Hughes first three seasons were mainly spent in Canterbury's reserve grade team and he did not play in the club's 1994 grand final loss against the Canberra Raiders.
In the 1995 ARL season, Hughes played 15 games including the 1995 Grand Final victory over Manly-Warringah at the Sydney Football Stadium.
That includes the club's famous preliminary final victory over rivals Parramatta which is considered to be one of the greatest comebacks of all time.
It was then revealed that Canterbury had exceeded the NRL's salary cap by $2 million over 3 years including undisclosed payments made to players.
As a result, the NRL fined Canterbury $500,000 and stripped them of all their 37 competition points meaning that the club would finish the 2002 season with the wooden spoon.