I'm excited with what I've seen this year - Cartwright

John Cartwright has stated he was always confident of his Hull FC side 'playing finals footy.' However, the head coach conceded that injuries ultimately got the better of them.

- By DAN TOMLINSON

That's not an excuse, but reality, and something Cartwright has already put on record with the club set to conduct a postseason review as they look to maximise sports science off the field, preparation and the like.

But the numbers don’t lie, with Hull missing several key players, including the likes of Herman Ese’ese, Will Pryce, John Asiata, Liam Knight and Jed Cartwright, in their season finale against Catalans Dragons, with the French side running out 26-22 winners to end Hull’s year and confirm Wakefield Trinity as Super League's sixth and final playoff team.

Cartwright also aired his pride at the players who came in, particularly some young emerging stars, and with what's coming to the club, the Hull coach is already buoyed for next season.

He said: "As the season unfolded, I was confident of playing finals footy and I was confident of making a dent in the finals. We basically lost some really key players - I don’t want to harp on about it, but that’s the reality - we lost key players.

“We've lost eight or nine regular first-team players but the guys who came in, they did a fantastic job for us, they kept us alive and kept us going right until the last game.