Karmichael Hunt to join Gold Coast AFL team

The GC17 at Carrara then a short drive to Skilled Park to watch the Titans. What a great weekend....bring it on!!

Link I've said this before on the Roar - Smith is as likely to sink the boot into the AFL as not. Whether you like the AFL or hate it, agree or disagree, he's always well worth a read (as are a few columnists from different sports from around the traps). On this occasion, he raises a very good point - is it appropriate for Demetriou to act as the prime recruiting man for a particular club?????

DOW, Patrick Smith to NRL fans is what Roy Masters is to AFL fans. Mind you Pat Smith seems to gets stuck into the AFL more than Masters has a go at the NRL. But we are read the stuff. :-) Redb

Looks like Smith is sore from the chest beating and has finally thought about the situation; "................Getting Hunt to sign on with the Whatevers has rightly been portrayed as a coup. It delivers bragging rights for at least 18 months to the AFL. But those rights have a limited life span if Hunt proves a donkey at the indigenous game. It is a lot of money -- and prestige -- to see disappear in a flurry of poor handballs and fluffed kicks. But it is also an admission that the Lions and the Swans are barely cutting through their northern markets no matter that they have won four premierships between them this decade. Kidnapping rugby league players is also a ploy limited to the clubs in the northern markets and only new franchises at that. Had Fremantle plotted Hunt's signature it would have been a story of less impact. Snaffling Hunt and plonking him in Western Australia is less dramatic and audacious than pinching him from the Broncos in Brisbane and employing him on the Gold Coast, very much rugby league territory. It would also seem a tactic available to new teams only. Established clubs do not have the time or money to prepare a rugby league or union star in the manner available to the Whatevers and the second Sydney team. It is an indulgence that teams like Carlton and Collingwood do not have, paying a princely sum for a footballer who may or may not get the hang of a complicated game. The Irish experiment is cheap but hardly foolproof. Hunt is an expensive investment in a volatile market. Not to mention, of course, the possibility of unrest within a club when a player is employed as nothing but a gimmick first and a hunch second. It is difficult to earn $300,000 to run against Gary Ablett while a teammate is earning $500,000 to learn a push from a shove. This is a gamble on all fronts. The AFL had pencilled in the Hunt news conference for last week. It was delayed, ostensibly because the Bronco had training commitments. More precisely, the QRL had not finished its investigation into whatever happened in Queensland's build-up to the final State of Origin match. When the so-called probe came up clueless that was not just rugby league that sighed deeply with relief." http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25859316-12270,00.html

The VFL has a live game every saturday arvo on ABC TV. With Phil Cleary and Ross Booth amongst other in commentary. Most commonly from Teac Oval (Port Melbourne). (btw - 774 ABC grandstand radio will be covering MVFC matches live this year)

I don't think the VFL is on TV (except maybe the Melbourne community TV station). Re Patrick Smith - I've said it before - he's paid to get noses out of joint. But you have to admit, that line about telling the difference between a corridor and a toilet is a good one!! C'mon!! Lighten up!!!

Spot on DOW, their arrogance will hinder development.

You are right on the money DOW, AFL's arrogance will hinder their development in the northern states. "If Hunt is prepared to move on, the league's grip on its star players looks limp and the AFL a respectful and fashionable alternative" - Greg Smith What a bunch of arrogant w*nkers.

When you have pro-AFL media writing articles like this... http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25854820-5013459,00.html Defection keeps AFL boot on league's throat Patrick Smith | July 30, 2009 THERE is nothing much the AFL pines for about rugby league. Not its on-field thuggery - sorry, passion for the Big O. Not its players' disastrous off-field record - sorry, good, old-fashioned bonding. Not the forensic investigative skills of the QRL. Not the small crowds, nor its limited penetration as a national game. ..... It is not a complicated tactic. If you can't beat them, steal them. And if they can spot the difference between a corridor and a toilet, heck, that's just a bonus. ______ Of course people are going to react. It's the same crap we see week in, week out in the media, that AFL is clean, NRL is full of thugs. It's like a broken record, and most league fans are sick of it, part of the problem of trying to break into the Northern States, when the attitude is one of superiority. But then again who is surprised that AFL get a good run in the press... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118100557923424501.html More than a decade ago, News Corp.'s Australian unit struck a marketing agreement with the Australian Football League in which some of News Corp.'s Australian papers promised a minimum amount of news coverage of the sport, according to the AFL and News Corp. Promising coverage in return for anything of value is forbidden by many publications, which regard it as advertising masquerading as news

So are the VFL games he plays going to be on pay TV? I would rather watch that than the Dockers :) Who do we have to negotiate with to buy the TV rights?

Dave that's a fascinating part of the story isn't it - dining his family in the AFL box during SOO!!! I mean - you couldn't make it up if you tried!! Re noticing him have a kick with Bucks - let's be honest - hardly any Melbourne people would know him if they fell over him!!

Link in terms of business, there's obviously a very healthy competition between the various codes (which is much stronger in some markets than others) - but all four codes speak to each other on a regular basis (and all have Fox as an important stakeholder in one capacity or another). But the media definitely goes out of its way to raise the temperature to sell papers or whatever - and unfortunately, there must be a willing market for it for them to keep doing it. This Hunt situation is a classic example - I'd be flabbergasted if another high profile League player (at the age of 22+) would do the same thing in the next decade (maybe one other one to coincide with WS??). It's a non-issue - this is the coming together of a variety of events that are unlikely to come together again, or not very often: bloke wants to leave club, thinking of change to union, has played a bit of aussie rules, has been spotted by scouts in the past, new AFL club in the area, can sign him up while he gets to play 9 mths rugby overseas, he gets to play in the VFL for a year to hone skills, he's going out with the sister of an AFL player etc, etc. Folks - does anyone think all this stuff is going to come together often??? It ain't going to happen!!!.

LInk,the claims on the Roar would make the Guiness book of record pages for the world record number of outlandish statements on a sports blog. On information provided on the Roar by Pippinu I declare that there will be a worldwide trend towards switching from all sports to Korfball & that in 20 years time all world leaders will need a rudimentary knowledge of Korfball in order to negotiate with each other on climate change etc.

Hunt he is a top League player and someone who follows both sports, I will be interested to see how he goes. It was complete surprise. It’s strange that no one noticed him sitting next to AD at a game in the AFL corporate box and that Buckley was having a kick with him. The Roosters could learn some lessons off them about keeping secrets.

Agree Pip, similarly just beacuse there's a media beat up by some colmunists there is no general war against AFL in Western Sydney by RL fans, as is often claimed on this site and elsewhere.

this is starting to change with the Riverview scholarships. The pure athletes that other sports will want, arent getting offers that match the AFL. the only sport that could probably match these scholarships are Cricket. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25816645-2722,00.html

Towser I know from my 8 year old son - I have every type of ball of every shape, hue and size - but getting him off his Nintendo is the real battle!!

JF there are stacks of "columnists" writing all sorts of stuff, good and bad, about all the codes. You can't label AFL fans as arrogant just because some journo has written some silly comments!! I just repeat that all the snide remarks are coming from League supporters at the moment. My reaction from the moment I heard the news (as a Western Bulldogs and Melbourne Victory member) was: 1. complete surprise (as the Brisbance CEO said: didn't see that one coming); 2. some bewilderment as to why he would be doing it; 3. conclusion that it didn't mean too much long term for one code or the other.

Pip, you are surely not denying the arrogance of AFL supporters? I thought even AFL people were both aware of and quite proud of it. THERE is nothing much the AFL pines for about rugby league. Not its on-field thuggery - sorry, passion for the Big O. Not its players' disastrous off-field record - sorry, good, old-fashioned bonding. Not the forensic investigative skills of the QRL. Not the small crowds, nor its limited penetration as a national game. - Greg Smith, The Australian And this is the mainstream media! On-field thuggery? What do you call Barry Hall belting that unexpectant West Coast bloke? Did you see Cameron Ling get his cheekbone smashed last year?

Might get a few kids away from their computer games - Now that Pippinu would be a monumental switch of red sea parting proportion.