The encounter with Danny Buderus that helped make Josh Hodgson the player he is today

Nine years ago, a starstruck Josh Hodgson got the chance to meet Danny Buderus. It’s a moment the Canberra superstar will never forget.

Josh HODGSON. NRL; North Queensland Cowboys Vs Canberra Raiders at 1300 Smiles Stadium. Picture: Alix Sweeney

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It’s 2010 and the respective careers of hookers Danny Buderus and Josh Hodgson are diverging in opposite ­directions.

Buderus, a veteran, is at the back of his career and is plying his trade for English Super League side Leeds Rhinos having already played 220 games at Newcastle, winning the premiership in 2001. Hodgson, a rookie rake at Hull Kingston Rovers, is in the infancy of his career and only has 22 top-flight games under his belt, nearly all of which were off the bench.

But a mutual connection brought the master and apprentice together in a private encounter that Hodgson will never forget.

Speaking for the first time about the meeting, the Canberra Raiders hooker told The Saturday Telegraph he didn’t need to think twice about taking the 200km round trip to meet the Knights legend, who was now his Super League rival.

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Hodgson has become one of the best players in the game. Picture by Alix Sweeney.

“It was a really good thing for him to do, a lot of people would not have done it, it’s something I’ve never spoken about until today,” Hodgson said. “I was playing alongside Clint Newton at Hull KR and he knew Danny Buderus from their days together at Newcastle.

“Ben Fisher and I were the hookers at Hull KR at the time. Clint brought it up, he thought it would be a really good ­opportunity for us both to go and talk to him and it went from there.

“We drove up to Leeds to Danny’s house just to get a few tips and a bit of an insight from someone who has been a legend of the game in the ­position we played in.

Buderus spent three seasons with Leeds.

“I was still young at the time — I think I was only 21 — so I jumped at the chance to go talk to him.”

Hodgson said he took the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” as a chance to learn and borrow as much as he could from Buderus’s footy smarts.

“We went up to see him and had a coffee and picked his brains,’’ Hodgson said. “It was a general chat about footy and we chatted about the particular areas he looks for as a hooker in attack and defence and how to exploit that.

“The rest is history but you always take a lot out of things like that, especially when I was a young kid and wasn’t the starting hooker at the time.

Hodgson was just a rookie back in 2010. Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images.

“I was coming off the bench when we met so I took a lot away from talking to people who have been there and done it like he has.”

Hodgson also revealed he was in awe of Buderus at the time given his stature as a State of Origin and Test great.

“I was a bit starstruck when I got there, he had played ­Origins and won competitions and things like that,’’ Hodgson said. “It was something I’ll never forget.”

The Raiders will take on Sydney Roosters in Sunday’s top-of-the-table match at GIO Stadium.

A win for the Raiders, after losing to the premiers in Magic Round this year, will confirm their status as ­genuine title contenders.