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Spot on CP Gaz's go forward on the left frees up the space on the right. The dummy runners and quality passes make it very difficult to defend against. Fantastic to watch - long may it continue.

Not read any other posts here but... like I always say:

World Class.


Gew on 'ocky lad!

When Joel came into the first team under Millward he had real ability to slip passes. Like 99% of players he became constrained by ball security and lost the freedom to express himself. Hock has never had any fear re losing the ball / making mistakes. He plays it as he sees it.

For Madge that was simply too far and he repeatedly went with Hoff. Perhaps our end of season would have gone better with Hock back doing what he does best. Hoff and Hansen were too similar in many respects. You need different types of players to make the whole team better.

Wane to his credit has given Hock the freedom to play as he sees it.

One thing many fans do not realise; Hock is a rarity. He plays on the left but carries the ball in the right hand. So his ball carrying arm is often freer to offload whilst he takes tackles on the left shoulder. That rightness on the left also straightens play up to his and the teams advantage. Hock would worry the best Aus defences let alone British ones.

If Joel was still here he wouldnt be in the starting 13 for me. Hock is a far superior 2nd row and is much more destructive in attack and Hansen as the grafter compliments him very well and performs that role much better than Joel every could. He also hits and runs very hard. Add in O'Loughlin at Loose Forward and he wouldnt be in the 13 for me. Joel was a good athlete and talented player but was/is still not the finished article and Hansen and Hock offer more.

I've been impressed with Hocky this year.

He may play off the cuff, but paradoxically it's a disciplined playing off the cuff (if that makes any sense?). More important than that though, is that he seems to cut out the brain explosions.

He's playing well.

Ryan Hoffman, was (Wigan) and still is (Melbourne) a very good second rower, however, it didnt take 3 players to stop him.
With Gaz Hock he still goes forward with 3/4 players hanging off his back to still release the ball.
Hock attracts defenders like bees to a honey pot creating room for allsorts of differing moves.
Awesome talent that every side in SL and I dare say NRL could fit into their team.

Dave o
Your problem with hock is that you are too busy trying to defend the fact that you didn't want him back! Much as I liked Joel you appear to have a short memory when you say he was disciplined. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't he see his backside and commit an indiscretion on the very next tackle at home to Hull last year after being spoken to by the ref? Never the quickest between the ears IMHO!!

Gareth Hock I think we all would agree isn't the brightest bulb in the box and has made 1 terrible off the field mistake in which he was punished, did his time and I think learnt his lesson. As far as I am concerned what he did was not acceptable but certainly forgiveable, as I said previously for me drink/driving is worse, but we won't go into that.

Gareth Hock I think we would all agree has a fantastic RL brain and is a very very clever RL player in terms of natural/coached skills, however his temperament has always been questionable and that leads to him making stupid decisions and costing him game time and the team points. However, this season he has been nothing short of AWESOME and he seems to just simply be 'happy' playing the game again and eternally grateful for a 2nd chance which I don't think anyone can say he didn't deserve.

I don't think it is fair to compare Joel and Gaz, but I will say Joel had his stupid moments on the field also but I will just put it down to being a 'winner' same as Gaz. For what it is worth, to me Gaz is in a different league to Joel but I still rated him highly.

I think it is time that we all just put to bed Gaz Hocks history and enjoy him for the superb RL player he is and just be grateful he plays for us. He is my 2 and a half year old boys favourite player and I love him shouting at the tv 'Go on 'ocky!', and he has the shirt with 12 Hock on.

We all make mistakes, no one is perfect, but surely Gaz has proved so far he is a changed man and long may it continue.

'Go on 'ocky!'

.....and before anyone says 'nobody has brought up his past', I know that, I just think some people's opinions/views are still clouded by his past and I just think it is time we all moved on.

Personally I think that this year he has been better discipplined. There have been times where Hock would have left the game and went for a bit of biff instead of carrying on play. Yes, he has had a few skirmishes at the tackle but somehow, to me anyway, he seems to have a bit more control.

Also, to me, it seemed that when Wane took him out of training pre-Good Friday for everyone's benefit the result was, in a way, Hock bottled everything up and concentrated on the rugby and not going in to prove points. It seems Wane has a control of sorts which is better suited to Hock the man, not the player.

Plus he has a new little bessie mate in Micky Mac, aawww...