We was still playing as a professional footballer in the England.
Why? Remember he came back from an injury where he hadn't played for more than a year, and scored a match winning try? He certainly didn't go down or look like he was struggling in that game. As the man said himself, it wouldn't be much different from coming back from a long term injury.
As amazing as it would be, it's a bad idea for so many reasons - the biggest one being match fitness.
Origin matches are some of, if not the most intense matches in rugby league. You can't afford to have a bloke out there whose preparation consists of some trainings run in camp leading up to the match. He'd go down like a sack of spuds after 10 minutes, especially considering his injury history... then you're playing a man down for the remainder of the match.
Also, what kind of message does it send other potential players? Hey, you guys slug away all you want for the first half of the season, but we'll ignore your efforts and pick a bloke who although is an absolute legend, hasn't played any NRL this season.
Nup, this is something NSW would do, get desperate and live in the past.
Yeah honestly this probably is where I'm really sitting. I kind of think it would be a huge ask for him to come back and perform well, but holy shit I'd love to see it happen.I'm divided between the awesomeness of seeing Hodgo in maroon again, and the worry of seeing him repeat his first game, due to lack of match fitness. He would not deserve to go out that way!
I don't think he trained much last season either.Has Hodges been training all season?
.....even when (probably more so) recovering from an injury, you're still training to what ever capacity you can.
I'm with Ning......first sign of trouble and Kevie goes back in time. Pretty shit really.
Shouldn't have banned those players in the first place, Kevvie. It was such a minor incident too. Now gotta live with it.
They broke the rules, and people think it's not a big deal?
Their coach told them to do something, they did the opposite, so **** them, they can sit out.
I don't understand what the issue is anyway, put Boyd at fullback and have Inglis and Gagai as the centres. Oates and Feldt on the wing.
Or if you want to go even more left field put Barba at fullback, with Inglis and Gagai in the centres and Boyd and Oates on the wing.
I just don't see why we need Hodges.
Hodges > Gagai.