Tony Smith expects 'more dangerous' Hull FC in 2024 after 'necessary' changes

Herman Ese’ese, Jayden Okunbor, Franklin Pele and Jack Ashworth have beefed up the pack, while Nu Brown, Jack Walker and Morgan Smith provide three new spine options.

"We made a lot of changes and I think they were necessary," said Smith.

"Hopefully the changes we made were the right ones but only time will prove it.

"Some of the people who have left needed to leave. We needed some younger people and we've got that.

"We've got a few new faces at the top end. They give us a bit of size and a bit of mobility, and a few options now in the way that we play. We were limited last year in the way we played because of our lack of size.

"I'm hoping that by adding more size we'll have a bit more punch in a few more areas, which makes us a bit more dangerous."

Smith, who oversaw similar rebuilds at Huddersfield Giants, Leeds Rhinos, Warrington Wolves and Hull KR, struggled to put his stamp on Hull in 2023 after taking over from Brett Hodgson.

Buoyed by his previous work, Smith expects the Black and Whites to be better for last year's experience.

"I've wanted this off-season to go as quickly as possible," he added.

"I didn't want too much of a break because I wanted to get my teeth into trying to improve this place.

"If you look back on my career and each place that I've been, with the exception of Leeds where we had success straight away, there aren't many places where you have overnight success.

"I'd like to think most places I've been, we improve in our second year and get a bit more right than we got the year before.

"Most of the time you come in for a reason. When the place needs an upgrade and an uplift, it takes a while to work out all the things that need to change. You have to live through some of those changes.

"We had our ups and downs last year. We had to go through some of that to realise what needed changing."