Ben’s getting good advice from Hull FC - I stay out of the way
FATHER STEVE MCNAMARA ON WHY HIS
Steve Mcnamara beams with pride when he speaks about his 19-year-old son Ben, who underlined his rich promise with a tryscoring Super League debut for Hull FC last season.
Mcnamara, then 18, swapped passes with Jake Connor and scampered over the line in the second half of the Black and Whites’ 32-28 victory at Castleford Tigers last October.
It could be a sign of things to come in the years ahead.
Under then caretaker boss Andy Last, Mcnamara made three more appearances against Leeds Rhinos, Huddersfield Giants and Hull KR towards the end of last term.
Further progress is anticipated this season under new head coach Brett Hodgson, but the teenager’s father fears a potential lost generation of young talent amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Mcnamara senior has grave concerns that many similarly promising young stars will be lost to the game after almost a year with no action due to the restrictions caused by Covid-19.
The Catalans Dragons head coach told Rugby League Live: “I’m really proud of the progress Ben has made so far in his young career.
“He’s lucky because, without taking anything away from him, there are so many young players in the game who for a year now haven’t had any coaching or the ability to be part of the academies or haven’t played any games.
“They’re the real lost stories in all of this. There are some young players, Ben included, who got some opportunities in Super League last season and that’s great for them.
“But we have to have a huge concern for players who have basically lost the whole year and are going to have to try and resurrect their careers and pathways once we get going again.
“I’m talking about academy players who are not fortunate enough to be called into the fulltime squads, so they haven’t been able to train and they have been on their own.
“There are some outstanding players and young talent in these academies, but for a year they have just sat aside and had nowhere to play and nowhere to train.
“For all of the great opportunities which Covid-19 gave to young players to play first grade and enhance their reputation, Ben included, it’s probably worse tenfold for players who are suffering because of the situation.
“All of us have a duty - ourselves at Catalans and all the teams in England - to try and make sure that these players stay in the game and that their progression isn’t hampered too much by what’s happened during the past year.”
After a traumatic campaign which saw owner Adam Pearson announce live on Sky that he had sacked Lee Radford just minutes after a home defeat to Warrington
Wolves last March, Hodgson is now writing a new chapter at Hull FC.
Mcnamara knows the former Huddersfield and Warrington fullback well and they swapped ideas during the first lockdown last year before Hodgson landed the Hull job.
The former England boss added: “Ben had good coaches before in Lee Radford and Andy Last and he’s got good coaches now in Brett Hodgson and Kieron Purtill.
“There are enough people there giving him good advice and working with him day in and day out, so I leave all that to the coaches at Hull.
“Of course there will be conversations that we have on little bits as father and son but it’s not my job to interfere with his progress there now. I’m really pleased with the coaching and the support he’s getting as a young player and I think he will enjoy himself under Brett.
“It was interesting in the first Covid break last year, we had a bit of a catch-up when Brett was at Wests Tigers. The Catalans and Wests Tigers staff had got together on a Zoom meeting and we shared some ideas.
“It was clear then that Brett had some really good ideas and was going to be a coach, so it’s funny that he got the job at Hull and is coaching Ben.
“He’s got a great knowledge of the game and played in a position at full-back not dissimilar to where Ben is now in the halves.
“I think it’s great for Ben, but ultimately for a kid who’s just turned 19 I think being exposed to any fulltime environment is a great learning experience.”
Like his father did as a youth,
Mcnamara junior played amateur rugby league at Skirlaugh. When his dad moved to Australia to work on the coaching staff at Sydney Roosters, the youngster played for the NRL giants from U13s to U15s level.
He then got picked up by the City of Hull Academy when the family moved back to the UK and flirted with a career in rugby union before returning to rugby league and signing for the Black and Whites.
Mcnamara said: “Ben played rugby league for Skirlaugh but his secondary school, Pocklington School, is a rugby union school.
“He then got on the England pathway in rugby union but rugby league was always his game.
“He wanted to continue studying for his A-levels, which was a really big thing for Ben. But that meant he couldn’t join the joint the City of Hull Academy because it conflicted with the times that they trained and he was at school.
“He made a strong decision to carry on with his studies and he went and played rugby union at Yorkshire Carnegie and spent a couple of years there.
“He was on the England elite pathway but Hull FC came in and said ‘we’ll let you finish your studies but then we’ll give you a full-time contract.’
“That was it, once he got that opportunity he took it with both hands.
“He’s enjoying what he’s doing right now, that is a fact.”
Mcnamara junior gained three A*s in his A-levels and could have gone to one of a number of top universities.
Having decided to swap codes and opt for a career in professional rugby league, his decision appears a wise one on the evidence of his early career.
“Could Ben play rugby union again? You’d never say never, but at the moment he’s very happy with the decision he’s made to play for Hull FC,” said Mcnamara.
“He’s a very intelligent kid and had the opportunity to go to some top universities if he had pushed down that route.
“But he’s made his decision and he’s happy with it, although he’s got to earn his stripes again now.
“The most pleasing thing for me last season was that Ben looked comfortable at Super League level.
“He actually looked really comfortable. As a young kid, it’s a tough position to play in but there is so much more work ahead of him now and he’s aware of that. He’s cracking on with that.”
SON’S ON THE RIGHT PATH
Hull City yet again threw away points from a winning position to be held to a dramatic 3-3 draw after Doncaster Rovers legend James Coppinger came off the bench to equalise with a terrific free-kick 12 minutes into stoppage time at the end of a remarkable contest.
Play was halted in the 89th minute with City leading 3-2 when George Honeyman went down injured just outside his box. He needed lengthy treatment before being carried off the pitch on a stretcher with his head in a neck brace.
After that 12 minute break, City gave Rovers a cheap free-kick on the edge of their box, and Coppinger, wearing the commemorative gold kit he designed for his retirement season, curled in a lovely free-kick to earn a point.
City’s terrific first half saw them lead 3-1 at the break with returning Rovers man Mallik Wilks grabbing two and Jacob Greaves getting his first City goal just after Reece James had crashed in for Doncaster.
In a tetchy second half which saw boss Grant Mccann booked, Omar Bogle rolled in from the penalty spot to give the hosts hope, but a pulsating encounter ended after a lengthy stoppage which saw Honeyman stretchered off in injury time.
Mccann’s men will be kicking themselves for a second half display which was littered with errors compared to a pulsating first, though Keane Lewis-potter hit a post when he could have made it 4-1 and kill off Rovers’ challenge.
Unsurprisingly Mccann opted against making any changes to his starting line-up given the performance at Wigan, though there was a place on the bench for fit again Gavin Whyte at the expense of Jordan Flores.
It was a quiet, scrappy opening 10 minutes
3
3 before Wilks lit the blue touch paper for a remarkable 35 minutes or so.
Wilks, against his former club, headed in at the back post from a terrific Callum Elder cross 19 minutes in, and just five minutes later the in-form frontman had made it 2-0 in a flash.
Greg Docherty, who had been City’s best player in an impressive first period picked out Wilks inside the six-yard box with a pinpoint delivery after a clever touch from Lewispotter out on the left flank, and Wilks headed unerringly into the back of Ellery Balcombe’s net.
The chances kept coming for the rampant visitors, quick in the press and tenacious in the tackle, Docherty saw an effort fizzing towards the top corner before hitting the returning Tom Anderson and going over.
Docherty again went close and Mccann’s men looked to storm away with the half, but there was always a threat from the home side, largely owing to City’s, at times, sloppy defending.
After Matt Ingram had twice fumbled the ball inside his box, Reece James rattled in a fine strike from 25 yards in the 33rd minute to give Darren Moore’s shellshocked Rovers hope.
Rovers’ path back into the contest looked to be slammed firmly in their face once more five minutes later when at long last, Greaves got on the end of a perfectly timed cross from Honeyman’s right boot, and his face said it all.
City were 3-1 up in what had been a sensational half, even more so than the one we saw at the DW on Wednesday.
Rovers brought on former Tiger John Bostock for the second half in place of Madger Gomes, and it was a change which saw the home side cause City more problems.
Docherty had to leave the pitch 10 minutes into the second period after developing a problem which saw him replaced by Regan
GRANT Mccann bemoaned Hull City’s lack of intensity in a second half which saw them throw away two points at promotion rivals Doncaster Rovers.
The Tigers were 2-0 up in the first half after Mallik Wilks headed in twice, before the hosts got back in the game courtesy of a driven Reece James effort.
City restored their two-goal lead before the break when Jacob Greaves finally scored his first for the club.
It should have been 4-1 in the second period but Keane Lewis-potter could only hit the outside of a post when presented with a glorious opportunity.
Influential midfield duo Greg Docherty and George Honeyman left the pitch injured to give City plenty to worry about ahead of tomorrow night’s home game with Ipswich, and Mccann bemoaned the second half display at the Keepmoat Stadium.
“We should have been out of sight in the first half,” mused a frustrated Tigers boss.
“We had two cleared off the line, we were the team in the ascendancy. We were creating chances at will every time we went forward. Every time we had a set-play, I thought we were going to score. We didn’t take the opportunities.
“When you’re 2-0 up or 3-1 up, it gives the opposition an opportunity to reset or regroup at half-time.
“Second half, we went away from the things we were doing in the first half. The press wasn’t right, we lacked a bit of intensity in our game.
“It felt stop-start, every time we challenged there was a free-kick given to Doncaster.
“Doncaster were good in the second half - I have to give them credit, they were good.
“We didn’t get our shape right and at times we pressed out of our shape. We didn’t get the press right.
“They found the ball into Bogle too easily in the second half. He was getting hold of things and runners off him.
“We went away from what we were doing in the first half. We didn’t get on the ball as much, the centrehalves didn’t look to get on the ball, Matty (Ingram) was kicking things.
“These are things I need to look at and assess to get us back to where I know we can be and what we’ve seen against Wigan and 50 minutes on Saturday.”