Trent Hodkinson says chat with Canterbury coach Des Hasler sparked form turnaround

[Raysie]

He may have done a lot of "nothing" kicks towards the end there, but what counted was that the Eels were starting their sets on their goal-line. Someone like Reynolds would have just given the Eels easy 20m restarts.

He was solid in my books. He played on the right side, told to take full responsibility and win us the game... he did that.

Get over yourselves and realise we just broke a 4 game losing streak against a desperate team winning their last 3 games.

We'll probably win by 40 next week against the Tigers and still have people complaining.

 

[The DoggFather]

He may have done a lot of "nothing" kicks towards the end there, but what counted was that the Eels were starting their sets on their goal-line. Someone like Reynolds would have just given the Eels easy 20m restarts.

He was solid in my books. He played on the right side, told to take full responsibility and win us the game... he did that.

Get over yourselves and realise we just broke a 4 game losing streak against a desperate team winning their last 3 games.

We'll probably win by 40 next week against the Tigers and still have people complaining.

We will win by 40 next week.

 

[CrittaMagic69]

i don't get these people bagging hodko, if reynolds had half the skills of hodko he and the team would be much better. If Reynolds played in place of Hodko we would have got pumped. he Would have gave them about 5 7 tackle sets and about another 2 trys with shit defence. Also would have ran sideways all game and stiffled our attack.

 

[Bob dog]

1,6,7 and 9 we have nothing in key attacking positions can't even bomb or kick cross field with the ball landing near the try line always at the 10 m line at best

Our last tackle kicks and plays are amatuer

So what, he can get closer or kick a bit deeper, its also up to the backs to get in there and contest the ball, the chase is a little slack.
I liked Ennis's little grubber for the repeat, with the speed of the game it takes some skill to drop a little grubber into goal at low speed.

 

[habs]

Exactly hokko was ordinary ,lots of improvement needed from him ,hokko and josh r need to stop doing feel good bullshit media stories and perform on the field

Agreed!

 

[TalDog]

I disagree,
I think everyone are not understanding how good parra were and how desperate both teams were for the win,
I thought the dogs were generally solid in most aspects of the game,
I think the main area we need to address is attacking flare,
We offer nothing in attack,
Scoring points is very poor and it is evident when you look at the ladder and look at our points for compared to other teams,

isnt attacking flare meant for 1,6,7 and 9 currently we have duds in attack especially the kicking game of our halves we dont take advantage of field position even when forwards do the hard job of getting us there.

forwards must be getting pissed off all their hard work undone at the other end by halves with no attack how the hell they were NSW halves beats me.

 

[choice]

isnt attacking flare meant for 1,6,7 and 9 currently we have duds in attack especially the kicking game of our halves we dont take advantage of field position even when forwards do the hard job of getting us there.

forwards must be getting pissed off all their hard work undone at the other end by halves with no attack how the hell they were NSW halves beats me.

You are spot on in every aspect.

 

[3WOOD]

isnt attacking flare meant for 1,6,7 and 9 currently we have duds in attack especially the kicking game of our halves we dont take advantage of field position even when forwards do the hard job of getting us there.

forwards must be getting pissed off all their hard work undone at the other end by halves with no attack how the hell they were NSW halves beats me.

Totally agree with your assessment - Hodkinson has shown very little attacking flair and his kicking game is nowhere near the skill level of other NRL halfbacks. Hodkinson tries hard and is good defensively but is pedestrian in attack. Our halves just don't seem to get involved ( Is this due to Des's instructions??) If you look at the match stats from the Parra game the Parramatta halves were credited with 112 possessions ( combined) - our halves had only 66 possessions.

 

[Moe]

Barely beating Parra isn't really a turn around, it's more of a swerve, like when you're trying to avoind running over that pigeon that's casually crossing the road.

 

[Stoofy]

Barely beating Parra isn't really a turn around, it's more of a swerve, like when you're trying to avoind running over that pigeon that's casually crossing the road.

Need to put on a big score on the Tigers & experiment with our attack.

 

[CrittaMagic69]

Totally agree with your assessment - Hodkinson has shown very little attacking flair and his kicking game is nowhere near the skill level of other NRL halfbacks. Hodkinson tries hard and is good defensively but is pedestrian in attack. Our halves just don't seem to get involved ( Is this due to Des's instructions??) If you look at the match stats from the Parra game the Parramatta halves were credited with 112 possessions ( combined) - our halves had only 66 possessions.

Its our current structures, they are rubbish. If our halves can't lead the the team around, get new halves. Using forwards as dominant playmakers is just dumb. Hodko has proved at Manly and some games at the dogs thay he can lead a team around, he is not the issue. The issue is his halves partner. Give him a halves partner that can support him and he will be a much better player. Mbye/Hodko combo is our best shot at a comp, Reynolds can't offer Hodko the support he needs. Add in a decent fb and that will also take some pressure off.

 

[Ahecee]

Just saw stats on footy show in the wins against storm and manly completion rates 85/86% in the 4 losses between 59% -72% or something like that so no surprise des stopped them offloading the other night

isnt attacking flare meant for 1,6,7 and 9 currently we have duds in attack especially the kicking game of our halves we dont take advantage of field position even when forwards do the hard job of getting us there.

forwards must be getting pissed off all their hard work undone at the other end by halves with no attack how the hell they were NSW halves beats me.

Why do so few refuse to recognise the glaring obvious? See the first quote...... completion rates 85/86% to then 59% -72% the pathetic completion rate equals less attacking opportunities, less possession, a greater amount of energy spent on defence, and giving up field position.

89% against the Eels (33 out of 37) and we win...... I believe that makes all the difference. Yes there are a whole bunch of other aspects, but there is no excuse for completing below 80%, it's what these guys do for a living, the expectation for them should be 100% every week. And I wouldn't be heaping praise on the pack and trashing the halves when the pack is making plenty of errors and not allowing the halves to do their job on the end of sets.

 

[Phalangist]

I sometimes wonder if some of the people on this forum are actually Bulldogs supporters. I have never seen a place so constantly negative, even after a win.

Must lead some pretty sad lives to be so upset all the time

I have more respect for supporters who can pick out what needs improving after a win then after a loss. Like when we were leading the conp earlier in the year some supporters were like we are coming first so obviously Mitch brown and Michael Ennis are great players and perret is a great fullback.

you need to figure out what needs improving after a win and then you sound like you know what your talking about. After a loss a 10 yr old can tell you what's wrong.

 

[Cammo]

I have more respect for supporters who can pick out what needs improving after a win then after a loss. Like when we were leading the conp earlier in the year some supporters were like we are coming first so obviously Mitch brown and Michael Ennis are great players and perret is a great fullback.

you need to figure out what needs improving after a win and then you sound like you know what your talking about. After a loss a 10 yr old can tell you what's wrong.

If you want to spend your time as a supporter looking at whats wrong all the time, why do you bother? I am not having a go at you, it's a serious question.

 

[Phalangist]

I wouldn't care even if you were having a go at me. I just believe sometimes people get too excited with wins and ignore the fact perret is not a quality fullback or Ennis has passed ect ect. When the time comes in September when we really need to win I would have hoped the club would have prepared the elves for the next year and not wait around till September to realise we need new players when it's too late.

Does se that make sense?

 

[Cammo]

Yea I get all that, my main wonder is why sometimes people can't just sit back and enjoy a win.

We have a win yet people still want to bring up the negatives all the time. Each to their own I suppose

All clubs have issues in different areas (that's why one club doesn't just win every game) but when things go our way I just like to take some time and enjoy it. There is enough time to go over our issues when things are not going well

This forum used to be a great place to come to after a win, nowadays it seems slightly more lively than a morgue even after a win lol

 

[Nano]

Yea I get all that, my main wonder is why sometimes people can't just sit back and enjoy a win.

We have a win yet people still want to bring up the negatives all the time. Each to their own I suppose

All clubs have issues in different areas (that's why one club doesn't just win every game) but when things go our way I just like to take some time and enjoy it. There is enough time to go over our issues when things are not going well

This forum used to be a great place to come to after a win, nowadays it seems slightly more lively than a morgue even after a win lol

Because we demand more from the boys who are highly capable lol, I think its more we have seen what we can do and expect it when needed.

 

[blueyedsamurai]

Yea I get all that, my main wonder is why sometimes people can't just sit back and enjoy a win.

We have a win yet people still want to bring up the negatives all the time. Each to their own I suppose

All clubs have issues in different areas (that's why one club doesn't just win every game) but when things go our way I just like to take some time and enjoy it. There is enough time to go over our issues when things are not going well

This forum used to be a great place to come to after a win, nowadays it seems slightly more lively than a morgue even after a win lol

This year and last year have been the cause of allot of negativity because of how well we went in 2012. 2013 and 14 have been fairly similar performance wise and there hasn't been much improvement in our attack or gameplan.

Its frustrating watching the opposition almost score everytime they are in our half yet when we are in theirs we look like we have no idea what to do. We've had to rely on wall like defense because we cant score points.

 

[choice]

What worries me is that hodkinson failed under pressure.
we had several sets to close out the game and his kicking game was woeful to say the least.
if he keeps failing with his options then we can't win the tight games.

 

[Edroy]

Whilst I agree that Hokko isn't as good as many reckon, he's not bad either. He was millimetres away from scoring a good try the other night. He took on the line and was only stopped by that monster Pauli x 2. If he scores then, we have a comfortable lead.

Don't forget he's been switched from left to right side of the field several times this season. Even the best would struggle to adapt to the different combos etc. but he almost scored a good individual try on the side he's played very little as a Bulldog.

He's not one of the better hb's but he's the best we have and don't forget a few months ago everyone was going on about "The Iceman". He hasn't done any clutch plays since winning origin 2 (ehhh that was nuffin) but he's proven to be a good player to have in the tight games.