Lewis Martin's big Hull FC ambition as 10-year claim made and home win relief shared
But if anything can sum up the 20-year-old's whirlwind career so far, it's that. Martin, the Hull-born flyer who continues to go from strength to strength, just doesn't take a backwards step.
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Debuting at St Helens in the final game of 2023, he has missed just three of Hull's 50 games since, clocking up 47 appearances and 30 tries, his latest: Hull's matchwinner in a 16-10 victory over Wakefield Trinity on Thursday night.
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And for Martin, formerly of Hull City before switching his allegiance to rugby league and Hull FC, the sky is the limit. Setting his sights high, the young gun is thriving, with the speedster believing he and teammate Harvey Barron can go on to be the club's wingers for the next ten years. And by his own admission, why not?
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Speaking to Hull Live, Martin said: "It felt good to score, but I'm even happier about the win. I just wanted to win. We talk about working for each other and hanging in there, and I think we did that."
And on his growth in the Hull team, with Barron too excelling in the side this season, Martin knows what is expected of them and what they have to do. He continued: "It's just good to see it happening, me on one wing and Harvey on the other. That's what we want for the future, and why not? Me and Harvey on the wings for the next ten years.
"It's clearly working now, and we've been trusted to go out and do it on the field. We're showing it week in and week out. It feels really good. We've got our sights on the play-offs, and me and Harvey know we have got a big job coming out of the backfield, and there's a big emphasis on that.
"That's our job at the end of the day, and we know what we have to do. We have to do it. There's no shying away from it. We have to take those tough carries. We earn our respect from our teammates by doing that, and we pride ourselves on those carriers. That gets us the tries at the other end."
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Speaking of tries, the winger's latest matchwinner came off a slick catch and pass from another Hull young gun, Davy Litten. Meanwhile, Martin, in his own words, was buzzing.
But there's also an element of modesty. He knew he faced a battle to get in the side this year, but he hasn't looked back with the sort of mental and skill-related traits that will do him the world of good as his career goes on and on.
"Probably not," Martin replied when asked if he imagined such figures this year. "I didn't think I'd play every game of the year. I always backed myself at the start to play, but there was a toss-up at the start of the year.
"But I said to myself, 'When I do get in that team, I keep my spot.' I think I've done that with my performances. It's been good in recent weeks, and my carries in the backfield—that's the most important thing—my work rate and my involvement, getting us going. I just want to push on towards the end of the year and keep my form up.
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"It's great to look at the tries, but I want the team to win. I'm just buzzing. All of the boys are. To get that monkey off our back, it's great, but it's just good to get the win."
After 12 months, Hull finally have a home win, with the victory over Wakefield being their first in 355 days and coming at the 12th time of asking. They put a poor first-half performance behind them to rally in the second half, with a strong display after the break seeing Hull steamrolling their opposition and getting the job done.
"It was really frustrating," Martin said about the first half. "Again, we were just our own worst enemies. It wasn't anything we were doing system-wise; it was just simple errors. We spoke about it all week, so that first half was disappointing; it was frustrating, but we had a chat at half-time, and we switched our mentality. It showed in the second half."
And there was no secret who the win was for, with Martin paying tribute to the club's supporters as the side now hunts a play-off finish with nine rounds of the regular Super League season to go.
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"We spoke before the game about doing it for them, and they deserved that," Martin added. "They travel across the country supporting us loud and proud. For the fans who don't get to travel away, they haven't seen us win this year, and it has been a long time.
"We know fans pay their hard-earned money to come and watch us, and we don't realise it when we're playing, but their lives revolve around us, and it was really good to get that win for them. They fully deserve it. They backed us throughout the full game, and they're a big part of the win.
"I just love playing at home in front of these fans, so hopefully we can make it a bit of a fortress now and get teams fearing coming to us. We just want to kick on and make those play-off spots.
"We targeted this game as an important one. We had a big block, and we didn't win the last two, so this was probably a decider in our season. If we want to make the play-offs and play finals football, we had to win this one. We are taking it week by week, but we know as a team what we want to achieve."
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