But that's exactly what happened. The Lions second grade side went winless in 2021, with the first grade side not fairing much better. This meant that coming into Saturday's derby clash with Emus, Hodge hadn't won a game in the green and orange for 434 days.

That streak was finally snapped during round nine Blowes Clothing Cup second grade competition as the Lions got the best of their rivals to the tune of 20-12.

"Obviously for the boys it's unreal to get a win in a local derby. It's been a long time since we've done that against them," he said.

"For myself personally, I haven't won a game in the City colours since round one of last year so I'm about to learn the team song and sing it for the second time. I'm pretty stoked."

But if the home side's first half performance was anything to go by, you would have assumed that winless streak would have been extended.

Penalty after penalty gifted the visitors good field position. Despite that, the sides went into the first half break locked at 12-all.

"The penalties were killing us. We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot," Hodge said of their first half performance.

"We've got a really good side and some young players who are really good and that was our big talk at half time, to stop piggy-backing them up the park and stop making it easy for them and we'd be able to close it out."

And close it out they did.

The Lions shut out their opposition in the second half, with a Noa Fraser try and Ollie Connaughton penalty goal enough to secure the victory.

"Everyone saw how much that meant to the boys. We didn't win a single game in seconds last year, we got our first win against Cowra this year and to get a second against Emus especially is massive," Hodge added.

"We were losing blokes in the game, had a couple out before it with injury and blokes were just digging deep. We haven't had a win like that in a long time and everybody just wanted it."

Connaughton, who also bagged a try and slotted home a conversion, was one of the youngsters who stood out. Speaking after the match, he was quick to shine the spotlight on others.

"Getting noticed is good but myself, (Hugh Nunn) and some of the other blokes stepping up is fun, especially getting the win," he said.

"A derby win is always special. We're all mates (with Emus) but the rivalry is still there."

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