www.nrl.com
It was a joke.
It can't be too old because there is footage of preseason training in it, but they both seem pretty uniformed on recent events.
It was our forward pack that got us to the GF rather than our halves in 2014. Hodko's general kicking was poor, his kicks rarely found open space and didn't cover much ground. He had no running game, vision or creativity to set up the attack. He rarely put someone into a hole like Thurston and co. He was just good at field goals and goal kicks. The clubs that Hodko went to after he left the Dogs didn't go anywhere. Our halves have been our weakest link for nearly a decade which is a disgrace given the legacy of the club over several decades in Turvey, Baa, Shifty and Anasta.
We had very good forwards, better than any other club, but I think you're downplaying Hodkinson a lot. He was also selected for NSW during this time and was the halfback when NSW broke the drought. I can't remember but he got a big money move to go to the Knights? Also almost everyone that left the dogs from that era sucked afterwards. Anyways Hodkinson was a genuine 7 and we had Reynolds to compliment him (running game, eyes up). It was a lesser version of Cleary and Luai you see today.
Anasta lol in one word you just lost all credibility. Polly was better than Anasta and so was Ricky Stuart who was at the end of his career.
I'm no Anasta fan but give credit where it's due. If you think Anasta is crap watch our entire 2001 season again. Our team was regarded as bog average at the start of the season by the league "experts" but we finished 2nd before the playoffs and Anasta was one the key players if not the key player. He got injured and didn't play the sudden match against Cronulla that year. The dogs lost morale because they were heavily dependent on Anasta and Cronulla piled on 50+ against us from memory. Anasta is no Turvey or Baa but he's a country mile better than Hodko and Reynolds. As for Ricky Stuart being a better Dogs player than Anasta while they played here tell me how many premierhips did Ricky Stuart win at the Dogs? None. How many GF did Stuart play with the Dogs? None. Get your facts straight because you have no credibility.
You can't be seriously saying that NSW won because of Hodko and Reynolds? NSW won off the back of some Hayne magic and the forwards dominating despite Gallen the ball hog. It was a lost decade for NSW because they kept on choosing Pearce of crap as HB because of his dad. NSW forwards held their own for much of that Qld dominance but the difference was their halves and hooker (JT, Cronk, Smith) were miles better than ours.
I didn't say we won because of Hodkinson and Reynolds but you need to stop downplaying how good they were. They were one of the best 6/7 combinations in the competition back then. Hodkinson being picked at halfback for NSW confirms that (Reynolds utility). JT, Cronk and Smith are future immortals if they're your benchmark that's pretty silly. A genuine 7 is a general that moves the team around the field and has a good long kicking game. Cronk is the best genuine 7 we've ever seen. Reynolds was starting to be injury prone (we got rid of him at the perfect time) and our downward trajectory started after not re-signing Hodkinson, which also dramatically impacted Reynolds game. They were a yin yang combination.
>"Cronk is the best genuine 7 we've ever seen."
I disagree with your definition of a genuine 7. Yes the 7 is a general but that means setting up the strategy and formation especially in attack like the generals of old in battles. Positioning certain players in certain parts of the field, targetting specific opposition players, selecting which player to pass to and when, knowing when to pass/kick etc. Commentators call this "creativity" and I saw Hodko do very little of that. In fact the league "experts" in the media often called Hodko "not the most creative half" because he simply wasn't. All he did was generic passes to a player who ran into a defender. He often put team mates into opposition faces not spaces. During Hodko's era the best halves were all in Qld - Thurston, Cronk, DCE etc. NSW halves were largely sh#thouse which is why Pearce of Crap was given so many chances despite his repeated failures so being selected as NSW half during that time did not necessarily mean you are an elite half of the comp. The halves continue to be a weakness at Origin for NSW so it was no surprise that Qld won this year with DCE and Munster. Manly let Hodko go to us because they had a HB far superior coming up - DCE.
100% quality halves is what we have lacked for a very long time. I’d even go back as far as the 2012 GF. Keating and Reynolds were never going to steer us to a premiership. And the same with 2014, our halves were no match for Adam Reynolds and Keary, but I do believe had Kasiano and Ennis played in that GF and if we didn’t have so many players carrying injuries into that final game(Hodko was playing on one leg) we would of had a chance to pull it off. Souths were primed and we were just busted physically. We were ripe for the picking.
