Timbo wrote: ↑October 14, 2021, 10:34 pm
It’s not sitting very well with me that a genuine club legend may have played his last game for us and people are going ‘lol cya loser’.
Indeed. A few posters here with very short memories.
Josh Hodgson saved this club, he was THE key signing for this era of Raiders football. The Prelims, the GF, the hope... none of that happens, NONE, without Josh Hodgson. The streets should be lined with fans cheering him on his way out of this club given what he gave us...
We were in hooker purgatory since Steve Walters left the club. Never had a world class, quality hooker. ****, I'm old enough to remember Glenn Buttriss played 100+ games for this club.
God help us if we have to wait that long again for our next Josh Hodgson
the times he turned momentum our way with massive plays, the way he dominated in games on return from his 1st acl, the way he dragged us kicking and screaming to be putting the sharks away in 2016 before his injury ruined our title tilt.
I'm not forgetting
-TW- wrote: ↑October 14, 2021, 10:37 pm
Legend is a massive stretch
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I put guys like Croker, Tongue, and O'Sullivan in the legend category. Players that may not have been the best, but gave long and loyal service to the club.
Hodgson to me is in the great category. One of the top 10-20 players in our history. It's a shame we haven't managed to win a comp with him, because he's been the on field heartbeat of our revival.
Last edited by afgtnk on October 15, 2021, 9:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Hong Kong Raider wrote: ↑October 15, 2021, 1:49 am
I don't think Hodgson is a club legend, but neither is Croker. Club legend is a loose term bandied around regularly. I heard Braith Anasta being called a legend by Foxsports. For those who watched him played, that's just rubbish and embarrassing.
Hodgson was a very good player for us during a period of time, probably our most important player in 2016 - 2019. I don't know why he doesn't seem to get a lot of love on the GH Forum, but some fans may feel the same way about Croker.
Croker is similar to Chris Lawrence of the West Tigers. Both played a lot of games for their clubs, one club men, solid players and good clubmen, blokes who set a good culture but in my opinion not club legends. They are above average players though. Both also tailed off at the end of their careers. When you talk about club legends for the Wests Tigers, it's Benji for the Joint Venture, and Tommy R for Wests, and Wayne Pearce, Roach, Sironen, Elias, Garry Jack for Balmain. It's to be noted Lawrence did play for Australia, and Anasta for NSW and won a premiership in 2004 with Canterbury. But they didn't do much at rep level.
This is total nonsense. Croker didn’t find his way to captaincy from the centres and at a young age because he was solid. Croker carried us for years and was the only player offering much of anything in the darkest periods. Go back and watch some highlights smh. He now sits at number 3 on the ladder of top point scorers of all time (sitting above Jonathan Thurston and below Hasem El Masri) and he did that while spending a career in Canberra. And in the scheme of things, his decline has come sooner than expected.
He is our number one pointscorer of all time by some margin and oversaw our most successful 5 year period in over 20 years. The man is a club legend and to suggest otherwise is ludicrous.
afgtnk wrote: ↑October 14, 2021, 10:14 pm
Chicken or the egg situation. Stuart's excruciatingly negative and out of date tactics set up most players for failure this season. A good dozen were below their usual selves. Don't think the coach has much of a leg to stand on in that regard - he's the one who primarily got it wrong and let his players down, not vice versa.
Hong Kong Raider wrote: ↑October 15, 2021, 1:49 am
I don't think Hodgson is a club legend, but neither is Croker. Club legend is a loose term bandied around regularly. I heard Braith Anasta being called a legend by Foxsports. For those who watched him played, that's just rubbish and embarrassing.
Hodgson was a very good player for us during a period of time, probably our most important player in 2016 - 2019. I don't know why he doesn't seem to get a lot of love on the GH Forum, but some fans may feel the same way about Croker.
Croker is similar to Chris Lawrence of the West Tigers. Both played a lot of games for their clubs, one club men, solid players and good clubmen, blokes who set a good culture but in my opinion not club legends. They are above average players though. Both also tailed off at the end of their careers. When you talk about club legends for the Wests Tigers, it's Benji for the Joint Venture, and Tommy R for Wests, and Wayne Pearce, Roach, Sironen, Elias, Garry Jack for Balmain. It's to be noted Lawrence did play for Australia, and Anasta for NSW and won a premiership in 2004 with Canterbury. But they didn't do much at rep level.
This is total nonsense. Croker didn’t find his way to captaincy from the centres and at a young age because he was solid. Croker carried us for years and was the only player offering much of anything in the darkest periods. Go back and watch some highlights smh. He now sits at number 3 on the ladder of top point scorers of all time (sitting above Jonathan Thurston and below Hasem El Masri) and he did that while spending a career in Canberra. And in the scheme of things, his decline has come sooner than expected.
He is our number one pointscorer of all time by some margin and oversaw our most successful 5 year period in over 20 years. The man is a club legend and to suggest otherwise is ludicrous.
And it took Billy 5000 posts before he produced a good one!
Croker at his best had a lot in common with Jamie Lyon. A player who always popped up in the right place, had exceptional skill, and was deceptively hard to stop close to the line despite not looking particularly quick or strong.
Unfortunately those sorts of players tend to get disrespected once they inevitably get old like all players do and low attention span fans can’t remember a time they fended off the entire opposition team.
This probably isn’t the right thread for this rant hahah but as a staunch raiders fan I couldn’t sit idly by and watch the Lawrence comparison
Terrycampese wrote: ↑October 15, 2021, 9:18 am
Croker at his best had a lot in common with Jamie Lyon. A player who always popped up in the right place, had exceptional skill, and was deceptively hard to stop close to the line despite not looking particularly quick or strong.
Unfortunately those sorts of players tend to get disrespected once they inevitably get old like all players do and low attention span fans can’t remember a time they fended off the entire opposition team.
This probably isn’t the right thread for this rant hahah but as a staunch raiders fan I couldn’t sit idly by and watch the Lawrence comparison
Jamie Lyon? Just no. Croker has never reached that level.
Roger Kenworthy wrote: ↑October 14, 2021, 9:52 pm
This one hits me hard. He's been right there for the ascension of the club and to know he's moving on having fallen just short in 2019 is tough.
I think it's going to be a while before we're relevant again. We'll have one of the worst 4 or 5 spines in the comp next season.
Oh yeah, we’re in the wilderness now.
8 minutes and a ball hitting a trainer cost the best side we’ve had since ‘94 getting the reward they deserved.
That was over 2 years ago, not sure why this keeps getting brought up. You can make as many excuses as you like but we.didn’t.win.in.2019. The result won’t change.
And it has nothing to do with our future results, which is all that matters from here on in
Roger Kenworthy wrote: ↑October 14, 2021, 9:52 pm
This one hits me hard. He's been right there for the ascension of the club and to know he's moving on having fallen just short in 2019 is tough.
I think it's going to be a while before we're relevant again. We'll have one of the worst 4 or 5 spines in the comp next season.
Oh yeah, we’re in the wilderness now.
8 minutes and a ball hitting a trainer cost the best side we’ve had since ‘94 getting the reward they deserved.
That was over 2 years ago, not sure why this keeps getting brought up. You can make as many excuses as you like but we.didn’t.win.in.2019. The result won’t change.
And it has nothing to do with our future results, which is all that matters from here on in
For some reason for me the moment he relinquished his co-captaincy mean't we could kiss goodbye the 2019 form we saw from him coming back for us.
Very good player - at his best is arguably one of the best hookers... there was a period where he was on par with Smith (although Smith was consistent over a really long period).
He can contribute well to any club over the next few seasons... maybe... just maybe... it might be time for him to find a new home and i think for the Raiders that would be the right call. I do worry it exposes us potentially from a depth perspective so be interested to see what unfolds.
People on here disrespecting Hodgson need to give themselves an uppercut.
You were spewing the same garbage in 2018...We just went through a massive rebuild so yeah we aren't winning the comp, but I'm 100% certain we will be a competitive side next year
sprintman wrote: ↑October 15, 2021, 9:32 am
Tigers forum says deal done, delayed by Sheens signing. Just haggling over how much we pay, expected to be $200-300,000.
Hong Kong Raider wrote: ↑October 15, 2021, 1:49 am
I don't think Hodgson is a club legend, but neither is Croker. Club legend is a loose term bandied around regularly. I heard Braith Anasta being called a legend by Foxsports. For those who watched him played, that's just rubbish and embarrassing.
Hodgson was a very good player for us during a period of time, probably our most important player in 2016 - 2019. I don't know why he doesn't seem to get a lot of love on the GH Forum, but some fans may feel the same way about Croker.
Croker is similar to Chris Lawrence of the West Tigers. Both played a lot of games for their clubs, one club men, solid players and good clubmen, blokes who set a good culture but in my opinion not club legends. They are above average players though. Both also tailed off at the end of their careers. When you talk about club legends for the Wests Tigers, it's Benji for the Joint Venture, and Tommy R for Wests, and Wayne Pearce, Roach, Sironen, Elias, Garry Jack for Balmain. It's to be noted Lawrence did play for Australia, and Anasta for NSW and won a premiership in 2004 with Canterbury. But they didn't do much at rep level.
This is total nonsense. Croker didn’t find his way to captaincy from the centres and at a young age because he was solid. Croker carried us for years and was the only player offering much of anything in the darkest periods. Go back and watch some highlights smh. He now sits at number 3 on the ladder of top point scorers of all time (sitting above Jonathan Thurston and below Hasem El Masri) and he did that while spending a career in Canberra. And in the scheme of things, his decline has come sooner than expected.
He is our number one pointscorer of all time by some margin and oversaw our most successful 5 year period in over 20 years. The man is a club legend and to suggest otherwise is ludicrous.
And it took Billy 5000 posts before he produced a good one!
There are actually only 2 parts of Billy's post I disagree with, but one I cant see the sentiment.
1. I do think Croker deserves club legend status. The length of time and all the club records are worth that status.
2. Chris Lawerance... the bloke was too injury prone for the comment, and thus I disagree, BUT, I can see why he is making the comparison, and has picked a player of similar ilk to make it. Not to mention, its VERY clear that the names at the end of the comparison are far superior to both.
Roger Kenworthy wrote: ↑October 14, 2021, 9:52 pm
This one hits me hard. He's been right there for the ascension of the club and to know he's moving on having fallen just short in 2019 is tough.
I think it's going to be a while before we're relevant again. We'll have one of the worst 4 or 5 spines in the comp next season.
Oh yeah, we’re in the wilderness now.
8 minutes and a ball hitting a trainer cost the best side we’ve had since ‘94 getting the reward they deserved.
That was over 2 years ago, not sure why this keeps getting brought up. You can make as many excuses as you like but we.didn’t.win.in.2019. The result won’t change.
And it has nothing to do with our future results, which is all that matters from here on in
We are at a crossroad... its hard to predict if we are going to go down from here, maintain or improve... I still have faith, we have lots of juniors coming through.
One thing is for sure... we MUST find our attack and bring back our culture around playing for everything in defence. Without both of those we will trend down.
If our attack options are:
- give the ball to Jack
- hope paps runs over to score
and that's it.. we are cooked.
afgtnk wrote: ↑October 14, 2021, 10:14 pm
Chicken or the egg situation. Stuart's excruciatingly negative and out of date tactics set up most players for failure this season. A good dozen were below their usual selves. Don't think the coach has much of a leg to stand on in that regard - he's the one who primarily got it wrong and let his players down, not vice versa.
Nailed it.
Ricky is way too negative that's for sure but it was grindball that ended up winning the comp for the Panthers. Just need to get to the top 4 first lol
Hodgson "will be a Tiger" with Canberra Raiders to pay portion of salary
The Wests Tigers have reportedly offered Canberra dummy-half Josh Hodgson a two-year deal to make the move to Sydney.
"This one’s been in the works I believe for the last week or so," The Daily Telegraph's David Riccio said. "I think he will be a Wests Tiger next year, I think this will eventuate. It’s only down to financial terms and how much the Wests Tigers are willing to pay of Josh Hodgson’s $800,000 contract next year. The Raiders will have to chip in, and I think it’ll be in the vicinity of two to three hundred thousand dollars."
It’s a real shame that he’s moving on. I would’ve thought he had plans for a post playing career here as an assistant coach.
Knowing that he’s building a house here, it must’ve of been a real blow-up between Ricky and him.
Perhaps Liddle could come the other way as a backup hooker? Not that I rate him
afgtnk wrote: ↑October 14, 2021, 10:14 pm
Chicken or the egg situation. Stuart's excruciatingly negative and out of date tactics set up most players for failure this season. A good dozen were below their usual selves. Don't think the coach has much of a leg to stand on in that regard - he's the one who primarily got it wrong and let his players down, not vice versa.
Nailed it.
Ricky is way too negative that's for sure but it was grindball that ended up winning the comp for the Panthers. Just need to get to the top 4 first lol
The Panthers did not finish 1st last year and 2nd this year playing grind ball.
afgtnk wrote: ↑October 14, 2021, 10:14 pm
Chicken or the egg situation. Stuart's excruciatingly negative and out of date tactics set up most players for failure this season. A good dozen were below their usual selves. Don't think the coach has much of a leg to stand on in that regard - he's the one who primarily got it wrong and let his players down, not vice versa.
Nailed it.
Ricky is way too negative that's for sure but it was grindball that ended up winning the comp for the Panthers. Just need to get to the top 4 first lol
The Panthers did not finish 1st last year and 2nd this year playing grind ball.
No you are right...they won the comp playing grindball in the semis. BOTH the Clearys admitted as much
afgtnk wrote: ↑October 14, 2021, 10:14 pm
Chicken or the egg situation. Stuart's excruciatingly negative and out of date tactics set up most players for failure this season. A good dozen were below their usual selves. Don't think the coach has much of a leg to stand on in that regard - he's the one who primarily got it wrong and let his players down, not vice versa.
Nailed it.
Ricky is way too negative that's for sure but it was grindball that ended up winning the comp for the Panthers. Just need to get to the top 4 first lol
The Panthers did not finish 1st last year and 2nd this year playing grind ball.
No you are right...they won the comp playing grindball in the semis. BOTH the Clearys admitted as much
Finals is a completely different game to home and away. Doesn't mean grind ball is the go, because it clearly isn't.
The panthers won the comp because they were capable of winning in different ways.
They were both a skillful and open attacking football team, and a tough gritty defensive side when they had to be. The storm were same
Panthers are good because they can do both. I think it makes a big difference throughout the season to be able to torch a team in 20 mins and put the game to bed. It's exhausting having to grindball all season. And you'll drop a couple of close ones here and there if you just can't put teams away.
Finals can go either way. Some are a grind, maybe most. But it'd be great to have a decent shot at winning either way.
Agree on all sides...Which is why we got the mystro back to coach the attack.. We also now have some youth and pace in in backline and a solid halfback. Let's hope it pays dividends
Botman wrote: ↑October 15, 2021, 10:13 am
The panthers won the comp because they were capable of winning in different ways.
They were both a skillful and open attacking football team, and a tough gritty defensive side when they had to be. The storm were same
WE ARE ALLOWED TO BE BOTH!
Exactly. Should go without saying.
This turnip however is misappropriating the term 'grind ball'. Being a tough and gritty defensive team isn't grind ball. Grind ball is what we do. Restrict much of our play to a narrow channel one out from the ruck. Primarily using only the the middle third of the field when in possession. Little ball movement or distribution to the outside backs. Seldom put in any attacking kicks.
The Panthers don't do that. Neither do the Storm..... because it's outdated and doesn't work.
-TW- wrote: ↑October 14, 2021, 10:37 pm
Legend is a massive stretch
Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk
I put guys like Croker, Tongue, and O'Sullivan in the legend category. Players that may not have been the best, but gave long and loyal service to the club.
Hodgson to me is in the great category. One of the top 10-20 players in our history. It's a shame we haven't managed to win a comp with him, because he's been the on field heartbeat of our revival.
The fact you would rank Croker and Tongue ahead of Hodgson in terms of what they did for this club, **** me.
It’s everything wrong with this club. More important to be a nice bloke and a local junior than a great footballer.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is just the train that's about to hit you.