Rightly or wrongly, Matt Lodge the person has become the most controversial figure in rugby league. In fact, it’s difficult to remember an individual creating more of a storm before a ball was even kicked in an NRL season.
All of this, without the man himself saying a word.
I’m not here to talk about Lodge the person though. That’s been done. Over and over.
I want to talk about Lodge the footballer. The footballer who, according to some, shouldn’t have played on Thursday night. The footballer who played in a team that were utterly and convincingly defeated.
Through all of that however, emerged the giant front rower, head held high after putting in a highly impressive shift.
Remember, this is a man who hadn’t played NRL football in over two years.
A man who’s lived with a blow torch in his face for nearly that entire time. A man, however, who can seriously play.
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Just last week, coach Wayne Bennett caused jaws to hit the floor when, after being asked why he signed Lodge, responded by simply stating he rates him as a player. The supposed arrogance was baffling to many. On Thursday night however, we saw what he meant.
Despite being directly at fault for what will inventively be the headline moment of the night, throwing a horrid intercept pass which led to a Ben Hunt try, Lodge took the ball to the line with real gusto.
Despite being booed, jeered, sledged and niggled for 80 minutes and then some, Lodge ran for over 100 metres.
It wasn’t a world-beating performance by any means, but in the grand scheme of things, it was impressive.
Darius Boyd, while possibly playing the classic Queensland antagoniser, recently put out feelers for Lodge to eventually earn a NSW Origin jersey. While that would be a monumental long shot in 2018, if Lodge keeps his head down and just plays football, he’ll get there eventually.
Matthew Lodge the footballer is good enough to do that.
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