Hull FC are all about the geese theory – and Will Pryce is seeing the benefits.
Hull FC’s Lewis Martin, Sam Lisone, Will Pryce, Davy Litten, Harvey Barron & Jake Arthur.
Head over to Hull FC’s TikTok page and you’ll find livewire full-back Will Pryce impersonating everything from a chicken to a sheep, but for this club, resurgent in 2025 and determined to kick on in 2026, it’s the geese that truly stand out.
Creating a tight-knit operation, Hull, led into the light again by head coach John Cartwright last year, centred their resurgence on two components: leadership and unity. And they used a theory surrounding a flock of geese to get both.
So what is the theory? Well, it’s all centred on the pattern a geese flock flies in – and what humans can learn from it. The flock is strategic and disciplined and involves each goose having its own spell as a leader.
For a rugby league team, it’s the likes of Aidan Sezer, John Asiata, Zak Hardaker, Liam Knight, Lewis Martin, Harvey Barron, Davy Litten, and Pryce himself – stepping up to lead in their moment and sharing the responsibility and accountability that a true leader holds to create unity.
It’s a theory based on commitment, connection, and communication. It’s a theory that shows leadership is collective and can come through different personnel, and it shows leadership by strategy and by leaving no goose – or in this case, player – behind. That, in a nutshell, was Hull FC in 2025.
It was about the team working together as a unit to achieve the same direction – a direction Pryce, who could well be the next Ronald McDonald when his playing days are done, is fully behind.
“We had a laugh and a joke at the membership day,” the full-back, speaking to Hull Live, said. “We tried to make as many animal noises as we could. It was just a bit of fun. Those days can be long, and it’s a good laugh.
“We have a leadership theory around geese. It’s the best thing for us and our team spirit is so strong. We always have a good laugh away from the field but when we cross the white line into training, it’s pretty serious.”
Arriving at Hull last April, Pryce, who was thrown straight into the deep end with two derby games in his first three appearances, is now well aware of Hull FC’s dynamics and of the geese theory. And he backs it all the way.
“There are no cliques throughout the whole group,” he continued. “From the young kid at 17 all the way to Aidan Sezer, there’s just no cliques, and everyone gets on.
“And for players like Seze, with the teams he’s been in, to sit here and say we’ve got a really good group says more than what I can say, but it’s an unreal group.
“I just love coming to training every day and seeing the boys. It’s good fun. We’ve got some unreal characters, Knighty and Davy – they bring energy and they’re always positive. They’re the sort of people you want to align yourself with.
“Davy is great. He just loves the camera; whatever else I say, please put that in. Davy Litten loves the camera. Whenever there’s a camera around, we’ll see Davy Litten light up.
“We’re just so tight and as a group, when we want to iron things out, we don’t sit there and argue. It can be a five-minute discussion and it’s sorted.
“Carty is great in that sense. I’ve not had a coach like Carty before. He’s just great at dealing with you individually and speaking to you as an individual.
“He makes life so much easier and speaks to us like men, but when he wants to crack the whip, he cracks the whip, and when he does, it works. He doesn’t spray us all of the time, but when he wants to crack the whip, he does.”
Mastering unity, Hull believe they also have the leaders to make a real dent in the Super League this season, but again, they know it’s keeping the geese flock together that matters most.
For Pryce, there’s a genuine confidence that Hull can do something special and kick on after a year of promise that saw them just miss out on the play-offs.
“There’s a lot of confidence in what we can achieve this year,” he said. “The signings we’ve made have influenced that – we’ve signed unbelievably well.
“Jake Arthur, Joe Batchelor, Harvie Hill, etc., all coming in, and James Bell, too, helping John Asiata, is massive. We don’t have to push them to their limits.
“And also having another year for the boys already here, like I’ve seen massive improvements from boys like Harvey Barron and Lewis Martin; they’re not exactly raw, but it was their first proper year of playing week in, week out, and you can see it in pre-season how much they’ve improved and how good they’ve got in the last three months in training.
“The belief is there in each individual; we’re convinced we can win something, and there’s a genuine belief around the whole club in terms of what we can achieve, but we also know we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves, and we’ll take it week by week.
“It’s a long season and there are no breaks, but having that genuine confidence within each other can only help us. It’s just about reigning that in and not getting too far ahead when we play teams that we feel we should beat easily, like we did last year, Huddersfield, Castleford, for example, and go and get beat.
“That can’t happen this year if we want to achieve something great. It’s about pulling the reins in when we need to as a group.”
Hull will need to do just that at the MKM Stadium on Saturday evening as they host promoted outfit Bradford Bulls, back in the big time after 12 years – and Pryce knows it.
“The players we’ve brought in will help us,” he added. “They are consistent first-team players with great leadership and experience. They are used to pressure and they know how to deal with it. We’re looking forward to it. The boys are all fired up and we’re ready to go.”
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