The Roar
The Roar

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Has Hunt successfully switched codes yet?

23rd August, 2012
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23rd August, 2012
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He is now two years into his professional AFL career and it is time to once again assess Karmichael Hunt and whether he deserves $1.5 million for what he does, whatever that is.

Last year I questioned whether Hunt was the worst player in the league after several dismal performances where he conceded a ridiculous number of goals playing as a defender within the Suns already barraged back-line.

Calls were made by AFL fans to send Hunt back to the NRL due to his inability to impact the game, taking up a spot in the team, and wasting a whole lot of money which the AFL spent on luring the ex-NRL superstar.

Time was always going to be the telling factor in assessing Hunt’s success in the AFL from both the on field level and the marketability level. It was naive to call Hunt a flop from the outset and even today, we cannot categorically say whether he is a success of failure.

We are now past the halfway mark of Hunt’s assessment because he should be given three full years of development, just like every other draftee regardless of position.

Favourite to win the NAB Rising Star, Daniel Talia is in his third season with Adelaide and has taken a considerable time to prove himself as an elite defender. Last year’s runner up, West Coast midfielder Luke Shuey was also a third year player when he was nominated for the award, so Hunt deserves the same leeway.

In 2011, Hunt played 16 games averaging 8.3 disposals, 0.6 clearances and 1.7 tackles per game.

The highlight of his 2011 campaign was probably kicking a 55-metre goal on the run against Geelong up at Metricon Stadium.

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In 2012, Karmichael Hunt received a glowing endorsement from coach Guy McKenna after being moved out of defence and into the midfield alongside Gary Ablett.

Hunt’s large frame and lateral vision proved handy within the packs where he often used his quick hands to feed the ball to outside runners and make crunching tackles to tie up the ball.

Not only has Hunt shown drastic improvement, but he is now far from the worst player in the league and actually resembles a professional AFL player. As the young Gold Coast team has developed, so too has Hunt.

This year, Hunt has averaged 14.7 disposals, 2.7 clearances and 3.5 tackles per game. In the space of a year, Hunt has doubled all those key performance indicators and cemented his position in the Gold Coast line-up.

This season Jimmy Bartel has averaged 20.7 disposals, 2.6 clearances and 5.9 tackles per game and Adam Cooney has averaged 19.7 disposals, 2.9 clearances and 2.3 tackles per game. Both are Brownlow medal winners, albeit on the back end of their careers.

It sounds absurd to compare Hunt to someone who has won a Brownlow medal, but Hunt’s 2012 stats are not overly disenchanting.

At the Suns, Hunt ranks ninth in disposals, third in clearances, second in tackles, fifth in contested possession and effectively disposes of the ball 74 percent of the time. Ablett disposes of the ball efficiently 70 percent of the time.

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By no means am I declaring Hunt a future Brownlow medalist, but those key statistics show Hunt is a cog in the Gold Coast machine and can match it with the big boys.

His improvements have flown under the radar in a season where most negative AFL attention has been targeted at Israel Folau and Greater Western Sydney.

Hunt’s work ethic has been enormous which has been appreciated by his teammates and was highlighted by the way they got around him after his goal after the siren defeated Richmond in Round 16.

Hunt has come a long way from his days of shanking the ball out on the full and cramping up in the third quarter.

If he can continue the improvement he showed between his first and second years, few can argue he is not a code switching success story.

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