Had a little look on the Raiders fans forum and none of their fans had him as MOM....that’s a tough crowd! They all had him top 3 and maybe I’m bias but I thought he was easily their best. A lot had Hodgson as MOM and whilst I thought he was ok, I didn’t think he was anything like that. They seem to love him over there but he had plenty of the things that frustrate me watching him for England on show today.

I think he was taking the Pee?
Either way
His "Form dipping' was based on about 2/3 average performances over about a 8/10 week spell when we had about 10 injuries and were struggling.
But typical Wigan, we used him as a scapegoat because the Marquee and then stuck with that opinion of him despite him being in the top for tries/assists/tackles etc etc etc.

We moan about players not being creative, they try stuff and get criticised for being wasteful
We moan about players not taking the line on, we have a player that took the line on more than any half back I've seen in maybe 20years, and hes classed as running around like a headless chicken

Anyway

Hes gone now, a lot the Wigan public got what they wanted, I'll just wait for the next victim (Bear in mind Gildart started to get it when he signed his new contract, all the unfounded rumours, the saints rubbish, hes greedy for holding out for more money and now it'll be "his heads in the NRL, etx etc).

I'll be honest....i criticised George at times but our entire play was based on him as he got no help from his 7 and usually was behind a beaten pack. If George clicked, we usually clicked and that left side was as dangerous as any in the comp.

I'd have loved to see him with a 7 like Hastings who organised the play and let him do his off the cuff game. I've said on here before that I would have played Sam in the halves and think a partnership of him and George would have been incredible.

For me he just went stale and should have tried his luck before the last deal.he was always good enough but clearly needed to spread his wings elsewhere.

Amen brother.

Why oh why do our "fans" always seem to denigrate players, particularly the ones who have come through our systems. Is it any wonder they want to go and have a go elsewhere. Ryan Sutton was a consistent 8 out of 10 performer every week as an example.

Every year there has to be a scapegoat!!

Because they don't what they are talking about.

Have to laugh

The proof of how good he will be in the NRL is for him to be consistent in all games, not just on a debut!

It’s his 3rd game!

I criticised Williams on occasion I am happy to admit that.

I never doubted his quality however sometimes his style of play in my opinion was detrimental to our team performance.

I think this can be explained by the way of saying that often the players around him were not on the same level as him.

What I mean by that is in the NRL the teams offer so many more options ball in hand and there seems to be so many more runners. Great halves are the ones that consistently pick the right option.

At Wigan George often had 2 options, throw the ball to his one runner or step and go. That was it.

It’s not necessarily his fault but when things were not going right he seemed to try do too much or occasionally just sit back and leave us rudderless. He sometimes looked like he had lost his enthusiasm.

I have never doubted his ability I just think he is much more suited to the Australian NRL style of play and I think he had to leave to go there to kick on and take his game to the next level.

Watched the interview after the game with Josh Hodgson and George and I genuinely can’t remember him looking so relaxed, confident and happy when facing the media in SL.

I think Hastings suits our needs as a team better than George did and that’s not a criticism of George it just comes down to differing styles of play. I also don’t think that when Hastings goes back to the NRL he will be on the same level as Willians at I think Hastings style of play is more suited to SL than it is the NRL.

So far I’m really pleased to see Williams go well and I think he will only get better in that more challenging and intense environment.

Absolutely nailed it. No more to be said on that.

...and as always the truth is somewhere in between. For Wigan Williams was sometimes brilliant, often very good and sometimes mediocre.

Don't be confusing him with facts.

Interesting to see him operating primarily on the right as opposed to operating on the left for Wigan. He played very well.
If the likes of Widdop and Hodgson can get rave reviews over there playing as pivots then Williams should have no problems, he's far more talented than either of them.

I still think Hodgson has to be the most overrated player in the game. I just don't get the hype.

To be fair, Hodgson dominated Cameron Smith. I couldnt split Hodgson or Williams as MOM.

He does come up with a couple of big plays in a game, usually a kick out of dummy half or a ball steal, but his basic play is poor. He can't pass off the floor and his passing range is poor, and he's an average defender at best.
The fact that he can be a star over there makes you wonder how good the likes of Roby, Clark, and Houghton would be as they're all better than Hodgson, even now.

They love Hodgson in the media over there. I watched a clip earlier where Fittler and co we’re saying he’s as influential, if not more so, than Cameron Smith. I watch him and there might be a couple of good kicks here and there or a ball steal but there will always be numerous examples of him hogging the ball and not getting quick ball to his halves, a terrible grubber to nobody near the line or an example of him running round like a headless chicken.

I wonder if his rep has been bulled up by the fact that hooker isn’t really a position of strength in the game down under? They’ve had Smith and not a great deal more than that for a while. The likes of Cook and Friend are good players but I wouldn’t have them in the class of a Roby in his pomp. There are a couple of good young hookers coming through now but it’s not been their strongest position in depth/quality terms for a long time. As pointed out if they think Hodgson is great, they’d be thrilled with Clark or Paul McShane and guys over the years like Roby, Cunningham or Terry Newton would’ve come been legends down under.

I never saw Hodgson as a stand out over here TBH in the same way I do the likes of Roby or Clarke, so his success seems strange

He was in a poor team though, and to be fair to him he has been better that either of those two in the England/GB sides.

Cook is class

I agree. I’d still have a prime James Roby over him but he is a good player. The point I’m getting at is that the Aussies don’t have an endless amount of world class hookers to call on, like they do in some other positions and they’ve not had that for a good while. They haven’t needed it with having one of the best ever in place for 10+ years but I just wonder if Hodgson is standing out as one of the better ones behind him because the overall standard isn’t that high. I’m struggling to think of many other reasons for his billing tbh.

he just does things right and the Aussies love that a bit like Smith

Does he though? His long kicking out of dummy half is good, but his distribution is slow, he can't pass very wide of the ruck and his defence is average.

No he hasn't. He's had one half decent game. Whenever he's started before either of those two he's been rubbish and the team massively improved when he goes off.

his defence is very good he was everywhere yesterday, his distribution is fine otherwise his forwards wouldnt be making the yards like they are as they would be on the back foot, if he was poor in these areas he wouldnt be starting in the NRL as defence is key over there