It's almost impossible to judge the form of our halves. Only really great halves can go well behind packs that are getting smashed, and the fact that Hodko hasn't looked good behind our pack really means nothing. He looked like a completely different guy in reserve grade, behind a pack that was holding its own.
The telling sign is when we got ourselves in to good attacking position starting sets inside their 30. He offered nothing. You can't blame the forwards not grabbing metres in that scenario. I don't get how people defend him based on this excuse. It doesn't cut it. He went missing in every aspect a half should be having an impact in! Kicking in general play went to Lamb, and often if lamb wasn't available it went to anyone, anyone but Hodkinson. Oh but he has bad knees was the excuse. He went missing in attacking kicks near the try line whether to put in kicks attempting to score tries, or to secure a repeat set. Again, our SOO half let those duties slide to the rookie, his knees was rolled out as the excuse again.
In attacking movements in good attacking position he in the vast majority of cases just shoveled the ball along the line to let someone else have it, anybody but him. I saw him score a try once where he was going to just shovel it along the line as per normal, but a defender had sprinted up to block that option which left him the only option left to run. That defender had left a hole Hodkinson ran through to score. Hodkinson hadn't even noticed the player sprinting up, was going to dump it along the line until he looked to pass and couldn't.
And finally, after our rookie made a big error all but giving the game away, we find ourselves after the siren with a conversion attempt to send it to extra time, he did what he has proven he does well, he let someone else take it, the rookie that just messed up and hasn't kicked all game, and nearly all year. The predictable happened and Lamb shanked the kick, it was too much pressure for him, especially after just making a big error that cost the team the win. His excuse was that he thought the kick was from 10m further back. So a SOO half with all that experience, doesn't know where he is on the field? A seasoned goal kicker doesn't instantly assess the goal kick option, pros and cons as soon as the whistle blows a penalty? Good players want the ball in those pressure moments. They don't hide as Hodkinson does in virtually every aspect of a halves game.
You can't lump all that on the forwards.
He looked better in reserve grade, against reserve grade quality opposition. You would expect nothing less.