The report card came out soon after Karmichael Hunt’s AFL debut – “K” got an “F”. All eyes were on Hunt as the code hopper made a little history – along with the Gold Coast Suns – at the Gabba on Saturday night.
And Suns coach Guy McKenna reluctantly stated the obvious after the Suns’ disastrous 119-point loss to Carlton.
“We have a very simple formula after the game, whether they are satisfactory or unsatisfactory,” McKenna said.
“I thought maybe (Hunt was satisfactory), but it (was decided)… it went against him – he wasn’t satisfactory.
“But there a lot of senior players who weren’t satisfactory.
“But in the moment when he was there he looked okay – he certainly wasn’t our worst player, that’s for sure.”
Outsized in defence, Hunt also looked lost as he tried to adjust to the pace of the game.
But as McKenna said, Hunt was “no orphan”.
In a team boasting 12 debutants, only ex-Brisbane Lions midfielder Michael Rischitelli and former Kangaroo Dan Harris – in his 150th game – could have left a shellshocked Gabba with their head held high.
Young forward Charlie Dixon – who kicked the Suns’ first goal – showed promise as did Harley Bennell (17 possessions, one goal), No.1 draft pick David Swallow (17 touches) and Brandon Matera (14 touches, one goal).
Even superstar Gary Ablett looked like a mere mortal after failing to play a pre-season game due to injury, but still collected 23 touches.
“I probably expected better but you’ve got to weigh that up,” McKenna said of the Suns debut.
“Even the leaders got swarmed at times largely due to Carlton’s pressure.
“For Gary, Bocky (Nathan Bock) and even Campbell Brown, they are going to have kids spinning their wheels alongside them.
“For them to be expected to play like Gaz at Geelong, Bocky at Adelaide, they just don’t have that consistency around them.
“So we can’t expect them to be superstars for us from day one.
“Let’s not expect too much from not only our young kids but our leaders as well.”
At least Ablett will never forget his first game as captain.
“It was hard at the start, I wasn’t quite up to the pace,” Ablett said.
“I went out there and said a few things to the boys at the start of the game, but you are not going to be a successful side unless you have 22 leaders out there.
“We had so many playing their first game and they are definitely going to get a lot out of that.
“We will sit down and review the game and go through some areas we need to fix up – there’s definitely plenty of them – but the more games these guys play the better.”
Still McKenna could find some positives.
“It looked bad on the scoreboard, but throughout the course of the game there was some exciting parts where the boys were able to play our style of football and it looked good,” he said.
“And we know over time it is going to get better and better and better.”
AAP lc/jb
toa of samoa
Guest
GoGws you forgot to mention hunts hit on duigan in the 4th qt ....left shoulder off balance put nicholas in spin cycle and ended up on the grass. Hunt would have been disappointed he misread betts,certainly learn from that....different technique & situation results in different outcomes...ie laider had shot on big charlie dixion rampaging towards him, look hesitant and non committal resulted in dixion scoring. Replace hunt in that situation,might get a different result.
GoGWS
Roar Guru
Karlos - weren't you saying words to the effect that Hunt was going to chew up and spit out AFL players?...Hunt couldn't even stop the AFL's shortest and lightest player - in the last quarter he was in perfect position to tackle Eddy Betts but Betts just bounced off Hunt's weak tackle and helped himself to a goal....pathetic...no other AFL defender would have been shaken off so easily.... I guess Hunt is used to opposition players lumbering forward predictably into a tackle - he'll have to do much better than than to stop an AFL forward...
Redb
Roar Guru
On second thought, the headline for this coming weekend: "Karmichael Hunt gets an S" for stretcher! Could play on Barry Hall, won't be pretty. :)
ruckrover
Guest
Sounds more like McKenna gave K a D+ or C- than an F.
high light real
Guest
K is fighting a losing battle, people alike whether representation of any code are hell bent he doesn't make it. I can honestly tell you I am one of them. After narrowing it down there stands to be a small community supporting this idiot why i don't know, maybe it's because they have been fed " you can achieve almost anything through hard work " line...PLEASE By going off all the articles recently there will be nothing that will save him, good form or not.The people have spoken we don't want him in our game, Nrl fans are death riding him theres no where to go karmicheal !!!!!!
Redb
Roar Guru
With that sort of midfield supply you can't be too critical of Hunt in defence. Even Collingwood will bleed goals if their midfeld is not getting first use of the ball. Hunt has to cope with a 360 degree game though the pressure real and implied it brings, not too many gifted posessions in AFL football when the defence is under siege.
Moonface
Roar Guru
Israel Folau didn't even get a possession in the warm up game between GWS and the Swans reserves. Lots of rumours and articles in the papers about Folau not being happy and wanting out. His manager is in discussions with GWS to see if he can get out of his contract. 4 NRL clubs are interested in signing him for next season if he is released.
Bayman
Guest
By the end of the game I felt a bit sorry for Hunt. A half dozen experienced players and a dozen novices was never going to bode well against guys like Judd, Murphy etc. Still, it could have been worse. His first name could have just been Michael. As it is, he's just K.Hunt. Let's hope all talk of Hunt demolishing AFL players now disappears and he can just get on with learning how to play the game. At the moment, he's struggling. But, as McKenna said, "He's no orphan". It's going to be a long season for GC and Hunt. On the upside, his RL mate Folau didn't touch the footy for GWS against the Sydney Swans reserves team so at least Hunt is leading that particular battle.
karlos
Guest
well an f is probably not too bad in a team flogged so badly. I am guessing he never realised his more experienced Austrailian Rules players would be so far out of thier depth.
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
Hunt is very driven, obviously he starts behind the 8 ball, no surprises there, his stamina is well short of the mark, he's having to think things through while little blokes zip past him playing on intuition - but you can see already that he is a fierce competitor - he'll be ok this time next year.
high light real
Guest
Brilliant....just brilliant,our afl boys are miles ahead of everyone else .Instant cash back plus added bonus, sign a thugbleauge player and receive 8m plus dollars in free advertising..... employe the " divide and conquer " mentally among the fans to enhance profitability through advertising....fantastic....earn a projected sum of $40m in the lead up to hunts afl debut....outstanding. Here's the mark of a organised hit.....Suns get toasted, karmicheal gets assassinated in the media while the rest of the team walk away clean week after week.....Priceless.... Karrmichael what have you got yourself into ?. Me thinks he should have stay in france and collected more without all the fuss.Either he's stupid or driven ,nonetheless $700k not worth it for what he's about to go through.