seven months as the face the Tigers in the rearranged Betfred Super League Round 9 clash.
Ahead of the clash, Fonua, who returned from a two year stint in the NRL at the start of the 2020 campaign, described the challenges faced by the squad this season, but explain his desire to ensure Hull finish 2020 on a high.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Fonua said: “Obviously it has been a weird year with Covid-19 and the stop-start nature of the season. It hasn’t done me or the team any favours in finding consistency that we’ve needed.
“But saying that all teams have had to face the same problem so we’ve just got to roll with the punches and get on with it the best we can and see this season through.
“Nobody enjoys losing, but the games we have won have been good to be a part of. It would have been great to have a bit more consistency personally and on a team basis.”
Explaining his desire to finish the season on a high over the course of the next five games, he added: “We really want to finish this season on a high. I’m not sure where we can finish this season mathematically but we are going to try and win as many games as we can.
“If we scrape into the top four that would be a huge bonus, but we want to ensure we finish the season strong going into 2021 and give the fans at home something to get excited about going into next season.”
He continued: “Over these last nine games, it has been a really tough period. We’ve been confined to training centre and not been able to access over usual recovery processes.
“We’ve been cramming games in everywhere so it has been completely different to anything we have experience before. We have had a crack every week though – we may not have got the results we wanted every week but the effort has been there every time.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s clash, he added: “We’ve not paid too much interest in Castleford.
“We have a real focus on ourselves at the moment and what we can do within our squad, trying to sharpen our tools against what ever opposition is in front of us.”
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