Jack Gunston says he felt on the outer at Adelaide before moving to Hawthorn

HAWTHORN forward Jack Gunston will embrace the boos from the Adelaide fans on Friday night, happy to play the pantomime villain.

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JACK Gunston will embrace the boos from the Adelaide fans, happy to play the pantomime villain.

He lasted just two seasons with the Crows, before being swapped for three picks that secured the Crows Nick Joyce and Cam Ellis-Yolmen.

Add hard-running, high-marking, sharpshooting Gunston to the Crows front six and it goes from elite to once-in-a-generation good.

And yet while Gunston might eventually have returned to Melbourne anyway, he has revealed he was surplus to requirements at Adelaide.

Gunston told the Herald Sun over the pre-season the Crows coaching staff made him believe early in 2011 they didn’t see a spot for him up forward.

By the time Neil Craig had been replaced by interim coach Mark Bickley he would emerge as a potential star in the making.

A young Jack Gunston at Adelaide training in 2011. Picture: Calum Robertson

Yet as he kicked 19 goals in the last 12 games of his second year at Adelaide, he had already decided to seek greener pastures.

“I didn’t go to Adelaide ever wanting to leave, it was never my intention,’’ Gunston said in March.

“I was told in conversations with people at Adelaide that it was going to be hard to see myself in the same forward line as (Kurt) Tippett and (Taylor) Walker and (Jason) Porplyzia.

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“It puts you on the back foot and it makes you think about opportunities elsewhere. Do I try to stay here and work for my spot or weigh up the pros and cons with my dad and manager?

“The coaching team changed for the second half of the year and they told me they wanted to keep me, but I had already made up my mind a little bit by then.”

That negative vibe from the Crows paved the way for multiple clubs to make overtures, including a Hawks recruiting team which had loved him in his final TAC Cup year.

“I came to the decision that if I am already thinking about going home now, what do I do in four or six years,’’ he said.

“Maybe I could have stayed, but if I end up coming back now I can forge a 10-year career at one club.

“I left after two years. Did I leave too early? If you ask Adelaide supporters, then yes. But the enjoyment of being able to enjoy footy week-in and week-out in front of your family and friends does make you enjoy your footy a lot more.”

It puts you on the back foot and it makes you think about opportunities elsewhere.

Jack Gunston

And the booing from Adelaide fans?

“I embrace being booed every time I go to Adelaide,’’ he said with a cheeky smile.

His father, Ray, was an Essendon fan who after becoming the Dons’ interim CEO is now in charge of the AFL’s purse strings, but the Bombers didn’t push for a trade.

Instead Clarkson’s specific role for Gunston, a stark contrast from Adelaide’s hesitant approach, lured him home.

Four Grand Finals, three premierships and consecutive season goal tallies of 39, 46, 58 and 57 show he made the perfect choice.

“You could tell you really felt wanted. I had spoken to a few people around the traps about the Hawthorn method and how he coaches,’’ Gunston said.

“He changes and adapts with the game. Hawthorn had been keen in the 2009 draft and had a later pick.

“There were a few things that led to choosing Hawthorn, but I am happy with that decision.”