Hull FC Head of Emerging Talent Michael Shenton is excited by the prospect of Hull FC’s Reserves facing city rivals Hull KR this evening.
Shenton arrived at the Black & Whites fresh from hanging up his boots with Castleford Tigers at the end of the 2021 season, taking upon a new role of nurturing some of Hull FC’s most promising young starlets.
The Reserves will run out for the first time in almost two years tonight at the University of Hull, and Shenton cannot speak highly enough of the importance of the return of the reserve grade competition.
“It’s really important that we have a reserve grade competition back again, especially for those who are in their second year with us now,” Shenton said.
“They’ve obviously had that year at Academy level, so they’re a little bit more skilful and they know what level to expect at that level.
“But coming up to reserve level where you are coming up against some good sides who have deep first team squads, they’ll be facing first team fringe players and it will provide our youngsters with a great insight to feature in games like that.
“For their development, playing week in, week out is exactly what we want for them. If we can get some of our 18-year-olds playing 20 or more games this year, that is going to be a big plus.”
The Black & Whites will begin their reserve grade campaign with the pick of the first round ties – a clash with arch rivals Hull KR Reserves.
Shenton may be new to the city of Hull, but he explains it hasn’t taken him long to discover the emotion behind the rivalry.
“It didn’t take me long to find that out within the first week that I was here! It definitely keeps getting brought up,” he explained.
“Obviously we have a lot of Hull boys playing in our team, so I don’t think I’ll need to fire the boys up to play in this game.
“It’s more a case of keeping them composed. As much as I need them to be aggressive and have intent in what they do, I also need them to be smart and work on the areas we’ve been working on in pre-season, because at the end of the day it’s about developing these players. As much as I’d love for us to win that game, I also want to see us execute the things that we’ve been putting into practice over the last three or four months.”
Asked about his time at Hull FC as Head of Emerging Talent so far, Shenton added: “I’m finding the role good and I’m still learning stuff every day.
“It’s a great insight into youth development – it’s a long time since I was last involved in something like that.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of Head of Youths at other clubs and I’ve worked with Pete Riding previously at Castleford – he was the Head of Youth when I was a player there. So those kind of conversations are useful for me.
“The challenge of getting these boys up to speed and to the level they want to get to is exciting for me and one that I’m really enjoyed.”
The clash against Hull KR Reserves will take place at the University of Hull’s 4G pitch this evening, kicking off at 7.00pm.
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