{"id":539088,"date":"2026-04-19T08:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/539088\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:25:10","slug":"john-cartwright-was-asking-for-trouble-with-explosive-presser-as-paul-cooke-reacts-to-hull-fc-exit-and-steve-mcnamara-appointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/539088\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cartwright was \u2018asking for trouble\u2019 with explosive presser as Paul Cooke reacts to Hull FC exit and Steve McNamara appointment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Former Hull FC player Paul Cooke has given his verdict on the news of John Cartwright stepping down and the club\u2019s appointment of Steve McNamara, with Cooke believing this result to have been inevitable after the Australian\u2019s explosive press conference<\/a> earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been almost a fortnight since Hull FC announced that John Cartwright would leave at the end of the season<\/a> with reports quickly emerging that Steve McNamara would replace him. Cartwright addressed that and many other things at Monday\u2019s press conference, claiming that news had been \u2018leaked\u2019 as he questioned the timing and explained that he felt \u2018betrayed\u2019.<\/p>\n

Just four days after that presser, Cartwright has now been confirmed to have stepped down from the head coaching duties at the club, though he remains employed, whilst the appointment of McNamara has been confirmed for 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former Hull FC man Paul Cooke has shared his immediate reaction when speaking to BBC Radio Humberside<\/a> with the ex-England international believing this to be an inevitable result.<\/p>\n

Cooke argued: \u201cThere was only one outcome. When you go above and speak about owners, CEOs<\/a>, whoever it may be, particularly the club itself and how badly it\u2019s been handled, then there is only one way that that\u2019s going and that ends up with you either not being at the club and moved on, or as it happens now, I think you\u2019re still employed by the club and on gardening leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cartwright\u2019s presser on Monday saw him emotional and honest and in the eyes of Cooke, it only brought about his exit from Hull FC quicker.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019m not sure where the unfairness comes from in terms of he\u2019s been told he\u2019s not going to be at the club next year. He was told he was going to be in a job until the end of this year. He\u2019s gone out and publicly spoken against the club and the club have moved him on or put him on gardening leave. I think that was an inevitable part of it for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you speak out of turn as much as he did, I was astounded by his honesty and what he said in his first interview after he\u2019d been told he wasn\u2019t going to be at the club because that\u2019s just asking for trouble if you\u2019re a head coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jazz Tevaga\u2019s sin-bin, Hull KR\u2019s underrated star and very early Man of Steel candidates \u2013\u00a0Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hull FC season pends on player attitude after Cartwright sacking<\/p>\n

Despite that, Cooke did express sympathy for Cartwright who has helped turned around Hull FC from a torrid position when he took over at the end of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand and I can sympathise with him,\u201d Cooke explained, adding: \u201cI can also understand it from the club\u2019s point of view as a business that, with all due respect, the results haven\u2019t been great this year. If somebody sat on a results-based business, then they could have been sacked on these results. He also could have been sacked because they want to move in a different direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots of ways that people can leave clubs and most of the time they don\u2019t end up in the public domain, and I doubt that we will know the facts of this and it will come into the domain unless John Cartwright wants to give up his severance payment package, his financial package, which he\u2019ll end up signing in the end with a non-disclosure agreement, which is what happens when most coaches sever from most clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking more on Cartwright\u2019s tenure, he added:\u201dI think John\u2019s done a terrific job, by the way, of stabilising this club because this club would have been hammered most weeks when John wasn\u2019t here and when he did come in, he makes them tough to beat.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s instilled toughness into the club. He\u2019s certainly taken the club forward in his tenure at the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

That toughness will now be tested with the players set to be led by assistant turned interim head coach Andy Last and after the player\u2019s clear message of support for Cartwright on Thursday night, Cooke said the season makes or breaks depending on the attitude of the group.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI think the season now depends on whether the players sulk and kick stones and if they want to do that, then don\u2019t play. It\u2019s as simple as that, just walk away. The game\u2019s too tough but if you do want to play, then the season can be salvaged and if you want to put some heart and soul into it, then of course it can be salvaged. There\u2019s still plenty of games left.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the actual appointment of Steve McNamara, Cooke labelled it an \u2018exciting opportunity\u2019 and spoke about the fact the Hull-born man will understand certain things more than any coach could. He also noted that Cartwright\u2019s early axing was predominantly due to McNamara\u2019s availability.<\/p>\n

Cooke assessed: \u201cI think 60-70% of that (decision) will be Steve McNamara\u2019s availability in 2027\u2026 There\u2019s nothing to say that will be available at the end of the year if they don\u2019t begin negotiations now.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Hull FC player Paul Cooke has given his verdict on the news of John Cartwright stepping down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-539088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}