Shutting down Gary Ablett has always featured prominently in AFL teams’ planning ahead of clashes with Gold Coast.
Now Greater Western Sydney coach Kevin Sheedy feels the name Karmichael Hunt is starting to also become a crucial part of opposition analysis when clubs prepare for the Suns.
Sheedy reserved a mountain of praise for Hunt ahead of GWS’s match against Gold Coast at Canberra’s Manuka Oval on Saturday.
The four-time premiership coach noted Hunt was breaking out of the confines of his “NRL convert” tag into a dangerous player.
“He’s a dangerous weapon around stoppages and the situation in the end is, they’re going to have Ablett – and Hunt, so that’ll be difficult,” Sheedy said on Friday.
“He’s resilient, he’s got the knowledge to pick up cues and his reading of the game now is so much better now that he’s played a year of it.
“He’s been blessed because Ablett and (Michael) Rischitelli have been out.
“He’s had to step up to the mark – and he has.”
Holding fort in the midfield, Hunt is enjoying a much-improved season in his second year in the AFL, boosting his average disposals from eight in 2011 to 16 this year, including a career high 22 against Fremantle last week.
It’s enough to keep the ever-vocal Sheedy quiet when naming who will get the key tagging jobs on Saturday.
Gold Coast will start as favourites following their narrow defeat to the Dockers, with Ablett and Rischitelli set to make early-than-predicted returns from injury and David Swallow (ankle) unlikely to miss the match.
With Hunt and the rest of the midfield doing well, Suns assistant coach Shane O’Bree suggested Ablett could also spend a bit more time up forward.
“I don’t think it’d be out of the ordinary if he does play more time there,” he told reporters on the Gold Coast.
“We’ve got that luxury now because the guys are in good form.”
The fixture between the two expansion sides is arguably the Giants’ best chance of earning premiership points for the year.
Despite GWS’s 67-point capitulation to Carlton on Sunday, when they also lost Setanta O’hAilpin (knee) for the season and Dean Brogan (elbow) for at least a month, Sheedy insists the game is anyone’s for the taking.
“That’s the exciting part, we have no idea what’s going to happen,” he said.
“They’re 22 games ahead of us and in some areas we’re the same but some areas they may or may not be.”
AFL bigwigs will be keen to see a bumper crowd at Manuka Oval with Ablett, Hunt and former rugby league teammate Israel Folau – who returns from illness – all set to take the field.
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