Josh Hodgson spoke candidly to media on Tuesday about stepping down from the Raiders captaincy, speculation suggesting he'll leave the club at the end of the season and how the club can resurrect its season.
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It's been a tough three weeks off the field, how are you handling it all?
"I'm fine. Some of it's been obviously well documented about me stepping down from the captaincy. Some of the other stories were a little bit laughable, saying me and Stick [coach Ricky Stuart] are fighting and arguing.
"We've got a pretty good relationship, we know when it comes down to rugby business is business. Sometimes you've got to talk business but that don't affect your personal relationship off the field. Me and Rick will never blue in terms of a big way.
Is it frustrating to read that stuff in the press?
"It can be but only if you buy into it. It's not real frustrating for me. I heard I weren't injured for a while and I heard all sorts that people like to come up with.
"When you're losing, those stories happen, the first four weeks I read a million stories on Manly and all the things they needed to change and now they seem like geniuses again. You win a few games everyone kind of shuts up and stops talking."
What was Ricky Stuart's reaction to your decision to relinquish the captaincy?
"He said he was gutted, obviously, and asked me if I wanted to take a bit longer to think about it but I'd made up my mind.
"I'm a pretty strong minded kind of person when I make a decision that that's the decision I'm going to make and I'm going to stick to my guns. I knew I wasn't going to change my mind on it."
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How much have you enjoyed playing for Ricky Stuart at the Raiders?
"I've loved my time here, the one thing the club and Ricky have done for me is give me a home away from home, even when you're a grown man, it's hard being away from your family, especially them first couple of years trying to settle in.
"All the footy kind of stuff, that's business and most coaches are pretty similar. He's a great coach and he's been around a long time and he wouldn't have been around that long if he didn't know what he was been doing.
"You more appreciate the stuff off the field that coaches probably don't have to do, when you look back on who's been the favourite coach of your career."
Was the link with the Brisbane Broncos a shock to you?
"It was yeah, I had family from home ringing me asking me where I'm going and all sorts. I didn't buy too much into that. That was the first I heard about it, so it was a shock to me and a shock to the family."
How do you go about overturning the Raiders' form slump?
"I'm just trying to bring back the feel good to be honest. That's kind of what I said in the meeting this week.
"We're doing everything we can. It's not as though we're going out on the training field and running round playing touch and not really practicing things. We're working as hard as we can, we're bashing each other out there, we're doing all the things and sometimes when you're losing you can over analyse certain things.
"We just need to relax, enjoy each other's company away from footy, enjoy training when we're out there."
