Lee Radford’s reign reached a sad but inevitable ending at Hull FC - Gareth Ellis

Obviously, we’re in that position now at Hull FC with Lee Radford getting sacked after Thursday’s loss against Warrington.

Unfortunately, it just felt that, after the Catalans defeat a couple of weeks before, we were sort of playing every game knowing that if we failed he might get the sack.

That in itself brought a lot of strain on the club, staff and players and I think he sensed it coming. I think Thursday was the final straw.

He came into the dressing room straightaway and took it really well. He thanked all the players – not for that particular night, obviously – but for the years before under him that he’d been in charge.

But as much as it seemed it was inevitable it would happen at some stage, it probably wasn’t on the back of the last two or three weeks, more the back end of last season and the beginning of last year.

He will have seen it coming but it was still quite an emotional time. It’s a tough one but I think the club now has to move on.

If Lee Radford was the reason why we were playing so poorly, then we don’t have that excuse anymore.

It’s up to us as a group of players – and let’s face it, we have contributed to someone getting the sack – to show we don’t have that as an excuse any more and we have to buck our ideas up.

You can almost feel it coming when a coach is going to be fired.

In this instance, after that Catalans loss, there was a short turnaround to the Wakefield game and I wasn’t going to be playing because of that. But Radders said to me with the injuries we had he could really do with me playing. I didn’t want to be sat on the sidelines; whether it’s the right or wrong decision to fire Lee Radford, I felt that I needed to do my bit and have some impact on a game that would help him.

But a week later, he got the sack and that’s why I say there was that inevitable feeling; you just felt we weren’t playing well enough as a team to see any improvement.

Radders could see what was happening and that he wasn’t getting enough out of the players.

He wished us all the best and hopes this would be the kick-start of our season knowing we have a talented squad,

Hopefully this kind of scenario can kickstart it, like it did in the past – similar to when we got hammered at Widnes in 2016.

It’s a sad way to do it but hopefully, in terms of moving on, we can use this as a bit of a catalyst to try and reach some of that potential and some of that hype that was spoken about us earlier on in the year.

Remember how good it felt after winning at Leeds? We need to get some of that back and get on a bit of a roll.

We have put a good squad together but I’ve said all along it’s just names on paper; we have to go out there and do it.

The more opportunities you let slip by, the fewer chances you have of achieving things so we need to make the most of this year.

I will always look back on my time working under Radders fondly.

What we did, particularly in 2016 winning at Wembley, I feel a bond with that group of players and coaching staff and everyone associated with the club at that time, probably a little bit more than any other team that I have been part of.

We achieved something that is in the history books now; no one can take that away form us.

I share that bond with Lee Radford and will always remember that.

We had difficult times as well along the way but sometimes they bring the best out of you.

Radders knows it’s not always been rosy over his tenure but that’s the rollercoaster of life and rugby league.

We’ve experienced some lows, both personally and as a team, and also experienced the highs.

Not many coaches in any sport can stick around for as long as he has and be successful.

It’s only good stuff from me on Radders and I wish him all the best.

And I bet he will admit he’s slept more soundly these last few nights knowing –for the first time in years – he doesn’t have to worry about planning a week to try and get the best out of this group.

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