A left-handed batsman and fast-medium, round-arm bowler, Hodges started playing cricket for the Capulets club in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood.

Hodges got his chance to play in the inaugural Test when the more widely recognised bowler Frank Allan refused to travel to Melbourne from Warrnambool for the match.

Allan could not spare the time and thus Hodges bowled the very first ball for Australia in Test history and was unlucky not to take a wicket with it.

Newspaper reports suggested that an umpiring error saved the English batsman, Henry Jupp, after he dislodged the bails whilst attempting to play the ball.

Nine months after his representative matches, in December 1877, Hodges made his debut for Victoria and played a second and last time for the state in February the following year.