Thats the way to welcome and encourage a new signing. ffs weve got him and hell go fine for us.
Reserve judgement for when the lad has a few games under his belt, then you may be saying 'told you so', but I think you will be admitting you got it wrong this time

Now I know you're having a laugh! Hodgson is a great player but not cos of his defence - its not really his fault but he's just too lightweight to be able to stop anybody running head on at him.

In your comparison between the performances of Hodgson & Mathers the other night I note you didn't mention the fact that Mathers wasn't picked up and thrown about like a rag doll by an oposition centre a la Atkins on Hodgson.

Hodgson is a classic Australian fullback - great at running the ball back and chiming into the attack but not considered there to do the tackling cos in the NRL the rest of the team are expected to make the tackles before it gets to the last line of defence.

I suppose that why mathers misses more tackles than hodgson then?

Hodgson positioning in defence is first rate and the safe under the high ball, 2 things that cannot be said for mathers.

What the hell has atkins picking up hodgson got to do with how good a fullback hodgson is?

maybe not but compare that to when we played hudds in the challenge cup this year, mathers dealt with everything, hodgson, wouldnt even have been able to deal cards that day! hodgson is class, yet he can have the odd day off like everyone else! mathers included, you keep mentioning mathers knock on with his first touch, the ball was being pulled and hed had his face smashed by a forearm! not easy to hold onto a ball in a tackle at th best of times!


and dont be so ridiculous, so richie makes one pass that gives an interception try away, if cudjoe misses it riley is most likel in! and its a brilliant pass! he did them all year for us and has set up more tries with his great skip passes than he has caused with them! that pass did not cost us the game, danny broughs great first 40 minutes did, and anyone with any rugby knowledge knows that.

you must be half a wiganer...even your name supports that fact!

you also say you base your opinions on what you see... well in that case you havent seen half of what richie can offer, as you havent seen himall year have you, youve seen a few games on telly and made a rash and inadequate judgment! you say he has cost his teams big games, yet the 4 most recent of his big games, challenge cup semis and final in 09 and 10, richie has put in superb performances!

ofcourse he has his brainfarts, yet i defy you to find me a player in the league that hasnt this year!

Oh Dear....

My user name has nothing to do with being a wiganer, but dont let me stop you making things up and calling it fact.

No i havent seen him as much as you, does that mean any opinions you have on castleford players are irrelevent because i have seen them play more than you? does it also mean that when mathers plays for us next year i should ignorte your opinion because i will have seen him play more than you? I've seen mathers play in plenty of games (more than 20) since he came back from the nrl and he hasnt done much to impress me apart from the odd game.

If my auntie had balls she would be my uncle, its all good saying if this and if that, i base my opinions on what happened not what could have happened.

The ball was not being pulled for the knock on, he got knocked as the tackler was getting up, something that happens constantly through out games and only occasionaly results in a knock on, usually near the end of the game when concentration is slipping.

Hodgson was left exposed by a poor performance from his team in the challenge cup, in the play off game mathers was far less exposed and under less pressure.

If tony smith thought mathers was so good he wouldnt have replaced him with hodgson (wigans and the titans were happy to get rid of him too).

The pass didnt cost you the game on its own but it played a big part, as did mathers knocking on, being out of position for kicks and failing to tackle brown even with two other defenders in support. If you think a pass that is intercepted and leads to the wiining try is a brilliaint one i would hate to see your idea of a poor pass.

Of course every player has brainfarts, its how many mathers has that is my reason for concern.

Where did I say he would make the team poorer ??????

Dont put words into my mouth to support your negativity


You misunderstood what i said, if you thought a player would make the team poorer would you be positive about it?

AAAH working nights does that to you sometimes

I still think Mathers will go ok though

I know the feeling!

Guess we will just have to see how he goes, i wont be getting my hopes up though.

Ok, you say you've watched Mathers in over 20 games since he came back from Australia but not one of them was he decent. Presume you missed the CC final this year cos many people considered him close to being named MOTM and he was commended for the number of 'certain trys' he prevented.

You've clearly got a downer on the bloker for some reason. Thankfully the majority of Cas fans are prepared to see how he plays for us before writing him off.

Hodgson > Mathers > McGoldrick



There's my two pennies worth.

No thats not what i said, read it again.

I've got a downer on him becuase i think his signing is a step back for the team, who i want to be doing better.