Kym Hodgeman (born 30 July 1956) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er best known for his playing career with Glenelg in the SANFL from 1974 - 1980 & secondly for a 5 year stint with in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(VFL) from 1981 - 1985, before he returned to Glenelg 1986 where tasted a premiership success, playing again with the Tigers until his retirement in 1990.

SANFL career

A goalkicking

rover Rover may refer to: People Name * Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian * Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer * Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist Stage name * Rover (musician), French singer-songw ...

, Hodgeman established a reputation as a skillful and courageous player. He won the Reserves grade Magarey Medal in 1974 despite spending almost half the season playing in Glenelg's league team. Hodgeman won Glenelg's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

award in 1977 and 1978 and also topped the club's goal kicking for seasons in 1978 (51 goals) and 1979 (32 goals). In 1978, Hodgeman won the League's highest individual award, the

Magarey Medal The Magarey Medal is an Australian rules football honour awarded annually since 1898 to the fairest and most brilliant player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), as judged by field umpires. The award was created by Willi ...

for "fairest and most brilliant" player, polling one vote more than three-time winner of the award,

Russell Ebert Russell Frank Ebert (22 June 1949 – 5 November 2021) was an Australian rules footballer and coach. He is considered one of the greatest players in the history of Australian rules football. Ebert is the only player to have won four Magarey M ...

. By winning the medal Hodgeman became one of just a handful of players who would win the award in both the SANFL League and Reserves competitions. In 1979 Hodgeman was selected as an

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...

following that year's State of Origin Carnival in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

VFL career

Like many South Australian players of the time, Hodgeman was lured to the more lucrative VFL at the peak of his career. In late 1977, he signed a Form Four which tied him to the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Princes Park (stadium), Princes Park in Carlton North, Victoria, Carlton North, an inner suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The c ...

when he chose to move to Victoria; but, in 1980, while Hodgeman was still at Glenelg, Carlton traded his Form Four to as part of a deal to secure

Greg Wells William Gregory Wells (born 1968) is a Canadian record producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and mix engineer. He has worked with Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Quincy Jones, J*Davey, Burt Bacharach, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Missy Elliott, ...

. Hodgeman had no desire to play for Melbourne, and objected to Carlton's treatment of his contract, likening it to horse trading, so he turned his back on both clubs and signed with in

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

. Hodgeman played five seasons with the Kangaroos, winning their best and fairest award, the

Syd Barker Medal The Syd Barker Medal is awarded to the North Melbourne Football Club player who has been judged the best and fairest of the footy season. The award has been given out continuously since 1937. Before then it was known as the Syd Barker Memorial Tr ...

(and also best clubman) in 1984. Over his five seasons in the VFL Hodgeman played in 91 games, kicking 133 goals.

Later SANFL career

Hodgeman returned to Glenelg in 1986, playing in a winning Grand Final side that year against

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct (Australia), precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. Laid out in a grid plan in three section ...

. He won his third Glenelg best and fairest award in 1989, before retiring as a player at the end of 1990 following the Tigers' loss to Port Adelaide in the Grand Final. Following the recruitment of the Glenelg coach,

Graham Cornes Graham Studley Cornes OAM (born 31 March 1948 in Melbourne, Victoria) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach, as well as a media personality. From 1995 until early 2013, Cornes co-hosted a weekday drivetime sports program that he ho ...

, by the newly formed

Adelaide Crows The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia that was founded in 1990. The Crows have fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 199 ...

, Hodgeman coached the Glenelg side in 1991 and 1992, taking them to the Grand Final in 1992 where again they were defeated by Port Adelaide. Hodgeman was inducted into the Glenelg Hall of Fame in 2002 and the same year was one of 113 inaugural inductees into the

South Australian Football Hall of Fame The South Australian Football Hall of Fame enshrines those who have made a most significant contribution to the game of Australian Football. The Hall of Fame was established in 2002 when 114 outstanding individuals became inaugural inductees. S ...

Personal life

Kym Hodgeman is the uncle of former Glenelg footballer Ben Moore and former North Melbourne,

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

and player Scott Welsh.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgeman, Kym Glenelg Football Club players Australian rules footballers from South Australia North Melbourne Football Club players Glenelg Football Club coaches Syd Barker Medal winners All-Australians (1953–1988) South Australian State of Origin players Magarey Medal winners South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Living people 1956 births