Hawthorn great Jason Dunstall names the best AFL goalkickers and speaks about how he’s dealt with the loss of Danny Frawley
Hosting a footy show in 2020 is challenging for anyone, but none more than Jason Dunstall, who has had to do it without his co-host and mate Danny Frawley. The Hawks legend speaks about goalkicking, the state of footy and the spirit of Spud.
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As usual, Jason Dunstall’s timing was on the money.
Asked on Thursday who were the best kick for goals in the AFL, he quickly zeroed in on a couple of Geelong forwards.
“Gary Rohan is a very good set shot,” Dunstall said. “Tommy Hawkins is a good set shot, he has got great confidence in that he knows he has a nice left to right swing, that’s all right because he kicks the same most of the time.”
A little more than 24 hours later Hawkins single-handedly destroyed Port Adelaide with six goals while his sidekick Rohan booted three.
This is good news for the King brothers, the new kids on the block who are shaping as the next generation of power forwards, as they also got a mention.
“I like the King boys, Ben and Max King. I think they look terrific,” Dunstall added. “They look relaxed and I really like the way they kick for goal.”
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The Hawthorn great shares the pain of many football fans about the state of goalkicking. Given he kicked 1254 goals — the third-most in AFL history — by using the same simple technique over and over and over again, he cringes while watching some of the modern players.
“I shake my head and you do laugh because there are so many players that are doing fundamental things wrong, the basic fundamentals of goalkicking,” Dunstall said.
“Like running straight at your target. So few players do it and then they wonder why they‘ve kicked it to where they’ve run.
“I wonder if people are showing them this footage after the game and pointing it out. If they are then why the hell aren’t they fixing it next time because they keep doing the same thing.”
He understands players are more fatigued when taking shots now than when he booted 2354 goals for the Hawks from 1985-98, but points out most don’t have a routine locked away.
“They are too worried about, ‘I hope I can kick this’ instead of, ‘If I do my routine correctly, I’ve practised it enough and I have confidence in it enough to know that it works well and the result will take care of itself’.”
The recent infatuation of the modern player to use the around-the-corner kick for goal on most occasions gets Dunstall‘s blood boiling.
“Around the corner works from tight angles, absolutely, we all did it and it is a very effective kick, but some of them are doing it from almost in front,” he said.
“That means you don‘t have the confidence in your ability to kick a drop punt and at some stage you’re going to be in that same spot after the siren and you can’t kick around the corner.”
Dunstall isn’t as angry as some about the state of the game, but he’s very much in Richmond great Kevin Bartlett’s camp when it comes to a move he thinks would improve things dramatically.
“I would radically reduce interchange to 20 max,” Dunstall said. “Then all of a sudden players have to pace themselves. You can’t just run until you need a spell then come off and then just go back on fresh.
“It also gives a chance to the good athletes if they’re getting tagged to work their opponent over, and hopefully we don’t have everyone running from one end of the ground to the other because they have to save a little bit of gas.
“So that means less traffic and maybe more opportunities for one-on-one footy.”
His love for Hawthorn is still strong — he has been on the board and acted as interim CEO — and he won’t entertain any talk about the future of Alastair Clarkson, the man he plucked from nowhere and installed as coach back in 2005.
“I wouldn’t want anyone else there, put it that way,” Dunstall said. “There are probably people looking to have a chip at him and to have a chip at the club.
“That’s OK, but I still think he’s the best coach in the game, so he’s the bloke I would want in charge.”
It’s been a strange year for everyone because of coronavirus, but for Dunstall it’s been the hardest of his long and successful media career given he’s had to soldier on without his good friend Danny “Spud” Frawley.
Frawley‘s passing in September last year rocked the football world but not many were as close to the St Kilda champion as Dunstall, who’d worked side-by-side with him at Fox Footy for more than a decade.
Fronting up to do Bounce on Sunday nights without Frawley was something Dunstall struggled with initially.
“It was always going to be a very nervous year without Spud, just not knowing what it was going to be like because we had been together for 12 or 13 years doing it,” Dunstall said.
“There is always that fact of not knowing exactly because you relied on something or someone for so long and all of a sudden it’s not there.
“There’s an element of doubt going into a new show and we spoke about it a lot, we all needed to pick up a bit of slack and I think it’s important to have a show at the end of the week that looks at the lighter side of things.
“I just loved working with him, but unfortunately we don’t have Spud. We have endeavoured to keep his legacy in the show because he was such an important part of it.
“There are some segments which are synonymous with him, but I have to pay credit to Andrew Gaze. The way he has stepped in this year has been absolutely amazing.”
scott.gullan@news.com.au
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