![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4_sw_Huddersfield_v_HullFC-31.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe retired winger on the NRL move that never happened, Hull FC cup defeats, and whether he’ll be back at the club one day.<\/p>\n
Tom Briscoe after the final game of his first Hull FC spell in 2013.(Image: SW PIX)<\/p>\n
The 2013 season saw plenty of rumours that Hull FC winger Tom Briscoe was heading to Cronulla Sharks for 2014 and beyond. Those rumours were right and the winger, 23 at the time, had even signed with the Sydney-based club.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, off-field drama put an end to the move, with then coach Shane Flanagan stood down, and former Hull coach Peter Sharp taking the interim reins. The club were going through some difficulty off the field as well and Briscoe made the tough decision to pull out of the deal.<\/p>\n
There was just one problem: Hull had gone in different direction on the salary cap, and there was no room to offer Briscoe, a then England international, what he deserved. A move elsewhere in Super League beckoned, and Leeds Rhinos came calling.<\/p>\n
“I had signed,” Briscoe told Hull Live. “I was going, but then the club got into a bit of trouble off the field and the coach rang me and said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen.’<\/p>\n
“It was an unknown time for the club. The coach didn’t know if he was still going to be there and it was a big move to go there on the back of a lot of unknowns.<\/p>\n
“That point of uncertainly came and kind of ruined all the plans. At the time, the offer wasn’t there to stay at Hull. They’d moved on and obviously planned for time without me, which I obviously hold no regrets or no grudges about. That is sport; it’s business.<\/p>\n
“The opportunity to go to Leeds then came up and yeah, obviously they’d been on the run that they’d been on, winning and playing in finals, and it was kind of an easy decision with that in mind.”<\/p>\n
Briscoe soon justified his decision. He won three Challenge Cups and two Super League titles in an eight year stay at the Rhinos, turning his two runners up medals at Hull into winners ones. He also won another cup while at Leigh Leopards later in his career.<\/p>\n
“I would have loved to have won one of those cups,” Briscoe said when asked about the 2008 and 2013 finals with Hull. “But it wasn’t meant to be. I look back on it and think that maybe drove some more will in me to want to win it, to get back there; it planted that seed and set the fire burning of wanting to win even more.<\/p>\n
“But just to get to a final, I feel privileged to have done that in kind of such a short space of time. It was my debut year, the first time, and looking back, a whirlwind of a season; to play so few games and then be running out at Wembley, it was crazy and an incredible way to start my career. Although I didn’t win anything with the club, we went close and I’ve still got special memories from this place.”<\/p>\n
Now departing Hull as a player for the second time, Briscoe hung up his boots as a winner after victory at Headingley against Leeds last week. Playing 213 times for Hull and scoring 108 tries, he retires as a true club great of the modern era.<\/p>\n
“I wish Hull all the best,” the winger said. “There’s a lot of change, a lot of moving parts. It’s a club that has a special place for me and I want Hull to get back to the finals, to the big games, and to be challenging in the play-offs.<\/p>\n
“Things are getting put in place that hopefully lead to that success. I wish them the best of luck.”<\/p>\n