Hull FC captain Aidan Sezer admits he is ‘hurt’ by the decision from the club to part company with head coach John Cartwright – and insists the players want him to stay for the rest of 2026.
Cartwright’s future is in serious doubt, despite Hull having already confirmed he will not coach them beyond the remainder of this season. His explosive comments earlier this week combined with an emotionally-charged evening in Hull on Thursday have led many to suspect his time as coach is now going to end immediately.
No confirmation or decision has been made yet, with the Black and Whites likely to make the call over the weekend about whether or not Cartwright continues for next weekend’s game with Castleford Tigers.
But Sezer insisted on Thursday evening that nobody wants him to leave at all, let alone now.
When asked if he hoped Cartwright would continue, Sezer said: “I hope so. That’s being quite honest. I love playing under him, he’s like a father figure and hopefully he’s here for the rest of the year.
“It’s never good when the coach is going to leave at the end of the year. We all play for him, we all love him.”
From a personal perspective, Sezer revealed one of his main motivations behind coming back to England was to work with Cartwright again, and he was devastated to learn of his upcoming departure.
“We found out (last) Monday morning,” Sezer said. “Carty addressed the group, he’s an honest guy and it hurts. On a personal level, I came back to this country for Johnny Cartwright, he was my first coach in the game. I tried really hard for him tonight and I think we did that as a team. We came up short but there’s always next week.
“I think overall ever since Carty come in with we’ve played with spirit and character. As a team you rub off on your coach. No matter what happens within the club, voices outside or inside, we stick together and stay as one. You saw a spirited performance but in footy terms we were off.”