Simon Grix has challenged his Hull FC side to match Salford Red Devils' desire and show pride in their performance this Saturday afternoon. The Black and Whites host Salford in their penultimate game of the season, with Grix wanting to see his side 'work together' and stand up in moments of adversity.
Hull were hammered 68-6 at Leeds Rhinos last Friday in what was their biggest defeat of the season and perhaps their lowest point yet. On the contrary, Salford currently occupy fourth place on the Super League table, with one win pretty much guaranteeing their place in the play-off picture. The fortunes couldn't be more different.
However, Grix wants Hull to focus on themselves, with the aim to put in a more 'tougher' performance and be competitive in front of their home MKM Stadium crowd. The test for Hull's players is to believe in what they're doing, with the interim coach looking for his players to stand up when it 'doesn't go their way.'
"We've both got totally different motivations for this game," Grix said pre-match. "They're still chasing the six; we're chasing a bit of pride. What they're doing is our business, but it's not our biggest concern. Ours is how we handle ourselves individually and collectively, and how we can work together and come together when it's tough. We're playing against a really good team and there will be those tough moments, so our focus will lay with us.
"We have to keep going and believe in what we can do—if you don't believe it, you've got no chance of doing it, have you? We're just trying to reinforce that the players can do it. They've shown what they can do. They just have to go out there and show that they have got that want.
"It's not going to be pretty, and it's not going to be perfect; we've got a lot of young kids who are finding their way and people playing out of position and all of that, so it's never going to be pretty, but we just need to show a little bit more when it doesn't go our way. After a couple of dropped bombs and loose carries in yardage, our heads go quickly, and we need to react better to those moments of adversity and have each other's backs. They claim to be a tight group. They enjoy each others company. We need to show it."
Looking for a reaction again, Hull are in a place they've been in before this season, with the goal for Grix, who has provided some context again, to see more of the ball and try to put their plan into action.
"I don't think the players have stepped out on the field not wanting to do well," Grix added. "All of these issues we've got, there are a lot of unseen things that have played a part this year. Not only stuff that not everyone is privy to, but the mental side of the game, the combinations, the changes, getting used to each other, getting comfortable with each other, and then it changing again—all of those bits have been hard to handle. They become quite a heavy burden, I suppose, and when you're put under the pump, you make a few errors, and you're not feeling great. The easy thing is to capitulate and collapse, which we did the other day, but we need to be tougher than that.
"We've been here before. We've had these lows, but you've got to get on with the next job. There’s no point kicking stones. We’ve trained okay. We go again on Friday before playing on Saturday and we'll look to nail down a plan, but as I said after the game last week, most of your plans are about what you're going to do to dictate terms with the ball, and we had the ball around 30% of the game. That's telling in the outcome.
"We need to make sure we get our fair share of possession and look after the ball when we get hold of it. That will give us a chance to show some of the things that we work on but our attitude to defence and turning up for each other after the errors has got to be much improved."
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