Justin Hodges retires from the NRL

[Porthoz]

Onya Hodgo!

Hopefully, this is the spark needed for the boys to rally behind the legend and send him out a premiership winner. He certainly deserves it!

 

[Broncoman]

The best thing out of this is he is not going to prolong his career with the risk of tarnishing it a little and he is going out on his own terms not because of an injury.

 

[Mr Fourex]

Well .....his terms

and Wayne's.

 

[Big Pete]

It's been a sombre day.

In fact, combined with Clarke's decision to retire, it's been a sombre week. It's sad to say goodbye to two players I genuinely enjoyed watching, but on both accounts, I believe they made the right call.

What I like most about the decision is how unselfish it was.

This clearly wasn't the original plan for Hodges. When Hodges announced his retirement from representative football, in order to concentrate on club football, I'm sure he meant it. However, I'm sure WB would have reminded Justin of the salary cap situation and implored him to step down for the betterment of the team. I doubt it would have been an easy call to make, but hopefully it proves to be right.

I'll wait to give my tribute until after the season is over. I'm sure there will be plenty of highlights to go through and it'll be fun to reminisce about one of the greatest centres to ever play the game.

 

[Broncoman]

Hodges one of the greatest centers ever?

I rate him as one of the best I've seen and he is a great player but one of the greatest centres ever? Would be interesting to see if he would be in the same league as R.Gasnier, S.Rogers, Mick Cronin, Andrew Ettinghausen, Mal Meninga, Greg Inglis (played a fair bit at centre) and Israel Folau right of the top of my head.

 

[Big Pete]

For starters, Hodges has easily had a better career than Folau, so if that's the measuring stick than he's in.

 

[jarro65]

Good timing on his behalf, although i do think Bennett had a big say in this decision too.

Thanks for a wonderful career at the Broncos Hodgo !

 

[winslow_wong]

Hodges in the 2006-2008 seasons was definitely one of the greatest centres ever in my books. He was untouchable especially with locky and khunt around him

 

[broncos4life]

EDIT: Flaming

 

[Nashy]

Hodges one of the greatest centers ever?

I rate him as one of the best I've seen and he is a great player but one of the greatest centres ever? Would be interesting to see if he would be in the same league as R.Gasnier, S.Rogers, Mick Cronin, Andrew Ettinghausen, Mal Meninga, Greg Inglis (played a fair bit at centre) and Israel Folau right of the top of my head.

Of course he's one of the greatest the league has seen, don't say stupid shit.

 

[Renegade]

He's one of the best of his generation, I think that's all you can really say.

 

[Big Pete]

I can't remember who said it, but I completely agree that we tend to underrate the current generation of players.

It probably comes down to familiarity and hearsay. Most people never got to see the likes of Gasnier, Cronin, Meninga etc. week to week and with that, didn't bother to critique their game as much.

 

[Son Edo]

He's decided to call it quits at the right time, playing for another year would be one too many. He's been a good servant for the club. And he'll be remembered for getting under the oppositions skin but I'll remember him for being a great player.

 

[Big Pete]

https://audioboom.com/boos/3522232-justin-hodges-sept-1

A nice 15 minute interview with Hodges.

Covers his first stint at the club, sledging, his relationship with Wayne, his ability out of dummy half, who his greatest opponent was, how the Broncos are handling the finals, what he views as the Broncos greatest strength and so on.

Also the club website is releasing the Top 4 Hodges moments.

#3 was revealed today, which was his grand final try against Melbourne. If we were doing a Top 20 favourite Broncos plays of all time, I'd definitely have to find a spot for it. Given everything, it was just such a smart move.

#4 was his first try back in 2005. A nice little play with Seymour taking it to the line, popping up a pass to Hunt who found Hodgo trailing in support.

Hodgo's Pivotal Moments - No. 4 - Broncos

As great as Hodges was in 2006, I find his 2005 to be really underrated. He's the only Bronco I've ever seen booed during the team announcement at the ground. He had to really win the fans over that year and despite being played out of position at various stages, he certainly stepped up.

 

[Super Freak]

[MENTION=1899]Big Pete[/MENTION]

Not sure if you have seen this. If you haven't, I thought you might like it. It has some Hodges highlights, not many though.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

If we survive that long, Hodges will play his 250th NRL game at Suncorp in the Preliminary final

 

[gordjw]

If we survive that long, Hodges will play his 250th NRL game at Suncorp in the Preliminary final

Well, top 2 guarantees 2 home finals regardless of performance.

So if he's on 248 after tonight's game, he'll get there either in the semis (if we lose Wk1), or the prelims (if we win Wk1).

 

[Big Pete]

Curses SF!

That video sent me down a massive rabbit hole last night. Instead of finishing off paperwork, I found myself googling for old Telstra links to see if I could gain some sort of access to old games like AFL folk can do.

Broncos released the #1 and #2 moment of Hodgo's career.

#2 was the 4 tries against Penrith in 2007. An easy shout, but for mine, I thought the whole was bigger than the sum of it's parts. If the 2008 Voldermort game was my worst experience at the football, this would easily rank as my second. I don't think I've ever been that disappointed in the Broncos before. In particular, it took me years to forgive Boyd for setting up Wesser's try to send it to golden point. Hodgo's 4 tries were great and honestly, he was the only player keeping us in that game but that dinky grubber that Jennings grabbed and raced 90 odd to score ruined it for me.

#1 was of course the lead up to Berrigan's try in 2006. I don't think it's hyperbole to say that's the play that saved the Broncos season and one of the greatest tries in Broncos history.