BRAD Fash has lifted the lid on the unusual pre-match ritual he undertook in an attempt to snap Hull FC’s winless home streak last season.
Despite some notable results on the road, the Black and Whites failed to win their first seven home matches of the 2025 Betfred Super League campaign before eventually breaking their duck with a 16-10 victory over Wakefield Trinity on July 10.
That match also marked Fash’s 200th senior appearance and the Hull FC cult hero confirmed rumours he had attempted to break the hex by walking around the MKM Stadium pitch with burning sage pre-match after being advised to do so.
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“I’m not superstitious, but if it’s put to you that it might work and you don’t do it and you lose and you’ve not done the thing that’s in your head which might work, then you feel bad – as mental as that sentence sounded,” Fash, who repeated the ritual ahead of Hull FC’s win over Wigan Warriors at The Brick Community Stadium the following week, told BBC Radio Humberside.
“I had a lighter, some sage, and a little black pot I’d got off my missus so I didn’t set anything on fire. The missus bought [the sage] for me from…the kind of shop…where they sell witches hats.
“In theory, it worked. It was my 200th career game…and we’d not won at home, and I was getting very upset about it, and other than training hard or preparing well for the game in my head I needed to do something a little bit more.
“Before the game, I was in the dugout, on the pitch, walking around with some smoking green sage in my hand. My kit smelled great before I went home.”
It is just another part of Fash’s self-confessed eccentric personality which has helped make the mullet-sporting back row such a fan favourite among the Hull FC faithful.
There are plenty of those who will join the 29-year-old in celebrating his testimonial season in 2026 as well, which includes events such as an X-Factor-style singing contest involving his team-mates and head coach John Cartwright.
His testimonial match, meanwhile, takes place against Huddersfield Giants in January at Brantingham Park, where Fash’s oldest son plays rugby union for Hull Ionians and where he played home academy games while making his way as a young player.
As far as warding off bad luck though, the former West Hull junior is hoping he can stay injury-free in 2026 after a frustrating past two years which saw Fash restricted him to 12 appearances in 2024 and 19 last season.
“It’s been really frustrating injury-wise personally, and the last two injuries have just been freak accidents,” Fash said.
“This last one, someone landed on the back of my foot and it snapped a lot of ligaments in it so I had to get them done. Then the previous year, it was nothing. I was running near no one, stepped near my foot and something went pop, and had to get an operation on that.
“I’ve had operations before, come back and been fine, I think it will happen again and I’ll be absolutely fine and this will be the end of it. But in terms of frustrating, when you’ve not overdone anything and done everything you should have been and it snaps you’re like ‘are we for real with this?’
“But it is what it is, you’ve just got to move with it and crack on.”