The “fairytale” homecoming of Jack Gunston to Hawthorn may not come to pass, as two-time premiership Roo David King has warned that such a transaction will only impede the club’s progress in rebuilding.
After only one season with the Lions, Gunston reportedly startled both Brisbane and the Hawks by asking to go back to Waverley.
But King believes the time for “empathy” has passed at Hawthorn, given their ruthless intent last season to trade players like Jaeger O’Meara and Tom Mitchell to allow the youth through.
“They just moved him on for this exact reason,” King said of Gunston’s move at the end of 2022.
“Those guys (O’Meara, Gunston, Mitchell) if they’re there, would be playing 12, 15, 18 games a year and holding up the Newcombes and the Days who are frontliners now in this rebuild.
“I think someone needs to sit down with Jack Gunston … he doesn’t want to go to a club that’s rebuilding because there’s no point investing the games into Jack rather than the kids.
“He’s not quite there at Brisbane – what’s left? You’ve achieved everything in the game – multiple premiership player. You’ve been a best and fairest player, you’ve been an all-Australian. Does he absolutely have to play football next year? I’m a bit lost with it.
“It’s not a financial thing I don’t think with Jack. That doesn’t make him tick.
“The Hawthorn we know don’t operate like this with empathy. They are hard and fast; they are about winning premierships.
“Unfortunately for Jack, that time has come and gone.”
Journalist Jon Ralph said he expected a deal for Gunston would sit around the $500,000 mark, and confirmed the forward had no interest in returning to play in Victoria if it isn’t at Hawthorn.
“32 today, perennial back issue, the knee issue of the finals … is there any chance in which Hawthorn just says ‘Jack, we love you, triple premiership player – thanks but no thanks?’,” Ralph questioned.
“If he is on the Hawthorn list, if he comes back next year the pressure on (coach) Sam Mitchell to play the triple premiership hero is extreme over a young kid in Brandon Ryan.
“I would say, ‘Sam play the kids as well as the experienced player in Mabior Chol and Mitch Lewis’
“Sometimes you just can’t have what you wish for with the fairytale return.”
Ralph also questioned reports both Brisbane and Hawthorn were left “shocked” by Gunston’s bid to return to the Hawks.
“He’s so close to Sam Mitchell – how could he not have had a single conversation with Sam Mitchell to say what do you think about this?”
“If you are going to leave your club, you probably need to have your new destination sorted out prior,” Trading Day panellist Nick Dal Santo added.
“If they were to take him back, I think you could justify saying it’s from a leadership perspective.
“But I don’t understand why he’d tell the Brisbane Lions ‘I’m trying to head back to the Hawks’, without actually telling the Hawks ‘I’m coming and is it OK if I come through the front door again’.”
