Brett Hodgson has looked ahead to Friday’s clash against St Helens, and says that Friday’s hosts aren’t unbeatable as the Black & Whites will look to exploit their weakenesses.
Hull travel to take on Kristian Woolf’s side this week after the Saints suffered their first defeat of the season last weekend against Catalans, while FC battled their way to a hard-fought victory over Leeds Rhinos at Emerald Headingley.
The league fixture against the Saints is a first of a double-header, with the Airlie Birds going up against them again next weekend in the Betfred Super League semi-finals.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, brought to you in association with Jacuzzi, Hodgson started by discussing this week’s team news.
“Josh Bowden is back in contention for this week. We’ll make a decision on him later in the week.
“The players who played in that position at the weekend did a good job, so we need to make a decision on who goes into those slots, but he is a consideration.”
On this week’s training plans, he added: “We won’t be able to do too much physical stuff on the field due to it being such a short turnaround.
“It’s all about getting ourselves mentally prepared to play against a very strong team.”
Looking ahead to the clash against the reigning champions, he explained the size of the challenge, but believes Hull can exploit their weaknesses.
“Saints have been at the top for years now. They’ve won the lats two Grand Finals; they’re fit, strong and never go away. So we need to look at areas where we want to hit them on the field. We just need to think about executing our plan and defending well again.
“It’s a big challenge, but we need to continue the path we are on. We feel we can win the game but we need to execute our plans to the best of our ability. It’s an exciting couple of weeks for us.
“Saints are not unbeatable and they have weaknesses like every team which we will be looking to exploit.”
Hodgson also commented on the recent form of Adam Swift, adding: “Adam has been excellent and was again this weekend. I’m not surprised by his form either; I knew about his quality before coming to Hull. He just needed some confidence that he could perform at this level constantly.
“His effort in pre-season has allowed him to get a starting spot and he has managed to hold onto it.”
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