Zak Hardaker on life on and off the field.Hull FC’s Brad Fash & Zak Hardaker celebrate Lewis Martin’s try against Wakefield.(Image: SW PIX)

Hull FC’s Zak Hardaker has been around the block. Now a veteran of 400 career games, he’s seen it all, both good and bad, but that makes him all the wiser.

Now 33 years old, he’s on the straight and narrow. He’s a family man and a player’s player, and the two combined are bringing the best out of him.

One of several signings made by Richie Myler for 2025, Hardaker has arguably been the best of the lot. Dependable wherever he’s played, he comes up trumps, with the player hitting his groove on and off the field. Simply put, he’s been given the freedom to express and enjoy himself, doing what he loves, and it shows.

“Where I’m at at the minute with my life is right up there,” Hardaker, speaking to Hull Live, said. “I’m so happy away from the pitch. My life is really good.

“I’m really enjoying myself here. I think that’s shown in my personality on and off the pitch. I’ve tried to lead on the pitch and at training I speak a lot. I’ve really enjoyed that. My life away from rugby as well is really good. I’m really happy and the two together have coincided. I’ve had a really enjoyable year so far. It’s been good.

“It’s always affected me, my life away from rugby, whether it’s been good or bad. It’s a big sign for me that, but I’m 33 now, I’ve got two kids, and a bit of maturity has come into play there. The wrongs and the things I’ve done wrong before when I was younger are in the past.

“To be fair, the lads here are brilliant, and everything is just sweet at the minute. That shows when I’m playing and at training as well. On the pitch, I think my performances have been good, but around the training ground, the things we spoke about were getting this club back to where it belongs and building the fan base, the connection, and the love within the club, starting from Andrew Thirkill, Richie Myler, and the players, and I think we’ve built that along the season.”

One of Hull’s big differences this year has been their environment, their culture. On the field, it’s been about making each other accountable for performance, standards, preparation, and the like, but off it, it’s family-orientated and connected. It’s all as one.

“That’s really important for me,” Hardaker said on that family connection. “They’re massively influential for me and my life. My family are all on board, and it’s just the cohesion at Hull – my mum comes to every single game and she can feel how good it is when she comes. It’s a really family-orientated club and that’s what we spoke about before. It transfixes onto the pitch where we’ve had some really good performances.

“My kids are also great. They want me to keep playing Old Faithful on the speaker and they sing it really well, but they say Hull Faithful, not Old Faithful. They are four and three and they ask for that song request all of the time.

“It’s that or Crazy Frog. It varies from song to song, but they love it. Before it was the Rhinos and the Leopards, all animal-based, but they love Hull now. They’re black and white and they’ve got all the tops. We interact with other players, their partners, and their kids. It’s great.”

Elaborating on Hull’s culture progress, Hardaker continued: “It’s been massive. There was a lot of doom and gloom talk about the year before. It was hard to get past that, but when you weren’t here, it was hard to be in it.

“You could still feel that negative energy a little bit, but Carty was really quick to get that out. He said it was a new group and that he doesn’t care what happened last year; this is another year, and we need to pull our finger out. We did that.

“The difference from this year to last year is unrecognisable, but that’s the connection between the media staff, the physios, all those who work behind the scenes, and everyone else. Right from the top, from Richie to Andrew, that connection has helped us perform on the pitch. It’s one big circle. The fans are happier and it’s a good environment to be in.

“It’s all been a massive cultural change that we’ve managed to turn around in quite a short period of time. We talk about cultural changes at clubs, and sometimes it takes two, three, or four years, but internally we’ve flipped it on its head since November. It’s been a massive change.”

And as for the pitch, Hull have it all to do. They know they have to win their three remaining games to get a play-off spot, starting at Hull KR this weekend before home games against Warrington and Catalans to finish the regular season.

“We’re confident if we play 9/10, we’ll get the win no matter what players are in and what players are out,” Hardaker added. “It’s up to us to turn up and do that, come out firing, and show all the passion and desire again. If we can keep doing that, I’m sure we can get the two points.”