Catalans Dragons v Hull FC: Simon Grix tells Black and Whites to believe as they chase 2024 first

Hull appear destined for an 11th-place finish to continue their slide down the table in recent years but claiming another big scalp in Catalans Dragons would raise hopes of a brighter 2025 as the club prepare for a new era under John Cartwright with a homegrown core.

"My hope is that the players can take confidence from last week," said interim head coach Grix.

"Everyone can say Wigan weren't at their best – they made errors and all of those things – but I like to think we played a part in them not playing at their best.

"We did what we practised and saw the benefits of that. We can tweak things from week to week depending on what's in front of us but hopefully because of the positive experience of applying what we practised, we can kick on with that now.

"It's not a magic formula but it worked last weekend and if it can work against teams like Wigan then I'm sure it will work against many more."

Catalans suffered a setback in their pursuit of a top-four finish last week when they went down to Castleford Tigers at Wheldon Road.

The Dragons have not won in normal time away from home since March but remain a difficult team to beat at Stade Gilbert Brutus.

Grix knows Hull will need to be at their best to make it back-to-back wins for the first time in 12 months.

"This week is another test for us and another Wigan-like team," he said.

"Catalans are big, direct and come at you through the middle of the field. You've got to be tough enough to stand up to that.

"We'll be up against it again but that's the challenge now. We want to go back-to-back and keep building.

"If we can play with that sort of confidence and belief in each other and keep turning up then I'm sure we'll give ourselves a chance. We need to try and stick to what's been good for us.

"We'd done okay in our last few but lost by pretty tight margins. We were frustrated after those but we were still positive about what we were doing. The last few weeks have definitely been better."