Raiders dealt huge blow as neck injury puts CNK out for up to two months

[papabear]

I have been very critical of hodgson over playing his hand before it was in vogue on here to critique him as we had gone for a while without a decent hooker.

That said hodgson is better then havili and starling.

Havili isnt a great hooker his passes are to clunky and when we are already clunky in attack having a clunky pass from dummyhalf kills you, that said havili has played great as an impact bench middle with some really good and needed runs.

Starling whilst slightly zippier and better in defence then hodgson doesnt provide the same level of service and creativity hodgson does at least not yet anyway. Whilst hodgson is fresh is still a better option for us then starling. Hodgson also has a fair bit of timing his crash balls close to the line and other plays close to the line are really really good.

IMO - this year, if anything I would like to see hodgson play more second tackle as opposed to a winger centre run and take more then half of the plays inside the ten metres of the red zone, outside ten fire it out to williams or wighton.

The only one play I dont like from our forward and hodgson is our persistence is running back into markers, every once in a while ok, but we do it to much for no gain.

[Canberra Milk]

Havili isnt a great hooker his passes are to clunky and when we are already clunky in attack having a clunky pass from dummyhalf kills you, that said havili has played great as an impact bench middle with some really good and needed runs.

Havili brings the forwards onto the ball so well though. Not sure if it's partly to do with his mateship off the field with them. Look at last year's final v Roosters. And it's like having an extra prop on the field. I love him.

For an 80 minute hooker what you said may be an issue (I can't remember about his long passing tbh) but in a rotation with Starling it should be fairly mitigated.

Moot point and just academic because Hodgson will start anyway and I'm all for that, but just a discussion.

[FROG]

Does anyone know if he required surgery in the end? I'm assuming not otherwise I reckon more noise would have been made about it. Does anyone know for certain?

[greeneyed]

Does anyone know if he required surgery in the end? I'm assuming not otherwise I reckon more noise would have been made about it. Does anyone know for certain?

Still seeking specialist advice.

[The Nickman]

Does anyone know if he required surgery in the end? I'm assuming not otherwise I reckon more noise would have been made about it. Does anyone know for certain?

Surgery in the end? Ewww

[Coastalraider]

I have been very critical of hodgson over playing his hand before it was in vogue on here to critique him as we had gone for a while without a decent hooker.

That said hodgson is better then havili and starling.

Havili isnt a great hooker his passes are to clunky and when we are already clunky in attack having a clunky pass from dummyhalf kills you, that said havili has played great as an impact bench middle with some really good and needed runs.

Starling whilst slightly zippier and better in defence then hodgson doesnt provide the same level of service and creativity hodgson does at least not yet anyway. Whilst hodgson is fresh is still a better option for us then starling. Hodgson also has a fair bit of timing his crash balls close to the line and other plays close to the line are really really good.

IMO - this year, if anything I would like to see hodgson play more second tackle as opposed to a winger centre run and take more then half of the plays inside the ten metres of the red zone, outside ten fire it out to williams or wighton.

The only one play I dont like from our forward and hodgson is our persistence is running back into markers, every once in a while ok, but we do it to much for no gain.

Agree with all this except the last paragraph. The running back into markers has a huge gain, it creates repeated efforts on our opposing middles increasing their fatigue. It’s a big reason why as a supporter group we are annoyed at halftime, ok at full time, in that so much of our play is about tiring our opposition and creating a less even playing field in the second half. Running at markers, getting caught on the 5th in the red, crash balls etc are all components of ensuring the opposition has to work hard to beat us. They DONT get a breather after a tackle, they DONT get a kick turnover in broken play, etc.

Running at markers means we make less immediate meters. It also means their in an increasing fatigue in their middles increasing our chances of players like CNK, Taps, Hodgo and Havilli making meters up the middle as the game wears on.

[Old School Green]

Seems fine and dandy on the gram. But who knows what is doing neck is complex injury.
Seems much better then say Joey in 2019 who was our last serious neck injury from memory.

[The Nickman]

We’re losing about 60-12 since he went down injured. Let’s hope he’s back sooner rather than later or our finals hopes will disappear.