Justin Hodges

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Justin Hodges

Personal information
Full name	Justin Hodges
Date of birth	25 May 1982 (1982-05-25) (age 26)
Place of birth	Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Height	190 cm (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	97kg ( 15 st 3 lbs)
Nickname(s)	Hodgo
School(s)	Cairns State High School Ferny Grove State High School
Club information
Position(s)	Centre
Current club	Brisbane Broncos
Youth clubs
Years	Club
	Cairns Kangaroos
Youth representative teams
1998	Australian Schoolboys
Senior clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
2000–2001, 2005- 2002–2004	Brisbane Broncos Sydney Roosters	82 (174) 58 (104)
Representative teams**
2002– 2006–	Queensland Maroons Australian Kangaroos	8 (8) 5 (4)
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only and correct as of 24 March 2008. ** Representative team caps and points correct as of July 18, 2007.

Justin Hodges (born 25 May 1982 in Cairns, Queensland) is an Australian professional rugby league player for the Brisbane Broncos, Queensland Maroons and Australian Kangaroos teams. His usual position is in the centres.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Brisbane Broncos 2.1 2000 2.2 2001 3 Sydney Roosters 3.1 2002 3.2 2003 3.3 2004 4 Return to the Broncos 4.1 2005 4.2 2006 4.3 2007 5 Career statistics 5.1 Honours 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early career

Hodges was born in Cairns on 25 May, 1982. He is the youngest of three boys, his brothers being Clinton and Desmond. He began playing rugby league from the age of five, which had the support of his parents. His rugby league career went further when he was selected for local representative teams, playing for Trinity Bay High School in the Coca-Cola Cup, a state competition.^[1]

In 1998, Hodges was offered a four year contract with the Brisbane Broncos Hodges accepted the contract as part of the Broncos development players. Hodges left school at the age of sixteen, and later on Hodges worked as a storeman for six months.^[1]

Hodges was selected to play for the Australian Schoolboys rugby league team in 1999. Hodges went on to tour New Zealand, before touring Ireland, England and France with the schoolboys in early 2000. Hodges played at fullback for these games. When Hodges came home, he began playing with the U/19 state league, for the team Wests Colts. Hodges didn’t think he could make first-grade rugby league, at the time. But Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett wanted Hodges to go further. Bennett watched Hodges play well in one of his games with Colts, and put him up into the Toowoomba Clydesdales, a team in the Queensland Cup. After a few weeks Hodges was to play his first game in the NRL, for the Broncos.^[1]

[edit] Brisbane Broncos

[edit] 2000

Hodges made his first grade debut for the Brisbane Broncos against the Canberra Raiders. In his debut, Hodges played exceptionally well, saving two tries in a losing Broncos team.^[2] Hodges only played 5 games for the Broncos in his debut season.^[3]

[edit] 2001

The next morning I turned up for training and Wayne told everyone I was leaving while we were in the dressing room. Then we all got up to go out and train and he said, 'Oh no, not you. You can go back and train with your Toowoomba boys. You're no longer in the top 25 and you're no longer playing for the first grade side.

— Justin Hodges on Bennett dropping him[1]

Hodges was promoted to the full-time first grade team for the Broncos in 2001, however only played in 12 games for the Broncos. ^[3] The Broncos failed to re-sign Hodges before the June 30 tampering date, which was to prevent other clubs taking players from other clubs. Justin then signed a three year deal with the Sydney Roosters. Feeling betrayed by his defection,^[4] Broncos coach Wayne Bennett told Hodges that his services were no longer required and pushed him back to the Broncos' feeder club Toowoomba.^[1]

[edit] Sydney Roosters

[edit] 2002

In 2002, Hodges signed with the Sydney Roosters. He played in the 2002 Grand Final against the New Zealand Warriors, which the Roosters won. During his stint at the Roosters, Hodges made headlines for all the wrong reasons, which included a disastrous State of Origin debut were he threw two in goal passes which turned into tries for the opposing team in 2002 where he was made the 'scapegoat' for the game one loss^[5], and being punched by then Bronco Casey McGuire in a preliminary final against his current club ^[6].

[edit] 2003

Hodges played in the first ten games for the Roosters scoring eight tries, but injury ruled him out of the entire season after that.^[3]

In the second Origin game, Hodges suffered a serious knee injury. Hodges damaged the cruciate ligament in his left knee early in the second half of the match. The game was played at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium and Hodges considered legal action against the stadium for the poor state in which the surface was in. However, Hodges decided not to take legal action against Suncorp Stadium.^[7]

[edit] 2004

In early 2004, Hodges broke up with his long-time girlfriend and was given two weeks sympathy leave from the Roosters.^[8] He caused further disrupt to the Roosters when he missed a training session and club functions to spend time with his friends and family. Subsequently, coach Ricky Stuart put Hodges into the lower grade premier league.^[9][10] Hodges however, made it back into the first grade Roosters team.

In mid 2004, Hodges went to Brisbane to talk to Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett to seek a return to the Broncos. This was approved by Roosters boss Brian Canavan, but Roosters coach Stuart did not know that Hodges wanted a release from the club.^[10] After several off field incidents, Hodges was expected to leave the Roosters mid season and go to the Broncos, but the Broncos did not want this.^[9]

[edit] Return to the Broncos

[edit] 2005

After the feud between coach Bennett and Hodges earlier in 2001, some critics felt that Hodges wouldn't be able to fit well into the Broncos team. But during an off season camp, Hodges and Bennett sorted things out and all Hodges wanted to do was play rugby league. Hodges stated that he didn't regret going to Sydney, but felt it was time to go home back to Brisbane.^[11] Former Brisbane Broncos captain Gorden Tallis backed Hodges return to the Broncos, despite some fans questioning the merits in which Hodges returned.^[12]

With Hodges returning, it caused a problem for the Broncos. They had three centres in which only two could play there. Hodges, Shaun Berrigan and Brent Tate all were contenders for the two centre positions.^[13] For the early rounds of 2005, Hodges was forced to play on the wing, with Tate and Berrigan the centres.^[14] When Brent Tate suffered a shoulder injury, Hodges was able to play in his preferred position of centre.^[15]

Hodges had cruciate ligament damage in his right knee, and missed two weeks as a result, but returned for the Broncos final match. The Broncos were knocked out of the finals, after losing seven straight matches.^[14][16]

[edit] 2006

In 2006 Hodges started the season playing in the centre position and continued to play there for the first 10 rounds of the competition. However injury plagued him over the next 10 rounds, only playing one game for the Broncos in those rounds.^[14] Despite this, Hodges was selected to play for Queensland in the first two State of Origin matches, and in the second game when he intercepted a NSW pass and ran 85 metres to score a try.^[17]

However, injury sidelined him for over 3 weeks including the 3rd State of Origin match, before he made his return against the North Queensland Cowboys, a game that the Broncos lost 26-10.^[18] The Bronco's form continued to slide, until coach Wayne Bennett moved Hodges from the centres to fullback, in place of injured team mate Karmichael Hunt. The team cast off their slump and made it into the 2006 Grand Final, Hodges' fourth in five seasons. Facing minor premiers Melbourne Storm, in the 20th minute, Hodges, off the back of a skillful Lockyer inside pass, scored a try and Brisbane went on to win the grand final 15-8.^[19]

At the end of 2006, Hodges went on to play for Australia in the Tri-Nations Series, He scored one try against Great Britain and played in the final match against New Zealand, which Australia won.^[20][14]

[edit] 2007

Due to Broncos winning the grand final, Hodges, along with the Broncos team, travelled to England to play the World Club Challenge. Hodges played in the centres for the trial match against the Celtic Crusaders, which they won 32-6. Hodges scored an intercept try just before halftime, in the trial match.^[21] In the actual World Club Challenge, against St. Helens RFC, the Broncos lost the game 18-14.^[22]

With Karmichael Hunt playing in the halves, Hodges was moved to fullback for the first two rounds of the 2007 NRL premiership. When Hunt was showing poor form in the halves he was moved back to fullback, and Hodges was forced back into the centres for Round 3. In that round, Hodges equalled the Broncos' club record of four tries in a match.^[14]

Hodges was again selected for the ANZAC Test, and played in the centres. He also played in all three games for Queensland in the 2007 State of Origin series. Hodges scored one try in the third game and Queensland won the series 2-1.^[14] Despite being sidelined for several weeks due to a knee injury, Hodges finished the season as the Broncos' top try-scorer.

[edit] Career statistics

(correct to July 18, 2007)

Hodges's Brisbane Broncos first grade record
Era	Games	Tries	Goals	F/G	Points
2000-2007	69	37	1/1	0	150

Hodges's Queensland Maroons record
Era	Games	Tries	Goals	F/G	Points
2002-2007	8	2	0	0	8

Hodges's Sydney Roosters first grade record
Era	Games	Tries	Goals	F/G	Points
2002-2004	58	26	0	0	104

Hodges's Australian Kangaroos record
Era	Games	Tries	Goals	F/G	Points
2006-2007	5	1	0	0	4

[edit] Honours

Debut
Brisbane Broncos First Grade Debut - May 8, 2000
Sydney Roosters First Grade Debut - March 15, 2002
Queensland Maroons Queensland State of Origin Debut - June 5, 2002
Australian Kangaroos Australian Test Debut - October 14, 2006
Awards
Preceded by Shaun Berrigan	Broncos Best Back 2005	Succeeded by Darren Lockyer
Preceded by Award Introduced	Broncos Most Consistent 2006	Succeeded by Corey Parker
Records
Broncos Most Tries in a Match with Steve Renouf, Wendell Sailor, Karmichael Hunt and Denan Kemp

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Justin Hodges at the Brisbane Broncos official website.
• Justin Hodges at the State of Origin official website.
• Justin Hodges at the Former Origin Greats website.

Persondata
NAME	Hodges, Justin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Rugby league player currently for Brisbane Broncos. Debuted with the Broncos, before moving to Sydney Roosters Contreversy Has represented Queensland and Australia.
DATE OF BIRTH	May 25, 1982
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cairns, Queensland, Australia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

v • d • e Sydney Roosters squad - 2002 NRL Premiers (12th Title) 1 Luke Phillips • 2 Brett Mullins • 3 Shannon Hegarty • 4 Justin Hodges • 5 Anthony Minichiello • 6 Brad Fittler (c) • 7 Craig Wing  • 8 Jason Cayless • 9 Simon Bonetti • 10 Adrian Morley • 11 Peter Cusack • 12 Craig Fitzgibbon • 13 Luke Ricketson  • 14 Michael Crocker • 15 Chris Flannery • 16 Bryan Fletcher • 17 Andrew Lomu  • Coach: Ricky Stuart

v • d • e Brisbane Broncos squad - 2006 NRL Premiers (6th Title) 1 Justin Hodges • 2 Darius Boyd • 3 David Stagg • 4 Brent Tate • 5 Karmichael Hunt • 6 Darren Lockyer (c) • 7 Shane Perry  • 8 Shane Webcke • 9 Shaun Berrigan • 10 Petero Civoniceva • 11 Sam Thaiday • 12 Brad Thorn • 13 Tonie Carroll  • 14 Corey Parker • 15 Dane Carlaw • 16 Ben Hannant • 17 Casey McGuire  • Coach: Wayne Bennett

v • d • e Brisbane Broncos - current squad Lockyer (c) • Boyd • Carroll • Clinton • Eastwood • Emmett • Ennis • Frawley • Hannant • Hewitt • Hodges • Hunt • Kemp • Kenny • Marsh • Michaels • Moon • Parker • Perry • Robinson • Sims • Stagg • Taylor • Thaiday • Wallace • Coach: Bennett