Justin Hodges

[Nashy]

I'd call Hodges a great over Sailor. At least he didn't **** off. Or get banned for drugs...

well he did **** off to another team on some lame excuse, then came begging for us to take him back.

Yeah... I'm not calling hi ma great anyway.

But moving to another club shouldn't make a difference. He played some awesome footy for Sydney.

 

[Coxy]

OK not sure how this all got jumbled. Someone here was saying Hodges is "a great" player. I said he's not. I said there's only a handful of great players in the game. I included Kimmorley in my list.

There are a number of criteria, IMO, that qualifies someone as great. Consistently quality performance over a long period of time being the primary one, plus achievements in terms of premierships, Origin and Test success.

Kimmorley has played 14 seasons in the top grade, played numerous Origins, won a premiership, won Test series...he's a great. How anyone can argue that I don't know.

Is he one of the greatest of all time? Of course not. But he would certainly be in the top 10 players of the past decade.

 

[Anonymous person]

OK not sure how this all got jumbled. Someone here was saying Hodges is "a great" player. I said he's not. I said there's only a handful of great players in the game. I included Kimmorley in my list.

its the nature of BHQ. half the people on here would call Hunt a "great" player too.

 

[Alec]

He's talented, but very flawed too. Doesn't hit gaps well, can be an abysmal defender, very injury prone...
Definitely brilliant in attack though.

 

[Coxy]

Yeah, and understandably on a Broncos forum there would be a bias towards naming Broncos players as "great".

Of course there's only one current Bronco who's a "great" and that's D. Lockyer. But that's obvious.

 

[user_nat]

Not sure if Lockyer and Kimmorley deserve to be in the same category. Has to be something above "great".

 

[Nashy]

He's not a great. He's a champion player. He was born for football.

 

[Coxy]

He's not a great. He's a champion player. He was born for football.

^^^ This.

The list of greats is small.

The list of Champions is smaller. D. Lockyer. The only one in the game today (though Petero is arguably up there).

 

[Bucking Beads]

Hodges was/ possibly is a gun. A shame Injuries have hampered his career.

 

[Nashy]

He's not a great. He's a champion player. He was born for football.

^^^ This.

The list of greats is small.

The list of Champions is smaller. D. Lockyer. The only one in the game today (though Petero is arguably up there).

I wouldn't ever say a forward is a champion player. Purely because the difference I see between the so called greats, and the likes of Darren Lockyer...

He has a footy brain. You can see he is ALWAYS scheming. Even when he's having a shit game, you can still see he is reading plays far ahead of anyone else on the field, and at times, I think he even reads what the opposition are going to do before they even know.

Some players learn it, and do it from time to time. But Lockyer has done it forever. Before he was in a position where he was controlling the troops... he was still reading everything.

I see it in Billy Slater ironically too. Another amazing player, who will one day be an immortal IMO.

 

[Coxy]

You can look at it that way. I look at it more so that a champion player is someone who leads by example, and his teammates follow without question. Civoniceva is the only other player in the game today with anything like that aura, albeit without necessarily the footy smarts that Locky has. Though, IMO, there is not a player in the past 18 years who has Locky's footy smarts (Wally retired in 1992 right? Right).

 

[Anonymous person]

Slater and Thurston will be considered 'champion' players too IMO.

 

[Coxy]

Slater and Thurston will be considered 'champion' players too IMO.

One day. Maybe. They have to prove they can still be as dominant and influential once ravaged by father time.

Slater in particular will lose a fair bit of his impact with his loss of speed as he ages. Can he counter that?

I would think Smith more likely to become a champion than Slater IMO.

 

[tkday]

Slater and Thurston will be considered 'champion' players too IMO.

As well as Kemp.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Thurston needs to guide the Cowgirls to a Premiership before he gets some credit IMO. ANyway this is about Hodges remember.

 

[ningnangnong]

People have different definitions of the word 'great'.

 

[Nashy]

Slater and Thurston will be considered 'champion' players too IMO.

I personally see Thurston as being too selfish. I see him as a player who is very much out to show off, even if that means forgetting he has team mates, and losing a game.

In NRL anyway. As a rep player, absolutely, he's one of the best.

 

[fenomeno]

I think Hunt could have gone on to be a great player if he stayed with us. He was definitely on his way.