Hull FC<\/a> and club owner Andrew Thirkill, there’s a whole bigger picture.<\/p>\nThe Black and Whites not only improved their performances and results in Super League this year, but off the field, they also made big strides. In reality, the two go hand in hand. On the field, the team, no matter what was thrown at them, showed spirit, grit, and determination, and off the field, that brought togetherness and connection, not just through the players, but to everyone \u2013 staff and supporters alike.<\/p>\n
That progress has created a real collective drive and an ambition. Hull, who have taken a giant leap forward after 2024, are hungry again. They’ve had a taste of a brighter future, and now they want more. There’s optimism about what’s ahead.<\/p>\n
“It’s been a fantastic year,” Thirkill, speaking at Monday’s club award night, said. “We’re on a journey \u2013 we haven’t really started it, to be fair, but when we first got involved, David (Hood, co-owner) and I, we tried to set ourselves simple goals that we could hopefully deliver.<\/p>\n
“One was to be competitive on the pitch, and one was to be sustainable, and we’re well on our way to making that happen. That’s really important to us: to make sure that Hull FC is around for another 160 years.<\/p>\n
“The third one was to reach out to the community and improve those community bonds which are so important in a city like Hull. We’ve done a lot of that. But the thing we never counted on or expected was the underlying energy, drive and motive from the supporters.<\/p>\n
“The fans have welcomed us in. We’ve tried to make the club a family spirit from players to coaches, everyone \u2013 we’ve tried to create a real bond that everybody can get energised from and be around. We’ve tried to look after everyone and I’m really proud of that \u2013 I think it’s so important.<\/p>\n
“Ultimately, we want Hull to be a super club. We want it to be an organisation that everyone looks up to and respects. It’s really important that we make that happen. We will make that happen. It could be five years, it could be ten years, you never know \u2013 you set out on your journeys, you have goals, and you have your objectives, and you reach out to them.<\/p>\n
“The timing is difficult to ascertain without putting pressure on playing squads and personnel, but we want to make it happen as quickly as possible. We’re all in that view \u2013 we want to be playing in Challenge Cup finals at Wembley, running out at Grand Finals, and we want to be in the top four playing semi-finals \u2013 that’s where we want to be. We will do that, for sure.”<\/p>\n
A key goal of Hull FC’s next term will be to become a play-off side. They just missed out this year, but with the retention and recruitment seen during the season, the ambition is there to make a dent in the top six \u2013 and then see what happens.<\/p>\n
And on the recruitment, Hull’s co-owner highlighted the steps made, with the cycles getting easier and players wanting to make the move to the Airlie Birds and be a part of it.<\/p>\n
“Next year’s squad, it’s really shaping up well,” Thirkill added. “I’ve been listening to all Richie’s conversations \u2013 we’ve been living together for the last five months; his house isn’t ready yet, which, to be honest, has been great, as we’ve been talking about things, and all the negotiations going on with Australian agents through the night, I’ve seen it first-hand.<\/p>\n
“We’ve made some great signings. When we first arrived on the scene, we had conversations, and people said, ‘I’m not coming to Hull.’ We knew where we were but now that has changed. We’ve got people saying they want to come to Hull.<\/p>\n
“That’s been a quick change, and for a lot of reasons \u2013 John (Cartwright), Gareth Ellis being back on the scene, Andy Last, and Simon (Grix) \u2013 who is now enjoying himself again, hopefully. It’s been a collective effort from everyone and we’re really excited for next year now. We will keep working hard and we will get there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hull FC owner on his first year in charge and what happens next. 05:00, 25 Sep 2025Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,115424,6531,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-450632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-hull-fc","10":"tag-rugby-league","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115265577250998759","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Hull](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_Hull-FC-try.jpg\")
Hull FC’s Lewis Martin celebrates with team-mates after scoring a try.<\/p>\n