Dartford's in-form striker Cody McDonald was given a trial by new Norwich manager Bryan Gunn at the end of January 2009

“He'd been scoring a lot of goals in the Ryman Premier,” Gunn said. “He came in and did well. We had a practice match on the Sunday and he trained on the Monday and he's got good qualities. We're just keeping an eye on him. He scored another couple of goals the other night for Dartford in an Essex Cup game. He was recommended from scouts and you have a look. I've not seen him in a full 90 minutes myself so I probably need to do that before making a final decision, but he certainly didn't do himself any harm in here when he was training with the first team squad.”

McDonald, who has previously played for Maldon Town and WithamTown, had also been linked with Crystal Palace, Peterborough, Wycombe Wanderers, Fulham and Sheffield United.

After Gunn watched him play for Dartford on 31st January 2009 against Maidstone, McDonald was offered and signed a one and a half year contract with Norwich on 2nd February 2009 for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around £25,000, and the option of an extended contract.

McDonald made his debut as a substitute in the 2-0 win over Cardiff on 10th March 2009 and scored City's second goal. McDonald had scored on his reserve team debut, scored another in a behind-closed-doors friendly at Chelsea, scored on his full debut against Cardiff and then added a brace in a reserve team win over Wroxham. “He has got a good habit of scoring goals and to be fair it's something you can't really coach to be honest with you,” said Ian Crook

He played 25 times during City's 2009/10 League One title winning season, scoring four goals.

On 16th July 2010, Cody joined Gillingham on a year's loan as part of the deal that saw Simeon Jackson sign for the Canaries. He had a strong season for the Gills playing 43 times and scoring 25 goals.

In mid-June 2011, Cody was reported to have had talks with Oldham Athletic. At the beginning of August 2011, Sheffield Wednesday manager Gary Megson said that he was abandoning his interest in Cody after being quoted £600,000 according to the Sheffield Star. He was then linked with Paolo Di Canio's Swindon.

On 31st August 2011, Cody signed for Coventry on a three year contract for an undisclosed fee.