I Know the common opinion is yes but in what way?
To me it's funny the reputation he's built in the game. He's a competitor who at times within a game can provide sharp service , he has a great kicking game that was under utilised here but he is seriously lacking in his ability to tie up the middle with his defence and his creativity is non existent . He's one of those players that seems to be flavour of the month in the media. In one respect they say he's a guy who's transformed Canterbury (Michael Ennis was saying this before a ball was kicked ) , on the other hand they let go JMK who was on a third as much and getting better and better. He's tenacious , goes all day but he doesn't seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed. Dude signed with dogs and was kissing the Eels logo...now he can't wait to tell everyone how his home is at Canterbury and how much he was held back at Parra,
I don't think we miss him at all. Hodgson is yet to set the world on fire but he and Hands have more than covered for Reed. Our outside backs have been a huge problem and their weekly fk ups, , missed tackles and bad reads plus sin bins are killing us in games. Hodgson tied up the middle with his defensive physicality in the Penrith game in ways Reed never has . Reed lost the middle with poor contact and legs tackles quite often . In watching Dogs games he's doing the same shit he did here just with a lot more ability from their coaches to direct their attack ... which has mostly been terrible. I think he will have a hard time containing our middles on Sunday and his effort and the narrative around him will mean that the negatives are overlooked. Im more than ok with him being a Bulldog.
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No don't think we miss him; but he's only young and can get better. I always noted his lack of running. But was this a coaching issue? NFI for me and as for Ennis, that dope was with us and we don't know what he did.
Mahoney can get stuffed - he left us and we've all moved on; it's like an ex girlfriend.
Hodgson for me is yet to be answered. He missed a lot of footy and I'll give him another month or so. I only hope he can come good otherwise the club has to move elsewhere for 2024 etc. Hands has done good and can only get better.
Makes me laugh how he and some commentators say he is playing with more freedom he looks the same if not worse . Other than the old 40 20 but also did that at parramatta
He's been rubbish over there , total speed hump in the games I've watched. Falling off tackles , being run over the top of , errors at crucial times. He try's hard I'll give him that , but he's not going to be any better than he ever was at Parramatta that's for damn sure. They can have him.
Even if the Hodgo / Hands , Hands / whomever , thing don't pan out , we are still better off being on the hunt for a Hooker than we are paying Weed Mahoney 650k per season.
We may be missing the fact he was part of our system right now only for the fact the guys knew his style and they'd worked together , so right now it's a new combo, new blokes , etc . But we will be a better team for it long term. We have to be able to adapt as you can't keep them all.
He wanted out. Simple as that. He felt he was being stifled here and had too many leaders in front of him. He wanted to be the Captain and chief playmaker, now he is. He's precisely where he wants to be. His role at the dogs is very different to what it was here and that's exactly what he wanted. Good riddance. I don't miss any player who doesn't want to play in blue and gold.
That said he's 1000x better than Hodgson at the moment. He is quicker, has more energy and his delivery is spot on. We're in trouble with Hodgson. He's not coping with the workload and speed of the game. He's become a significant, defensive liability. Don't just look at the missed tackle stat in isolation. You can't be accused of a missed tackle if you're not back in the line and therefore don't lay a hand on the player with the ball.
I'm not saying we are or aren't in trouble as you claim, but it's worth noting that JH is just outside the top 20 for total tackles made in the NRL and has played much less minutes than a few of his highly rated yet lower ranking peers. Maybe we need to address why he's carrying some of the blokes beside him in the workload Dept to find the soulution as to why he's rooted. Otherwise we may find that Hands ain't all that either when he's playing more minutes and being expected to cover these tackles.
For some reason that's always been the case....Keating? Mahoney? Hodgson?
Pretty much summed it up perfectly Mutt.
While Mahoney is 1000 times better than Hodgson, I am happy for anyone who doesn't want to be here to piss right off.
Hodgson is a major problem and will be for the entire season. Surely another team had a junior we could've chased or someone from England.
If it's a money thing then we should've gone with a Hands/Rein combo. Just as effective but a shit load cheaper.
I said from day one Hodgson was a bad signing.
Who available would've been the better signing ? That's the question. Not forgetting our funds were tied up at that stage needing to sign Dylan and Moses. Rein isn't up for it, can't play a season in the NRL. Take that to the bank, he's not a viable option. He doesn't even want to play NRL unless he's absaloutey needed for a game or two here and there. Hodgson will get less and less minutes until Hands is ready to take over , then Hodgson will likley just be a backup for depth or will get minimal minutes as the 14. It's no biggy. If hands can't play 80 then Hodgo will battle it out with Prince Arthur #2 when he's ready to take the 14 spot.
We shoud've chased Lussick , maybe we did , maybe we didn't , who knows , but he was a cracker for what he was.
We know you hate Hodgson, but in reality he's the best of the bunch and ain't anywhere near as hopeless as you're making out. He's made almost as many tackles as Mahoney and has less missed tackles. That's a fact. He's doing a job amd wouldn't even be on half of what Mahoney is on, doing the heavy lifting and paving the way for Hands to come on fresh. He's not busting lines and not as potent as any of us has hoped , but If you weigh up our financial situation with Brown and Moses at the time Mahoney was leaving and Hands was untested , what would you have seriously done if you were given the chequebook.
Who's the player ?
I don't hate Hodgson.
I don't personally know the guy so to say I hate him is just stupid.
I don't for 1 second believe that Rein doesn't want to play first grade. Do you have proof of that or is it more made up shit.
Rein would offer exactly what Hodgson does for a lot less money.
Hodgson was a panic buy when we lost Mahoney. No other club was chasing him and even his own club didn't put up a fight to keep him. I wonder why.
Mahoney is 2nd only to Grant for tackles made, has set up several tries and has gained several drop outs with his kicking game.
Yes Mahoney has 3 more missed tackles than Hodgson but Hodgson plays on average 30 minutes less per game.
Mahoney also leads the comp in 40/20s.
You can go on as much as you want Wiz but facts are facts. At this stage in their careers, Mahoney is far far far better than Hodgson.
Get it though your head , we couldn't afford Mahoney with Moses and Brown ya banana. He wasn't an option lol . It's not ETs rugby league on your mums computer where you just have whomever you like .
Yeah I'll go and get it in writing from Mitch . Or and I know this is unlikely , but you can take my word for it that Mitch and I share a mutual friend and I stood there in front of him when he said from his mouth that he was considering retirement as he's getting on and his body's not up to playing NRL anymore , however did have an offer to go around as purely a backup with a focus on mentoring and coaching and that's what's drawing him to take it up .
So yeah , he isn't trying to reignite his career and doesn't feel he can play a season of NRL .
tell ya what , pop down to Kiama some time and I'll get him to tell you himself .
By the way , you didn't answer SuperCoach , who are you buying exactly instead of Hodgson in the scenario we found ourselves in ? Anyone can flap their gums about what we shouldn't and should've done . Least when I put my neck out there about what we should've done with certain positions I'll throw a name up as a better target . You've been flapping on about Hodgson and how you knew he was no good , but I've never seen you toss up anyone we should've chased .
You managed to foresee that a 300k hooker isn't as good as a 650k hooker half his age . Genius ! What's the next great prediction oracle ? Can everyone put their avatars to BEM was correct please to validate the guy .
brilliant , how many times do you have to start your posts with " I said Hodgson wouldn't be as good " 😂. Dude , we had to buy whatever we could and considering the price difference , Hodgson ain't that far behind .
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