all good points.

It’s not a bad comparison and agree Hunt will need to keep his pride in check until the learns the game, no matter how good he is.

However Hunt, unlike Kennelly, has played competitive professional sport for 5-6 years before he dips his toe into another pond. Kennelly came from an amatuer sport with little representative caps,etc.

Hunt will have a bunch of relatively junior players around him on the Gold Coast, allowing him to step up as little as a mature player rather than joining a hardened outfit like say Geelong. That will help.

Let’s not kid ourselves he will be a pinch hitter off the bench given specific jobs. However it is way too early to predict the outcome/success.

Redb

at least Hunt will be still ‘at home’ locally,

and, may have the benefit of brother in law Scott Harding by his side (wait and see on that front).

Tadgh Kennelly has just written a book about this experience in coming from Gaelic football to aussie rules as a teenager, and he provides a very detailed account of the challenges. Some quotes:

“Kennelly admits that during his second year in Sydney, before he had even made his senior debut, he would often find himself in a “very dark place”. He would cry himself to sleep each night.”

“I was in a very dark place; in fact, I would say I was depressed. Each night I would cry myself to sleep. I would hide in my room and ask myself over and over again, ‘What the f— am I doing?’

“The problem was simple: I was out of my comfort zone. When I came to Australia, I wasn’t just in a totally different environment off the field, I was also in a totally different environment on the field. I was lost, like a lost puppy. I really had no place where I was comfortable.”

“Kennelly says he wondered if he was good enough to play in the AFL, admitting he had not realised how difficult the transition from Gaelic football to Australian football would be. The thing that kept him from quitting was a fear of failure.”

Hunt will not have to contend with the homesickness, but it remains a massive mental challenge.

For starters, learning the game in the VFL, playing in front of crowds of 100 people, with the spotlight on him, that in itself will test his mental toughness – having to prove himself against blokes who will never play AFL who will take great joy in showing him up at every opportunity – that’s before we even get to the bit of actually playing the game.

Is it for the cash or is he fair dinkum

The fact he is only early 20′s suggests yes
The fact he is playing in France hints at no

We will just have to wait to find out.

He also copped some curly ones from the AFL side (some of whom, like Mark Maclure, who hails from Sydney, were completely dismissive of him on ABC radio).

Gerard Whately is a fairly circumspect sports commentator, covering a variety of sports and he summed up his feeling about it this way:

1. he felt Hunt would “proably be credible” (which is much more than many think); but

2. he was concerned at how casual Hunt was about it all.

This latter point is a fair observation. Hunt is incredibly confident, you need to be to do something like this, but
1. is he confident and casual because he knows he’s going to nail it immediately?
2. or is he confident and casual about it because he hasn’t got a clue?

These are the questions.

He got a lot of respect from me for that.

Football at the elite level, in all codes, gets quicker as you move up the rungs – if he debuts in the GC’s first game in 2011 – I think he might be surprised at how fast everything is – his preparation will not have prepared him.

It’s all those things that you can’t really know about unless you’re in the thick of it: reaction time, execution at speed under pressure, knowing where to be, knowing which way to turn, where to run to next, all that sort of stuff – he won’t have an instinct for it, and being a millisecond slower than the others (in thought processes) can be enough to be made to look silly.

But I agree with you and redb – his stint in the VFL will be like reality TV – if only we can get to see a bit of it – absolutely every touch (or non-touch) will be scrutinised to buggery!!

That alone is going to require enormous mental toughness.

Can be lonely on a footy field If you cant get your hands on the pill.

I guess by the time the Gold Coast come into AFL he will be a bit older though and it always helps to have guys in the team you know “can handle it” for others to draw from.

I am probably more excitied about his VFL games than his AFL games because against semi pros he has a better shot at being a real influence on the game and gettign more touches.

Wan’t it Mark Browning who spotted Hunt playing some school boy aussie rules way back?

Browning might have a bit of an eye for this sort of stuff!

The Bullies have had an athletic young bloke from a rugby background, Tom Williams, playing with them as a centre half back – a big ask for any kid to hold down a position like that – and he has a lot of excellent attributes – but occasionally his lack of undertanding of the game shines through, and I’ve seen games where he has been directly involved in conceding three goals in the space of five minutes.

But he has been worth the gamble – if he can get over his run of injuries.

It’s an interesting history – if people are interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Williams_(Australian_rules_footballer)

But back to Hunt – make no mistake – for a while he will be chasing plenty of tail.

As for the VFL, it’s a good point that he can play the part of the enforcer for some of those young blokes – the team will be much younger than the other VFL teams, who are a mixture of AFL rookies and hardened blokes who never quite made the grade – but they know what the game is about.

A bloke like Hunt in that context will be quite handy – perhaps some time on the ball early on if a bit of body on body pressure is needed!!

Would be useful in defence but I think a good forward would expose him one on one. He needs to pick up a man, very different to what he is used to, it will take time. he would get beaten on the lead early days highly embarassing if he gets killed there.

Running around hurting people is unlikely given it will quickly result in free kicks if done too haphazardly. Can certainly tackle hard legally no prob’s there. In fact some implied pressure for the youthful GC team might be a big positive.

Redb

.

Redb

In defence if you make a mistake it costs goals and playing it out of your own 50 you will be very exposed if your distribution is no good.

Also entertainment wise if he scores a goal it would be great. There is much more chance of that happening if he is set free in the opposition 50 to hurt people, win possesion and stab it through to goals.

Of course it’s too early to know what role he will take on. I’d stick him in defence and get him to chase the man with the Sherrin until he learns the instincts required. His tackling with technique modifications wont be a problem.

Mr Hunt, welcome to Frontal Pressure – you have a role.

May 2010 onwards will be fascinating. Reality TV stuff – Note to AFL – get Foxtel onto this!

Redb

That’s just in case he forgot that when he gets back he is going to do the near impossible – and play top grade games in 3 different football codes in the space of 18 months (the VFL won’t count as that is below the top grade – the 18 month period is from Sept 09 to March 2011, assuming he debuts in the first round).

He will have a lot of eyes on him next year, no doubt.

Headline should be AFL lifeline for X
THat’s why I find it all amusing, oh no there giving people jobs. What next in there dastardly plan…. perhaps paying the public indemnity for local clubs so kids can afford to play sport!

I don’t think the K Hunt situation is going to be seen like that Michael. Sure he was likely to leave league at the end of it but AFL signed him while he was a contracted Rugby league player and still running around for the broncos.

You “mexicans” (in jest) are welcome to all the Bronco’s outside backs you can handle (having more than 2 in a confined space is dangerous) but hands of Jarred Hayne… although I would prefer he went to the Swans than Manly or the Roosters.

and that the AFL hasn’t actually ‘poached’ anyone from NRL yet.

in that, K.Hunt was already going, it was assumed to RU – - and it was only at that point the AFL recruiters (who knew of him as a talent) thought it worth a try. Perhaps he was ‘poached’ from RU…..but who?
A this executive fellow is, as you say, out of work. He was approached it seems by RU and HAL interestes, and has landed a job in the AFL fraternity.

Good on him. Hardly the stuff of code wars?!!??

I nearly brought up Archie Fraser because I thought that situation is similar to what’s his name from Manly. I personally didn’t/still don’t know/care who the bloke from Manly was. The internal workings of Manly aren’t really of any interest and I wondered if non ST Kilda fans would have known/cared who Archie Fraser was before he started work at the FFA.

The border between Mexico and Australia also changes dependent on where your sitting. While I currently sit in Brisbane that means those Sydney siders are Mexicans…. I wonder if someone in Townsville would consider me a Mexican?
Hmmmm I feel like Tacos for dinner now.

John Ribot was pinched from league by the Brisbane Roar… only lasted a few weeks. A smart operator to jump that ship before it sinks.

Funny thing is that all this ‘code war’ stuff…….what was it when the FFA lured John O’Neill and then Ben Buckley?

What was it when Melbourne Storm lured Brian Waldron?

It seems it’s only ‘war’ when it’s the AFL doing it.

And gee – the absolute Sydney arrogance of comments like “Today the Mexicans will announce.. “.

How very up themselves that is. At least with the North American context, the ‘Mexicans’ are people from another country. Not another state. In the Australian context it is just very droll.

To be honest – I don’t know who these blokes are that are mentioned.

A bit of tripe that puts Foz to shame and not at all in the spirit of 78

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/afl-fires-first-shot-for-west/story-e6frext9-1225788453662

From the Australian:

Hunt spent most of yesterday afternoon packing his bags, with the Sherrin presented to him by GC17 AFL head coach Guy McKenna tucked away nicely in a corner.

He is planning to get in plenty of practice before he returns for the start of what promises to be one of the most scrutinised pre-season training efforts in recent memory, acutely aware the task he has set himself is one many in AFL circles doubt he can successfully complete.

Of course, not everyone sees Hunt’s code-to-code-to-code switch as a publicity stunt doomed to fail, with one high-profile NRL coach offering this: “My fear isn’t that Karmichael will not be a success in AFL.

“I have no doubt he will be. He will bring things to that game that they have never seen before,” he said.

“My real fear is he will make such a success of it that more of the great young players we have in our game will start to see it as a genuine option.”

_________________

He’ll spend about half a season in the VFL (essentially the AFL reserves comp), as part of his learning program before the Gold Coast debuts the following season – and that alone will be fascinating. I’d love to catch an early game of his to see how he is going.