Gold Coast Football Club’s highest profile signing Karmichael Hunt says he’s up for the challenge of AFL and very much looking forward to transitioning to the elite level of a third professional football code.
Speaking to media from his home in France where he’s been playing rugby for provincial side Biarritz Olympique, Hunt spoke at length about how he’s readying mind and body for the switch to AFL in just a few short weeks.
He was under no illusions about the enormity of the task ahead.
“I’ve adapted pretty quickly to rugby union because it’s fairly similar to league but AFL’s a completely different game.”
Hunt said he’d been putting extra time into his kicking and skills outside rugby training, but acknowledged that it would’t be until he returned to Australia in a few weeks that his AFL education would really begin.
“I’m pretty comfortable with ball in hand and with my kicking skills. I’ve been continually practising because you have to be accurate, but I only know it’s going to improve when I get home with the expertise of the Gold Coast coaching staff.”
“I’m just going to be a willing student and look to pick up every attribute I can whilst in this transition.”
Hunt said he had no qualms about Senior Coach Guy McKenna’s wish to throw him in the VFL deep end.
“Whatever Bluey thinks is best for my transition I’ll be behind one hundred percent, whether they’re chucking me in or letting me wait an extra week.”
He couldn’t be drawn on whether he’d model his game on any particular individual AFL player.
“As a young kid playing rugby league, I never aspired to be any one person. I picked the best attributes that I wanted to emulate on the field from different types of players and tried to mix them into my game and I guess I’ll go along a similar path [in AFL]. I’ll see who’s good at what and see if I can make it part of my game.”
Were there any rugby league or union skills he might bring to AFL?
“I guess the big shoulder charge might not come off as much!” he said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing what I can convert over to AFL from what I’ve picked up in rugby. It will be interesting to see, but we won’t know until I start playing some footy.”
Hunt said he hadn’t spoken to his friend Israel Folau in the wake of Folau’s much publicised potential code jump. “But Issie’s very driven and he’s very talented as we all know so it’ll be interesting to see what option he takes up,” he said.
In a broader sense, he said he was excited by the increasing range of options available to young sportspeople and professional athletes alike.
“I think there’s definitely a lot more variety for sportsmen coming through the ranks in Australia. As we’ve seen, codes are starting to look outside their realm. There are plenty of options available for professional athletes that wouldn’t have been available a decade ago. With kids coming through if they’re talented enough and have the will or the drive to play multi codes there’s definitely going to be options there if they’re good enough.”
As for negativity towards his code-switch, Hunt says it was water off a duck’s back.
“I don’t let too much bother me. I just go about my business doing what I’m doing at the time. I’m comfortable in my skin and back my decision one hundred percent and that’s all that matters to me.”
Hunt said there were no further sporting challenges on his radar.
“Four or five years down the track is not even in my thinking process. I’ve got two more years at the Gold Coast after this one and I’m totally committed to my AFL contract and becoming a successful AFL player and I’m really looking forward to that. Whether I stay on beyond that, who knows? But I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that can be the case.”
Hunt will return to Australia after playing for Biarritz against Toulouse in Paris in the final of rugby union’s prestigious Heineken Cup on Saturday week.
