Trent Hodkinson

[davi]

He's been dropped and won't be playing against the Cowboys. To drop the captain and a former NSW halfback is quite a shock. Nathan Brown must have his reasons.


"In the market to snare a big name, Newcastle are also not afraid to drop one either after confirmation captain Trent Hodkinson will not play in Saturday's NRL clash with North Queensland.

In a bold call, Knights coach Nathan Brown cut the ex-NSW halfback when he reduced his squad to 19 for the Cowboys clash in Townsville.

The club confirmed the shock axing after Hodkinson did not fly out with the team on Thursday.

It is not a good look for Hodkinson - one of the Knights' highest-paid players - as Newcastle ramp up their quest to snare marquee signings.

A cashed-up Newcastle - reportedly more than $1 million under the salary cap - have made no secret of their desire to target some of the NRL's biggest names after missing out on Matt Scott and Jack Bird."

https://www.triplem.com.au/sport/nrl/news/newcastle-trent-hodkinson-dropped-for-cowboys-clash

 

[perverse]

His reasons are simple - Hodkinson has been playing like a total busted arsehole all year, and I'd argue most of last too - although it was easier to hide in last years team. He's not playing to the standard of the rest of the team, ergo he has been dropped. Pretty simple stuff.

The bad part for Hodko is that, with his knees, I'm not sure it gets any better than this. He's a spent "force" (never was a force) and may well struggle to be relevant again in the NRL. Personally I hope Brown doesn't look at him again, I'm sick of watching him f**k everything up for us.

This news is only a shock to those that don't watch us very closely - which is basically the entire Rugby League world to be fair.

 

[muzby]

Trent the Tiger it is then..

 

[Card Shark]

Tough coach.

Time to win some games!

 

[Spot On]

To drop him is a shock??????

I know Newcastle isn't the greatest team to watch but it is extremely evident that bugger all journos and very few league supporters have kept an eye on 'the former SOO halfback' so far this season.

 

[Vic Mackey]

Really liking Nathan brown as a coach, hope he has success at newie sooner rather then later

 

[RazorRam0n]

His knee is f**ked...

That's not exactly a dropping

 

[BuderusIsaBeast]

He has been awful for us so far this year. It says a lot about his from that Brown is willing to drop him for Jaelen Feeney

 

[King hit]

Really liking Nathan brown as a coach, hope he has success at newie sooner rather then later

He has them giving 100% for the vast majority of the time and they have been unlucky not to win more games this year, they are to short on experience which is working against them. Good times ahead for them hopefully.

 

[perverse]

Really liking Nathan brown as a coach, hope he has success at newie sooner rather then later

He's done little wrong, the worry is that his strategy - which would probably be viable for most clubs - isn't really working at the moment. Can't get a target over the line, and the market has already dried up to the point where there's not enough legitimate quality there for him to target. He's been spotted courting SKD ffs. If that's his answer for a marquee signing, then we're in the deep stuff all over again.

He wants to put 3 or 4 marquee signings in around the kids we have to bring us through a good crop. The problem is actually obtaining those 3 or 4 names. The embarrassing thing is that we absolutely have the cash.

 

[ed-grimley]

It's great to point out the misfortunes of others.

 

[nick87]

Really liking Nathan brown as a coach, hope he has success at newie sooner rather then later

I don't think he's much chop at all tbh
It's hard to know because the quality of his squad is so bad, but it's fair to say he hasn't really gotten the best of out his players consistently

In any event whether he can coach or not won't matter unless they sign some serious talent or produce in the next 18 months, if not in 2 years time he'll have another spoon or two to his name, they'll still be a 6-8 win team at best and he'll be sacked and maybe his career as an NRL HC is over

Tough spot

 

[Barkley]

It's great to point out the misfortunes of others.

Especially when it's Brisbane!

 

[wibble]

He's done little wrong, the worry is that his strategy - which would probably be viable for most clubs - isn't really working at the moment. Can't get a target over the line, and the market has already dried up to the point where there's not enough legitimate quality there for him to target. He's been spotted courting SKD ffs. If that's his answer for a marquee signing, then we're in the deep stuff all over again.

He wants to put 3 or 4 marquee signings in around the kids we have to bring us through a good crop. The problem is actually obtaining those 3 or 4 names. The embarrassing thing is that we absolutely have the cash.

Brown has the knowledge and contacts from successfully coaching in the Super League.

Maybe he could get some veterans from there?

The money the Knights can offer is far in excess of Super League money, and it has turned out OK for the Raiders with Whitehead and Hodgson.

 

[ed-grimley]

Especially when it's Brisbane!

Well, a Broncos supporter started this thread.

 

[Stephen 'Stevo' Stevenson]

Gee, signed on as their marquee player only to be dropped a year later.

No wonder Bird didn't want to go near that basket case.

Can we blame Bennett for this or??

 

[Exsilium]

Trent was always going to draw a short straw when playing with the cattle they have in Newcastle, any half would struggle.

Brown must have his reasons but to drop on form would be a pretty hard call considering their lack of FG experience.

 

[DiegoNT]

Is Hodkinson contacted for next year?
And wasn't Hodkinson signed before brown? So he wasn't a brown singing.

I like what brown is doing at the knights. Being a fan off a club that struggled for a long time I've seen the wrong way to do it repeatedly.
Trimming the fat was hard but had to be done. Moving on overpaid players like uate, sims and Rochow needed to be done. Mullen's drug test was a blessing in disguise.
Some of this years signings were good. Guys like Buhrer, Starling, sio and Kostjacyn are cheap and experienced. They are building a squad from the bottom up instead of chasing big names. And even though they have the cash to spend they aren't panicking. Yea they tried a guy like bird and missed, but if he didn't want to come on their terms then it's better they miss him over paying gigantic overs to get him.
There's still plenty of quality players on the market. Matty johns hinted at cronk (probably a small possibility). There's guys like dugan, Reynolds, guerra, skd, gray, mbye, Graham, Kasiano, kahu, literally dozens of other solid 1st traders still off contract in 2018

 

[Life's Good]

He's done little wrong, the worry is that his strategy - which would probably be viable for most clubs - isn't really working at the moment. Can't get a target over the line, and the market has already dried up to the point where there's not enough legitimate quality there for him to target. He's been spotted courting SKD ffs. If that's his answer for a marquee signing, then we're in the deep stuff all over again.

He wants to put 3 or 4 marquee signings in around the kids we have to bring us through a good crop. The problem is actually obtaining those 3 or 4 names. The embarrassing thing is that we absolutely have the cash.

Not the best situation for you guys but Brown, like Cleary, is a good guy to have at the club. Like one of the Raiders posted somewhere, they were able to jag Sisa Waqa which was a start and they have built from that. It's going to take something similar to that starting with Ponga. There is still plenty of talent to pick away at and that is one thing Browny is good at spotting.

 

[macavity]

Trent was always going to draw a short straw when playing with the cattle they have in Newcastle, any half would struggle.

Brown must have his reasons but to drop on form would be a pretty hard call considering their lack of FG experience.

Huh? He has been our worst player this year certainly and arguably over the past two.

Our halfback directly let in two tries and only kicked _twice_ last game.

He was dropped on form. Form is probably terrible because of the knees but he swears he is fine.

Hope he is shifted into a coaching role because his first grade days are over.