Hunt for success

Last year,like many others, AussieRulesBlog wrote off the chances of Karmichael Hunt making an impact at AFL level. Today we had our first opportunity to see him play live, albeit as part of a Suns team demolished to the tune of 139 points. Our clever headline last year — Not Really Likely — gave the NRL convert no chance. We were wrong — big time!

 

Today was Hunt’s fifth game of Aussie Rules at the elite level, and one of less than perhaps two dozen games he has ever played. Playing today in the maelstrom that was the Suns’ backline, we considered that Hunt acquitted himself creditably in his circumstances and the game context.

 

At one point, Hunt took a kickout after an Essendon behind — and executed a perfectly serviceable 50-metre drop punt. On a number of occasions he delivered precise handballs to teammates in better positions. He effected a good number of effective spoils of his opponents. Only once did we see him make a ‘mistake’ — he collected the ball in free space, delivered a nice handball to a teammate, ran on to support and appeared somewhat surprised to receive the ball back again when he was clearly going to be under immediate pressure. The resulting turnover delivered a goal to the Dons.

 

Yesterday, glamour Giants recruit Israel Folau played just his fourth game of Aussie Rules and only his second against mature-bodied, experienced top-level footballers — with apologies to the players at Ainslie and Tuggeranong. It’s no surprise that he was “all at sea” at times. Like Hunt, Folau demonstrated that he can kick the Sherrin effectively with a solid kick out of defence. Unfortunately for him, there we no Giants players in the vicinity and Bret Thornton kicked a goal from his mark.

 

Will Hunt or Folau emulate Jim Stynes and go on to win a Brownlow Medal? Probably not. Will future opponents have sleepless nights wondering how to counter them? Unlikely. Will they be solid and useful players for their clubs? We have no doubt that can achieve that goal and earn their place in their respective teams legitimately.

 

We also witnessed Gary Ablett Jnr again today. Like all the Suns players, apart from a period in the second quarter, he was only able to make cameo efforts to stem the Bomber tide. What really impressed us however were two incidents at quarter breaks. After the first-quarter blitz, Ablett called the players to a huddle and spoke to them before they went to the coaches and ancillary staff. After the third quarter, Ablett made a bee-line for the Suns’ Jack Hutchins and was clearly intent on explaining something to him and encouraging him. We think any suggestion that Ablett is not doing his utmost for the Suns is way off the mark.