BEST WHO NEVER MADE IT:

MEET THE SOUTHPORT GUN WHO MISSED HIS SHOT

THE Southport Tigers were on the back nine of a regulation flogging of the Ormeau Shearers when coach Steve Dowd witnessed something he will never forget.

The ball had found its way from kick-off into the hardcharging hands of prop Chris Hodges for the opening hit-up of a new set, but that wasn’t unusual. Hodges was a big human, Dowd said, standing 187cm and cut from the same cloth as NRL enforcer Willie Mason.

“He was one of those players who could turn a game in the blink of an eye,” the coach recalled.

“Our halfback had just passed him the ball to truck up for the first tackle but when he got to the line he put through a chip kick from the kick-off.

“He regathered the ball and ran the length of the field and scored the try.

“I’ve watched a lot of football and a lot of footballers so I’m not a bad judge; I know if he ever got the chance to train up in a full NRL pre-season we’d probably still be watching him on TV today.”

In the late 2000s Hodges was the complete prospect, with the size, aggression, football IQ

and the subtle skills to carve apart a defence like few frontrowers of his generation ever could.

He was also his own worst enemy.

“He was a character of Gold Coast sport,” Dowd said. “Lots loved to hate him. “Every time he went out (after a game) he thought it was New Year’s Eve. “He was probably his own worst enemy like that but he had every attribute and the talent was there.” His NRL shot never came and a stint representing the Burleigh Bears in the Intrust Super Cup was the closest Hodges ever went to playing under the brightest lights.

The booming front rower instead became a near-permanent fixture on the Gold Coast’s grand final day, first with Southport from 2007 to 2012 and then with Tugun until his retirement last year with the Currumbin Eagles.

Though the NRL never woke up to the hard-partying Willie Mason clone who ran like the wind, the Gold Coast’s rugby league scene was all the richer for having a character like Hodges chip-and-chasing over the middle.

Chris Hodges, pictured in action for Southport in Rugby League Gold Coast against Tugun, could have been a battering ram in the style of Willie Mason (inset, right) if given his NRL shot.