Originally from north-western Tasmania, Hodgetts was a key forward who played for Cooee in the North Western Football Union.
[1] Aged 19, he made his interstate debut for Tasmania in 1970, and he kicked three goals from full forward in his state's two-point victory against Western Australia, a famous game which has since been inducted into the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame.
[7] He became marketing manager at the VFL's Essendon Football Club in 1981 and served in the role for much of the 1980s, earning acclaim for his ability to secure sponsorship.
[11] Coburg coach Phil Cleary credited Hodgetts with delivering record levels of base sponsorship to the VFA, and with instilling greater professionalism within clubs.
Under Hodgetts, Carlton became the first club to arrange a naming rights deal for its home ground, when Princes Park was renamed Optus Oval in November 1993;[13] and in Round 3, 1997, he helped to arrange for the club to wear once-off sky blue guernseys to secure $250,000 in sponsorship from Mars in a cross-promotion for the company's new blue coloured M&M's[14] – a promotion which, while it is often derided for its commercialism or simply as a poor fashion choice, turned out to be one of the most successful sponsorship events in Mars Australia's history and later influenced a major sponsorship deal between Carlton and Mars which began in 2010, long after Hodgetts' tenure at the club had finished.