Former New South Wales Blues and Melbourne Storm forward Ryan Hoffman has slammed ex-teammate Aaron Woods over his comments directed at Queensland Maroons coach Billy Slater in the lead up to State of Origin Game 2.
Woods slammed Slater for dropping Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans in the lead-up to the game in Perth, which the Maroons managed to win.
That led to Slater teeing off back in the direction of Woods at a media event the day before the game, urging Woods to consider his words more carefully and to understand the impacts of what he was saying.
Slater also referenced former Queensland coach Paul Green during his hit back at Woods, but later withdrew those comments and apologised to Green's family.
Woods has stood by his comments since, but Hoffman, speaking on ABC, said Woods was a coward for making the comments.
"Just throwing out those comments, you don't know what people have got going on in their lives - you don't know the effect that that can have," Hoffman said.
"In the end, all you're doing is allowing other people to say those comments in the name of 'banter'. But where do you draw the line? Is calling someone a grub where you would draw the line?
"Is calling someone worse, is it making sexist, racist comments to people allowed because it's in the name of 'banter'?
"Just throwing those ridiculous comments out just gives more people avenues to say what they want to who they want without any repercussions.
"Aaron Woods was a coward for standing behind a microphone and throwing that out there.
"Billy Slater showed courage going out there on a microphone and talking about responsibility.
"He made a mistake and apologised to the Green family, but he fronted up in front of the camera, in front of the microphone, every single time.
"'Bill (Slater) wrongly made the point about linking it to Paul Green. But the point he was trying to make was perfect."
Hoffman played 359 games in Australia and England across his career, with all but 34 of them coming in the NRL for the Melbourne Storm and New Zealand Warriors between 2003 and 2018.
While he was never a teammate of Woods at club level, the duo played together at Origin level, where Hoffman played 14 matches for the Blues between 2007 and 2015.
