The Bulls junior has returned to his home club this season, but was giving his marching orders after making a tackle with seven minutes remaining in the 12-4 loss to eventual champions Goulburn Workers in the semi-final.

Southcity were trailing 6-4 at the time but the dismissal proved to be a key moment.

Bulls football manager Matt Ward was disappointed with the finish to the clash.

"I thought we could have got them there and that we were coming home strong," Ward said.

"The centre ref has obviously seen that (Hodge tackle) differently to everyone else on the field, and on the sideline, but that is the way it is.

"We should have been able to be better than him and everyone else.

"The boys were up against it but they fought hard to the end."

Minutes after Hodge was sent off Tyler Cornish went 60 metres to score after what appeared to be a knock on in the play-the-ball.

The try halted any potential comeback.

While disappointed to miss out on the chance to play in the final, Ward believes there are good signs for the season ahead.

"If we are looking at the big picture it is pretty good but with these things we go in to win it," Ward said.

"To lose the semi is a bit disappointing but when we look back on it in a couple of days we will probably be better happy happy with it."

Especially with a number of key players missing.

Former captain-coach Kyle McCarthy didn't take part after injuring his ankle at training on Tuesday while Luke McBeath, Harry Lucas, Cody Hodge and Simon Parr all missed the pre-season competition as well.

However Ward was impressed by how the club added, especially with some many in the back line out.

Southcity went through to the semi-finals with an impressive 20-0 win over Yass in the first of the quarter-finals.

It took the Bulls four minutes to get off the mark, when Ben Lucas went over from dummy half, and they never looked threatened by the Canberra Raiders Cup outfit.

However Temora failed to progress through to the next stage after being beaten 6-0 by eventual finalists Nowra-Bomaderry in their quarter-final.

The Dragons went into the clash without Hamish Starr, and didn't use a replacement, but couldn't capitalise on a number of good attacking opportunities after the Jets opened the scoring after nine minutes following three successive penalties.

Any charge Hodge faces will be known later this week.

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