AFL a thinking man's game, says Hunt
KARMICHAEL Hunt has revealed if he had found AFL earlier he may never have become a rugby league star.
Speaking after his standout season in 2012, the former Broncos big gun declared he gets more enjoyment out of playing AFL and said he would have played the sport from word go if he was given the choice as a child.
"Right now I find it more enjoyable," said Hunt, who had his first taste of AFL at Churchie in his latter high school years.
"I guess if I had the choice to play either game when I was younger I dare say AFL would have been my top pick.
"It's such a dynamic game and it's a thinking man's game.
"There is a lot going on and rarely do you get time to have a rest.
"You are always thinking and you obviously have a lot of aspects (to consider) in terms of kicking, handballing, vision and 360 awareness.
"It's the complete package and I'm loving it."
Despite his transformation this year, Hunt knows he still has a long way to go.
But the confident individual believes there is no reason he can't show the same level of improvement again in 2013.
"I don't think you can put a limit on how much you can improve," he said.
"I had a pretty good year but I'm definitely not going to get complacent and I have a long way to go.
"I'm going to dot all my i's and cross all my t's to make sure I can improve even more next year."
Hunt revealed he couldn't be happier living on the Gold Coast with his young family and hinted a transfer back to rugby league was unlikely in the future.
"I think if I wasn't feeling confident in what I could achieve or confident in my ability to make my transition a success, I wouldn't have re-signed with the Suns at the start of the year," he said.
With the Suns squad on a six-week off-season break, the 25-year-old is enjoying some quiet time away from the game.
But don't expect Hunt to be in holiday mode for too long after he revealed a busy off-season was the catalyst for his breakthrough year in 2012.
"I set pretty high expectations of myself and I definitely wanted to improve on my performances from last year and develop as a player this season," he said.
"I set out to do that last off-season and I worked pretty hard over the break just to make sure I was ready for the pre-season and that I wasn't trying to catch up.
"I think that helped me because I was able to develop quite a bit in the off-season."
Missing the last four rounds of the season with a shoulder and sternum injury, Hunt's focus over the off-season will be on getting his body right. But that won't stop him being on the plane when the Suns jet off to Arizona for their pre-season camp late next month.
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