Brisbane Broncos rugby league player Karmichael Hunt kicks an AFL football during a Brisbane Broncos training session at Red Hill Thursday, July 30, 2009. Hunt will play out the rest of the 2009 NRL season before commencing his AFL playing career in May 2010 on a three year contract. AAP Image/Patrick Hamilton
One of the worst offences a hack can perpetrate is to jump to conclusions on the basis of a single coincidence. However, the twin departures of Berrick Barnes and Karmichael Hunt from two traditional Brisbane-based sporting teams does leave me wondering what the hell is going on?
What’s happened to Brisbane?
A Red leaving for New South Wales’ green-backed pastures is hardly a new phenomenon but how on earth did we get to a situation where a leaguie would defect to AFL of all things?
And in Brisbane?
Like most things that have happened in Brisbane in the last fifty odd years, I blame Sir Joh.
A child of the eighties, my upbringing in and around Brisbane was spent, whether I knew or cared, under the long standing Premier’s watchful eye.
There was a certainty about his presence, attributable in hindsight to the gerrymander system helpfully put in place for him by the Labor party and thanks to which he held power for 19 years.
I was more bewitched by another certainty in my life. Rugby League stood alone on Queensland’s sporting horizon, like a drunken uncle dominating the barbeque.
Wally Lewis, Cannon Hill’s great champion, could have shot a member of Terry Lewis’ corrupt police force in broad daylight and gotten away with it such was the love the city held for the man.
AFL played the villain’s role in the small world of 1980’s Brisbane. I recall my father only half jokingly issuing forth the golden rules upon which I could faithful rely to guide my journey into manhood;
Number One, never hit a woman.
Number Two, never play Aussie Rules.
To associate an effeminate nature with the southern game seems odd to foreigners I’ve met, many of whom have been keen to learn more about the kicking game they’ve seen late at night on ESPN.
Certainly to Americans the lack of padding seems to stamp the game with a certain level of manliness however the same assumption never struck home to league men of my father’s generation.
Living in London, absent as it is from both AFL and rugby league, news of Hunt’s switch was both strangely familiar and yet gave me the feeling it had been transmitted from outer space, so absurd would it have once seemed.
Change is afoot in the over-grown country town.
Not the thunderous, Bastille-sacking change of revolution but the slow, restless thud of children kicking footballs to a slightly different beat.
And what does Sir Joh have to do with it? Well his abolition of the ‘Death Tax’ in 1978 was but one of many successful strategies Bjelke-Peterson employed to invigorate interstate migration into Queensland.
The lure worked a treat on many Victorians who flocked, like departing residents of Ramsay Street, to Queensland’s sunnier climes bringing with them bushy moustaches, a stale watery beer and Aussie rules football.
Well, that’s how I remember it.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
Thanks Beaver. That's all I was saying, some one who has played kick to kick everyday of their lives since they were 6 years old, or whatever, can spot someone who hasn't done that a mile off. And Tom makes a good point as well about doing it under pressure, which links with my argument from my thread about having an instinct for the game. Take this goal from Neon Leon - it's all pure instinct, he's had zero time to line up the first handball or to snap the goal, he's barely had a look, just whacked it on the boot and threaded it through - that's just instinct (and it's not arse either - he does it too often - players like Neon know where the goals are, they don't need to have a look) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqZ2nKiOLWc
Redb
Roar Guru
Good comments re thinking under pressure. I think the value in Hunt will be his evasive skills (much like Gilbert for St Kilda who has a rugby background) perhaps giving him more time under pressure to get away and then execute a handball to a team-mate. His leg speed and tackling pressure is what I want to see by creating a turnover all the coach needs to do is have a run with player who sits behind the pack to take away the ball once the turnover is created. We see it all the time now pioneered by Geelong originially, they almost always handball out the back to another player. Redb
Tom
Guest
Pip is absolutely right. I think some of the rugby people are getting a bit narky about the idea that there's anything about AFL that can't be picked up within thirty seconds. Try bouncing a footy while running flat out if you haven't been doing it since you were five years old. I can throw a Steededn to someone standing behind me. I can even curl a no-look pass around the top of my head with my mates on a Sunday afternoon at the park. But there's no way in hell that I could run full tilt and pick out a player to one side and behind while a 300 pound prop forward is bearing down on me at the Sydney Football Stadium . Same thing with AFL. The question is not whether it can be done. The question is whether Hunt has the mechanics of AFL down to such an extent that he can execute without thinking under pressure.
beaver fever
Roar Pro
Pip gotta agree with you about kicking, you play kick to kick all your life with your mates then your kids you can spot straight away someone who has grown up playing kick to kick or king of the pack or somone from another code who cant kick a proper drop punt. I am not saying i could pass or cut out pass etc both sides of my body with the rugby boys who would spot the same thing with me but Hunt did not look good kicking. There is a big reason why aussie rules players/kickers are wanted/drafted in the NFL ,,,, its because they know how to kick a ball properly. I have gone through this before but here we go again. http://www.sherrin.com.au/history/index.html Before the sherrin it was basically just tumble punts .(careful) up country punts.
Dave
Guest
And now Qld is beating Victoria in junior AFL games
Dave
Guest
I’m sure if Karmicheal Hunt played for the wallabies in the forwards he would come off feeling like he'd been run over by a bus and I’m sure playing in the AFL he is going to feel tired after running a lot.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
Dean You are right - I agree with you.
Dean
Guest
Went from Rugby union to Aussie rules.Aussie rules fans harp on about the distance run during a game but i tell you this,I would walk off after a Aussie rules game with sore legs and a set of burning lungs but as a Rugby Union forward I would walk off the park after a game of union feeling like Id been run over by a bus. Woudn't be many pro AFL players that could make the switch to the pro Rugby codes.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
"The lure worked a treat on many Victorians who flocked, like departing residents of Ramsay Street, to Queensland’s sunnier climes bringing with them bushy moustaches, a stale watery beer and Aussie rules football. Well, that’s how I remember it." Childhood memories are devilish things. The history of aussie rules in Brisbane actually goes all the way back to 1866. Jason Dunstall was recruited from a Brissie club in the early to mid 80s, but I know others had come from Brisbane prior to that. These days, I understand that participation numbers are very close to rivalling WA and SA.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
I should say that it wasn't just me coughing in my corn flakes when I saw that vision of him kicking - basically every commentator and pundit who has seen the vision has picked up on it. Quite simply - it looked like the kicking style of someone who has never kicked a sherrin (hardly surprsing).
Pippinu
Roar Guru
Redb let's be honest - we don't know what the hell they really tested - but we do know this - Bucks and McCartney spent far less time with him than your average 17 year old who is going through a draft camp. Anyway, I wrote my article here: http://www.theroar.com.au/2009/07/31/the-big-switch/ I've said that if Hunt can manage 10plus games in two consecutive seasons, he would have done very well, and he should be widely applauded. I've also said that his biggest problem will be having an instinct for the game - even if he gets past the basic bio-mechanics of moving the pig skin around the park.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
Jim I"ve been around, and seen plenty, and just as I said to Dogs above - if someone hasn't grown up playing kick to kick - I can spot it a mile off - I'm not sure why that is so difficult for people to understand.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
Dogs I agree with what you've said. It's all part of the same story. All I"m trying to say is that I can spot someone who hasn't spent a whole childhood playing kick to kick - I can spot it a mile off - there's nothing outrageous in that - just as you would be able to spot someone who has never learned to tackle properly - it's the same theme.
MyGeneration
Roar Guru
And clearly I'm not infallible...
Redb
Roar Guru
Pip, Your making too much of a muck around kick with his Bronco team-mates. Yes it was a lazy kick with little ball to foot control, but he was not attempting to hit a target in a game. If anything as I said elsewhere he was just joining in with his Bronco mates in the stir and not trying to look too much like an AFL player - that is not taking it too seriously and neither should some of the AFL commentators. If he can hit Buckley on the lead at 45 metres he must have some ability. Redb
MyGeneration
Roar Guru
JimC, It's like the doctrine of papal infallibality, just don't question it!
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
Comes down to what position they play in Rugby, some really require a good use of the boot, otherwise you aren't putting yourself in good position. But the argument is highly redundant, because it's like asking an AFL player to pass a ball, but really pass it. Throwing cut out passes on the run, or little flick passes to fool the defence while people are holding onto you, just aren't easy things to do.
JimC
Guest
"But I simply repeat - in Victoria - we understand what it means to be able to kick a footy." - that brooks no argument then. No one who isn't from Victoria would understand.... But we do get that you are breathtakingly arrogant Pippinu - trust me on that one
Redb
Roar Guru
Good article. Highlights the seismic value of a top line RL player choosing to play AFL in QLD. It is about changing perceptions and making it a viable choice free of an inherent bias that exists about the game. Classic stuff - "Not the thunderous, Bastille-sacking change of revolution but the slow, restless thud of children kicking footballs to a slightly different beat." :-) Redb
Dave
Guest
http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-4711-0-0-0&sID=56333&&news_task=DETAIL&articleID=9633063§ionID=56333 Queensland Beats VIC Metro in U15 Schoolboys