The Crows are set to take on the Coolamon Hoppers on Saturday afternoon. 

Hodge believed Coolamon to be one of the dark horses of this year’s Riverina Football League competition and said Leeton-Whitton would need to be at their best. 

This weekend also marks the first “Sock it to MND” round in support of Neale Daniher’s campaign against the disease. 

Players in both football and netball in the RFL and the Farrer Football League will be wearing special socks to raise awareness and money. 

The Crows will host Coolamon on Saturday afternoon. 

“I think it’s going to be a very interesting game,” Hodge said. 

“Coolamon aren’t that far off … they’ve had a few close results, so it’s a real danger game for us. 

“We really need to be at the top of our game if we’re going to win.”

The Crows are coming off a huge win over Narrandera last weekend.

However, while the win was a good one, Hodge said he still took plenty from the game. 

He said the side still needed to improve if it was going to match it with the top teams. 

While that win moved Leeton-Whitton to third position on the RFL ladder, Hodge said there was no room for complacency.

“Last weekend we came out after half-time and thought we could do it easy,” he said. 

“Narrandera actually out-scored us in the third quarter, so I was disappointed in that. 

“We weren’t consistent enough and that’s been a bit of a problem with us all year.”

That consistency is something the team has been focusing on training through their structures and game plan. 

Hodge said by working on those elements and drilling it into the players’ minds, the consistency should stem from that. 

“It’s something we keep saying – you’ve got to play four quarters of footy,” he said.  

The Crows will be boosted this week with the return of Tyh Evans (GWS), Liam Greenwell and Brad Boots. 

“We’ll be working the rest out at training (on Thursday night),” Hodge said.