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Karmichael Hunt of Gold Coast in action during the VFL Round 09 match between the Coburg Tigers and Gold Coast at Highgate Recreation Reserve, Melbourne. Slattery Images
It wasn’t meant to be like this. Quite the opposite, actually. This was meant to be the piece that waxed lyrical on why Karmichael Hunt will be humiliated by superior athletes playing the superior code of football when he joins the big boys next year. AFL hubris and all that.
Like most sports followers, I have been a keen observer of the Karmichael Hunt experiment since it was first announced that he would switch codes from rugby league to Australian Rules Football.
In the time since that announcement, I have lurched from thinking the transition was laughable, curious, marketing genius, and destined to be an on-field disaster.
All of this changed recently, and for the first time I believe Hunt will be an on-field success.
Hunt won’t win a Brownlow, he won’t star every match, and he is unlikely to feature in the best players on a weekly basis or top the possession getters. Success for Hunt will be marked by his ability to hold his position in the Gold Coast side on merit, and give weight to the idea that we are entering the era of the freelance sport-switching athlete.
Why the change of heart?
Hunt’s first outing for the Gold Coast side in the VFL earlier this year saw him play full-forward and he looked hopelessly out of his depth. Playing forward of the ball requires an understanding of the game that Hunt was clearly bereft of. He was a lamb to the slaughter, and the media had the knives at the ready.
In the past few weeks, Hunt has played in the backline and has started to prove his worth, featuring in the best players the past two matches.
Hunt seems well suited to defence, where his opponent can take him to the contest and bring him into the play while he continues to adapt to the new code.
Watching highlights of Hunt playing for the Gold Coast Suns on the weekend, for the first time he looked like an AFL player, rather than a rugby league player making a clumsy attempt at a foreign code of football.
Hunt exhibited the nuanced movements of an AFL player, an awareness of those around him, how and when to dispose of the ball.
Despite starting out as a curiosity of the league, there exists a growing chorus of people who believe Hunt can be a success in the AFL.
Having expected little from Hunt prior to seeing him play, St Kilda assistant coach Andy Lovell was impressed with Hunt’s efforts.
“His ability to win one-on-one footy in the back half was really strong and when he got it he made some really good decisions with the ball.”
“He showed some composure under pressure down back and he made some good decisions,” Lovell said.
Once he has secured the lucre on offer from the AFL, Hunt may well move back to rugby league – as many have speculated. But he will do so on his own terms, and will not leave the AFL as the farcical circus-act that many predicted.
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