Scott Hodges - AFL Career

AFL Career

At the age of just 22 and with the football world seemingly at his feet his utter dominance was expected to carry over into the Australian Football League, where he joined the Adelaide Crows in their inaugural season in 1991, having turned down lucrative offers from both the reigning AFL Premiers Collingwood and the Brisbane Bears in the process.

Due to injury and inconsistency Hodges was unable to fully reproduce his best form at the elite level, although there were glimpses of his potential – such as his 11-goal haul against eventual Grand Finallists Geelong in 1992.

Despite that groundbreaking performance, finishing the season as Adelaide's leading goalkicker with 48 goals and boasting a highly respectable AFL career goal average of 3 per game to that point, in 1993 Hodges' position in the team was compromised following the emergence of glamour spearhead Tony Modra. With the much-vaunted pair misfiring in tandem, Modra's mammoth return of 129 goals guaranteed his status as Adelaide's number one full-forward and Hodges quit the Crows in frustration at the end of the season. Though many thought his AFL career was now finished, a highly successful SANFL sabbatical saw him relisted by the Crows in 1996 but again Hodges found his opportunities limited, only managing a further two games for six goals.

Hodges was given one last opportunity when he was named on the Port Adelaide Football Club's inaugural list with their long-awaited entry into the AFL in 1997, but did not play a senior game due to a succession of injuries sustained throughout the year, sealing his AFL record at 38 games for 100 goals and limiting him to just 7 games for the Port Magpies back in the SANFL. Ironically in 1997, Hodges former team the Crows would go on to win the Grand Final against St Kilda and Tony Modra would win the Coleman Medal as the AFL's leading goal kicker that year.