TRUE BLUEY ... AFL with Guy McKenna
THERE is little doubt in my mind -- I see Karmichael Hunt as a long-term defender for the Gold Coast Suns.
When we sat down more than 12 months ago to consider bringing him over to Aussie rules, we were all backing him to succeed.
I wasn't going to just pick up a promotional tool for the club. I certainly wasn't picking him for millions of dollars worth of media exposure.
That was a bonus but my focus was making sure he could at some stage put our guernsey on and play AFL football.
We saw something in him and thought he could play.
Based on his history, I thought he was going to play down back for us.
I loved the State of Origin games he played in for Queensland.
I had seen enough of him to know that he was one of those players who caught the high ball and ran it out after seeing the game come to him.
It was only natural that defence was going to be the position for him.
His performances of the past month have done nothing to change my opinion.
We have exposed him to all the different areas of the ground and he has really found a niche down back.
He is almost our first pick down there at the moment, which I think says a lot.
We had a chat yesterday morning and I don't think he would say no to another run in the midfield.
He didn't look out of place in the middle but he has just done so well down back.
We compete against other teams in the AFL next year with a list of 52 but we only have 22 spots available in our side.
So at the club there will be a lot of players competing for positions.
I think Karmichael is more of a chance to play in defence and the way he has been playing demonstrates that. His closing speed and his strength are the two great attributes he has.
So he will play in defence against Werribee at Southport on Saturday.
His body feels good and physically he says it is harder down back with the repeat efforts he has to put in.
He was doing well in the midfield against the Casey Scorpions on Saturday but I had to switch him halfway through the third quarter.
I told him he was doing well but I had to move him down back as he was the only other defender I could trust.
So he went down and Brad Miller, who kicked 10 for the day, kicked one goal on him but he had the best record on the big man all day.
As for the result, it was disappointing in the end as it was one we should not have let slip after establishing a good lead at half-time.
I wouldn't say we dropped off but we were playing at a level which was very hard to maintain.
The positive out of the game for me was that we addressed our start and the boys had 10 shots to three early on. We had a great first half, let ourselves down in the third quarter and the final term was an arm wrestle.
