Brett Hodgson says he has an almost fully-fit squad at his disposal for Sunday’s Betfred Super League season opener against Huddersfield, and is keen to see the Black & Whites show off the defensive qualities displayed during pre-season.
The game against the Giants will be the first competitive fixture as head coach for Hodgson, going up against a side who similarly have a new boss in place in the form of former Salford man Ian Watson.
Hull will be aiming to open the season with a win for the seventh time in eight seasons, and with defence being the key focus for FC over the last three months, Hodgson wants his side to show what they’ve been working on in pre-season at Emerald Headingley.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Brett Hodgson said: “We’re in the fortunate position where almost everyone is fit, so we’ll have to have some tough conversations with some of the players who won’t be playing. But that is a good conversation for us to be in.
On the captaincy for this weekend, he said: “We’re going to go with Marc Sneyd this week – that will be on a rotation basis throughout the season.”
Explaining his expectations for his first game in charge, he added: “It is important that we show what we have been doing in pre-season, in practice in a game environment against a team who also want to start the season off well; I’m sure Ian has got Huddersfield ready to go so it will be a good contest for us.
“I’ve learnt a lot from the NRL – going to Australia and working under Ivan Cleary and Michael Maguire has taught me a lot about game processes, particularly defensively under Ivan which I have tried to implement into our system here. I’m looking forward to putting that into action this weekend.”
He continued: “We’ve got a squad that is capable but lacked the discipline to do it week after week over the last couple of seasons, so that has been what we’re aiming to improve, starting with a strong performance this weekend which we will look to build on the back of.
“We’ve given the boys a little bit of time off in the run up to this game – we have a very busy schedule coming up in April and May so player welfare is always at the front of our minds.”
Hodgson also explained his disappointment not to see his side playing in front of crowds in his opening match in charge.
“The game is a better spectacle with supporters there, so there is a little bit of an underwhelming feeling to be playing in front of an empty stadium.
“But those are the cards we are dealt at the moment – we’re all looking forward to the middle of May when some supporters can get back into the ground.”
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