It was the back half of the 2011 season and pundits were pondering whether Special-K would be able to legitimately claim a place in the Gold Coast Suns’ team as a footballer, rather than as a marketing exercise.

Fast-forward a year. Those same questions are being asked of The Promised Land after a less-than stellar first season at the elite level, but no-one is any longer credibly suggesting that Special-K isn’t a bona fide AFL footballer after his second season.

AussieRulesBlog isn’t suggesting that The Land has to follow K’s trajectory, but it’s not at all far-fetched, in our opinion, to suppose that a proven elite sportsperson gains confidence through a first full season that finds expression through a second pre-season.

A year ago, the pundits were trying to figure out where the Suns could hide K in their backline. Somewhere where his lack of footy smarts wouldn’t be exposed on the scoreboard. This year he has announced himself as a genuine midfielder.

We’re really pleased that The Land has committed himself to seeing out his contract with the Giants. A great deal can happen in two years and another pre-season may just see him find his niche and begin to earn his place in the team beside his teammates. You can bet your life that it irks his professional pride that he’s getting games he thinks he doesn’t deserve. We’re betting on him making it.

What’s more, K’s signing a new deal with the Suns and his comments in interviews suggests he’s enjoying the freedom and creativity of AFL much more than the rather humdrum world of NRL. When The Land impacts a couple of games and gets some confidence, he could be doing just the same.

There can be little doubt that the marketing strategy that saw Karmichael Hunt signed to the Gold Coast Suns was based as much on curiosity value as any realistic expectation that Hunt could reach the pinnacle in a third football code.

The man they call Special-K gave us a glimpse last year with his first goal in AFL football, but has elevated his performance to a substantial degree in his second season.

Where, last year, pundits focussed on the smallish number and lowish quality of his possessions, this season the commentary has been almost universally positive about his value to the Suns’ midfield. His dream-fulfilling after-the-siren goal this weekend has put the stamp of approval on his fledgling AFL career.

It is, by any measure, a significant achievement to gain the industry’s respect. We think a return to NRL or rugby is no longer the main danger to the Suns retaining their code-jumping champion. Surely his next objective will be to conquer a fourth football code — the round ball game — before moving on to the NFL!

We hope that The Promised Land can emulate Special-K’s development, even if it might take a little longer. We need to remember that Hunt is 28 and had already mastered two, albeit rather similar, codes. Folau is a relative baby at 23 and even life-long AFL players of his size can struggle to hit their straps before their mid-twenties.

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.