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Message: [QUOTE="BroncsFan, post: 3120384, member: 9052"] I think what may have also contributed to Hodgo's lack of appreciation was at the time channel 9 (who were actually relevant to NRL at the time) would wax lyrical about Gasnier, Cooper, Tahu, etc. I actually have no idea why Gasnier was so highly rated... unlike Hodgo I rarely recall him being able to make something from nothing. He was completely reliant on getting early ball to beat his man whereas Hodgo would just literally bust the game open from a dummy half run. Not to mention Hodgo had terrific ball playing, as evidenced by his stints at fullback where he legit looked liked he could've been one of the greats. Hodgo's defence is often downplayed as well, primarily because he wasn't all that great at tackling, but what he did extremely well was slide and use the touchline as a defender... even though Hodgo didn't look fast there were rarely ever times where his opposite would get around him. It wasn't until very late in his career that opposition centers realised they needed to cut in on his inside shoulder to beat him. If I had to choose between Hodgo and any NSWRL center at the time I'm taking Hodgo all day every day... from what I can recall there's only one facet of center play where Gasnier beats Hodgo and that's one-on-one situations to score tries or getting outside the opposite and flick passing to the winger. Hodgo wasn't really a try scoring center, at least I can't recall him being one at the peak of his career, but he had a great knack of setting up his winger (never hogged it during an overlap or threw a nothing pass) or creating something from nothing... and I would say that is potentially just as important as scoring your own tries. I don't recall what Gasnier did that made him loved by NSWRL so much, other than being blonde and probably surfing at Bondi. Although I think the overarching reason is that NSW fans just absolutely despised Hodgo... not just because he would consistantly get under their players skins in origin, but probably because they realised with GI and Hodgo we had one of, if not the best center pairings to play together of all time. [/QUOTE]

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