BY DAN

On Tuesday the Parramatta Eels announced Josh Hodgson would be joining their front-office organisation as Assistant Coaching Director of Elite Pathways (and his official retirement, but we all knew that).

Good title, gross result right? Hodgson is Canberra’s man. He should have finished his career at the club, possibly alongside Jarrod Croker, a symbol of what was possible at the Raiders. Instead his and Sticky’s relationship deteriorated for reasons that aren’t worth arguing about anymore, he left the club, and now he’s locked in to the Eels coaching system. Terrible.

Except is it?

We’ve always thought Hodgson could be a good coach. His game was built off intelligence rather than athleticism. The way he’d work a ruck, an A defender, into exhaustion before unleashing hell, was a key in driving the Raiders success from 2015 to 2019. He wasn’t just central to them making a grand final, he was the captain, the commander, the goddamn architect. If you ever wanted someone involved in Xs and Os from that side he is definitely your man.

In the deep dark recesses of our mind where we store the things we want but would never tell anyone we have a little bit of hope that Josh Hodgson would one day become a coach of the Raiders. It’s sentimental on our part, and we’d never push for it in reality without evidence he could actually, you know, coach. Putting ex-players in big positions because of their relationship with the club is a big problem that clubs like the Tigers have created and clubs like the Warriors have shown how best to avoid.

Often ex players are given jobs they haven’t earned. People who have earned the job are overlooked because they don’t have the name. Coaching isn’t just a name (though it helps). It requires a whole set of skills and knowledge that isn’t necessarily built on the playing field. There’s a reason the best players rarely become good coaches. Playing is one thing, coaching is a whole different skill set. The lessons that come from coaching lower levels of footy, of learning the actual trends in tactics and techniques that change with time, with learning how *you* coach, how *you* reach young players who say things like “September 11? I wasn’t born.”

So before Hodgson is ever going to prove himself capable of one day taking the reigns of the Raiders, he would need to learn the craft. Lord knows i’m not sure what a Junior Vice President Assistant Director of Elite Pathways does (it sounds like scouting to me?), but if it’s not bottom to the pile it’s definitely edge of the conversation. It’s a start, a place to learn.

Many people have started in small roles like this before transitioning to bigger ones, though not normally in rugby league. Ex-stars tend to either be given glorified roles where they get to tell players how they did it (think ‘Andrew Johns, halves coach’) which isn’t really helpful if you’re not an immortal, or they get given head coaching gigs before they’re ready. Think Freddy Fittler at the Roosters. Many of the best coaches are ex-players that weren’t given the golden pathway to head coach, that got a chance to learn their trade. Bennett, Bellamy, Robinson, Maguire (and now Webster) all did lengthy stints in backrooms and as assistant coaches, learning their craft before becoming the legends we know today.

So for my dream of Hodgson coaching the Raiders this isn’t the worst idea. He’s getting the on-the-job experience at a club, learning from a strong coaching apparatus with a history of turning talent into good players and putting those people in positions to succeed. Hopefully he learns many things from Brad Arthur and co. As anyone who can point to a map would note, it’s not with the Raiders. And that’s the bit that feels gross.

But if we’re being realistic, given how Hodgson’s career ended in Canberra, and Ricky Stuart’s unique ability to piss in people’s water bottle on their way out of the organisation, it was never likely that Hodgson would be part of this regime’s coaching structure. So getting the experience he needed to become a bigger part of coaching the club in the future was never going to be acquired in Canberra. Further, would you want it? Given the staff’s inability to coach anything into the roster other that a bloody-minded determination to manufacture victories in the absence of any obvious plan, it probably isn’t the worst thing that Hodgson is at a different club learning different things.

This may in fact be the best case scenario. Hodgson still progressing his coaching ability while Stuart plays out the likely end-years of his career. Then maybe, in the smallest second of my fever dream, Josh Hodgson has proven himself a worthy coach ready to take a bigger role at the club, right when it’s time for a new regime. A man can dream right?

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