Parramatta Eels hooker Josh Hodgson is determined to prove he’s still one of the premier hookers in the game

The Englishman is the first to admit that. And while long-term knee injuries have cruelled his chances of returning to his 2019 form over the past few years, the man has never looked fitter than he does at the Eels at the end of a long pre-season.

“It gives you a push, you’ve got to prove yourself all over again to people who you’ve never worked with, you’ve never trained alongside, you’ve got to show them what you’re about and how hard you like to work and who you are as a person,” he says.

“Footy-wise it was just a really exciting move. At Canberra they have a couple of really good No.9s coming in and I felt like I was handing the reins over to some talented youngsters who are going to be there for a long time.

“I was ready to move on. It felt like the right time without leaving (the Raiders) in the lurch, I was ready to show I can still be one of the best No.9s in the game.

“I still feel like I’ve got a lot to offer the game and a lot I can do in a game. I wanted to keep playing my position as long as I could. When the opportunity came to do it at a club as good as this one, it was hard to say no to.”

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To doubters, losing 24-year-old Reed Mahoney and replacing him with Hodgson, a player nine years his senior, seems like a risky move.

But what the Eels lose in a long-term future with Mahoney, they gain a decade of experience in Hodgson, 33.

To the avid observer, they’re both very different players – Hodgson known more for his creativity around the ruck and Reed for his defence and aggression.

But purely on paper it’s a straightforward swap. Comparing the numbers from Hodgson’s last full season in the NRL, 2021, and Mahoney’s 2022 season stats, there is little difference between the two talented hookers.

In 20 games for the Raiders, Hodgson averaged 3.5 runs and 38 tackles per game, 18 tackle busts, nine try assists, eight line-break assists and a try. Mahoney, who played 28 games for the grand finalists last season before making the switch to Canterbury this year, had 3.2 runs and 40 tackles per game, 17 tackle busts, seven try assists, nine line-break assists and eight tries.

Whether the Eels encourage Hodgson’s creativity this year or slot him into an already stable spine with Dylan Brown, Mitch Moses and Clint Gutherson to play a role is yet to be seen.

“There’s little things that I can hopefully bring to the team and little ideas here and there, but this is a good team, they don’t need to change a whole heap,” Hodgson says.

“I’m just here to do a job and whatever they need me to do.

“If they just tell me to make my tackles and just pass the ball and they don’t want me to do a whole lot, I’d do that too.

“As it is in any team, it’s not about yourself. Your ego goes to the side and as long as you get a win on the weekend that’s all that really matters. Hopefully I’ve added a few bits here and there from my time being in rugby league on what works and what doesn’t work.”

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There’s a maturity and humility to Hodgson, who comes to the Eels with a point to prove.

After eight seasons with the Raiders, he felt like his time was over while moving aside for younger talent to come through. At the Eels, he’s been given a clean slate to do what he does best as the first-choice hooker and a hungry team to run.

In the eyes of his Eels teammates, he sees the same hunger he had after losing the 2019 grand final to the Roosters.

It’s a pain that hasn’t left him – to this day – to the point where he won’t watch grand finals because it hurts too much.

Knowing he was coming to the Eels, he made an exception in 2022, watching them go down to Penrith once he arrived in England to see his family over the holidays.

“Anyone who has played in one and lost one, you know the feeling and it never really leaves you. It never left me and it was a few years ago now. You can sense it (here),” he says.

“They often speak about, ‘We could have done this here, or we could have done that there’.

“You always have that in the back of your mind. It does give you that extra, ‘I’ve got to go and get it’ type of attitude.

“That’s really exciting for me, coming into a team where they’re really hungry. It’s the hungriest you can be as a team to get so close and don’t quite get there.

“That doesn’t mean an awful lot at the end of the day too, there’s been teams who have made grand finals and not done a real lot the next year.

“Sometimes all that does is put a target on your back because teams know to aim up against you. Sometimes it can be a bit of a handicap too knowing that you’ve got to be on right from the very start because teams are aiming up for you.

“Last year means nothing going into this year.”