As one of the best hookers in the world, Josh Hodgson knows the best way to shut down Parramatta rake Reed Mahoney is to get on top of the Eels' big forward pack.
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Keeping Mahoney on the back foot was the best way to keep him quiet at Canberra Stadium on Saturday night.
That means the Green Machine's engine room of Josh Papalii, Sia Soliola and Joe Tapine need to get on top of their counterparts in Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Junior Paulo and Nathan Brown.
"As a nine it all comes off the back of your forward pack," Hodgson said.
"Usually you're getting wraps because your forward pack are dominating through the middle and you're getting some front-foot action to jump off the back of and run, pick your times when to run, when not to, when to hit a bloke in behind the ruck, when to exploit opposition.
"Their forward pack's been really dominating in the opening few rounds so that's one area we'll be looking to target - the big blokes through the middle.
"We can't give Reed too much time on the front foot."
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Hodgson was confident he'd put the hip complaint that forced him off with 15 minutes remaining against Penrith behind him.
The 31-year-old admitted he'd initially been worried about the injury, before it freed up.
"I'm pretty good now. A bit of a weird one, I don't really know what happened," Hodgson said.
"It just locked up a bit for some reason, got a bit of a click and I was a bit worried at first, but it seemed to release pretty good.
"All good, I'll be right to train [on Tuesday] and should be good for this week."
Given both teams were coming off losses - the Raiders going down to the Panthers and the Eels losing to St George Illawarra - Hodgson was expecting a fiery encounter.
The Raiders have lost their past two games against Parramatta, but were expecting a big home crowd of at least 16,000 on Saturday.
Canberra's sitting eighth on the ladder with three wins - one victory behind the fifth-placed Eels.
"They'll obviously be feeling very similar to how we are with the loss against the Dragons so I'm sure it will be a fiery encounter," Hodgson said.
NRL ROUND SIX
Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Parramatta Eels at Canberra Raiders, 7.35pm.
Raiders squad: 1. Caleb Aekins, 2. Bailey Simonsson, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Curtis Scott, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. George Williams, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Josh Hodgson (c), 10. Sia Soliola, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Joe Tapine. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Ryan Sutton, 16. Siliva Havili, 17. Emre Guler. Reserves: 18. Sebastian Kris, 19. Matt Frawley, 20. Corey Harawira-Naera, 21. Dunamis Lui.
Eels squad: 1. Clinton Gutherson (c), 2. Maika Sivo, 3. Tom Opacic, 4. Marata Niukore, 5. Blake Ferguson, 6. Will Smith, 7. Mitchell Moses, 8. Reagan Campbell-Gillard, 9. Reed Mahoney, 10. Junior Paulo, 11. Shaun Lane, 12. Ryan Matterson, 13. Nathan Brown. Interchange: 14. Oregon Kaufusi, 15. Isaiah Papali'i, 16. Keegan Hipgrave, 17. Bryce Cartwright. Reserves: 18. Joey Lussick, 19. Haze Dunster, 20. Wiremu Greig, 21. Jordan Rankin.