Hodge honoured for monster maximum

Retiring batsman Brad Hodge has been honoured for becoming the first ever player to hit a six into the top tier of Etihad Stadium.

And his Melbourne Renegades skipper Aaron Finch is not impressed.

In what turned out to be the final match of his illustrious career last month, Hodge launched a full toss from Adelaide Strikers bowler Michael Neser into the third tier of the stadium, the blow measuring 96 metres during Network Ten's broadcast.

On the same day Hodge confirmed that the 2017-18 season will be the last of a career that began in the early 1990s, stadium management honoured his monster six by unveiling a red seat where the ball landed in the top tier.

But master blaster Finch, who has famously hit the roof twice at the enclosed venue, was quick to point out - light-heartedly - that his big hits at the ground have not been similarly acknowledged.

A comment that drew a swift remark from Hodge, who will coach Finch at the Kings XI Punjab in the IPL later this year.

Finch was famously robbed of a six when the ball hit the roof during BBL|02, the ruling of dead ball ultimately leading to a rule change from Cricket Australia.

The new ruling mandated that balls that hit the roof would henceforth be ruled as six, a change that benefitted Finch the following season when he again struck the roof in a match against the Stars.

The gesture from Etihad Stadium mirrors that of the Melbourne Cricket Club, who installed a beige-coloured seat among a sea of blue in the Great Southern Stand at the MCG to mark the spot Simon O'Donnell hit a six in a 1993 Sheffield Shield match against Victoria.