When veteran Josh Hodgson was linked with a Canberra Raiders exit during and after the 2021 NRL season, a few eyebrows were raised.
Here was a mainstay of the Green Machine ready to leave after an unsuccessful season in which the Raiders failed to make the play-offs.
The 32-year-old was linked with an immediate move to the Wests Tigers in the off-season, but he eventually signed a two-year deal with the Eels from 2023.
“The decision just made sense from both sides of the coin,” Hodgson told Fox Sports.
“I’ve got a lot I still want to do in the game and I still really back my own ability to be one of the best in the game.
“And from the other point of view I knew I wanted to leave the club in a good place, there’s a few of us that have been here for a long time that have been really trying to drive the expectations and the standards here and I think from when I came in my first year in 2015 to now it’s a really different place.
“Our expectations are really high, we made three prelims and a grand final in that period which is a big achievement. We’d have liked to have done more but overall picture I’m really proud of what we’ve created here.
“I’m really big on making sure it stays that way – you want to leave your footprint on a club.
“So both sides of the coin from leaving the club in a good spot and me personally wanting to change it up a little bit where I’m the recognised No. 9 and play the majority of my time there, it just made sense.”
The deal signed at Parramatta must be lucrative when considering that Hodgson is the highest-paid hooker in the game at Canberra.
With a contract of $775,000 per year, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, the England international has been raking it in in previous years in the NRL – and mightily deserved too.