Australian Football

A forward during the first half of his senior football career Kingsley Hunter showed later on that he also possessed the necessary skills to play effective defensive football.

He commenced with Claremont in 1994 and topped the club’s goal kicking list for the year with 48 majors. His performances were of sufficient quality to persuade Fremantle, which was to take its bows in the AFL in 1995, to draft him, a decision which they would have no cause to regret. Initially, however, he struggled to achieve selection, and he only played three AFL games for the Dockers in his first season. Thereafter, however, he became a key component in the Freo machine, topping the club’s goal kicking in 1996 with 33 goals and 1997 with 32. A less noteworthy 1998 season led to his being traded to Fremantle but there was a sense in which his best football still lay ahead.

After a mediocre 1999 campaign Hunter produced three seasons replete with excellent displays, playing chiefly as a defender. It was therefore something of a surprise when he was off-loaded to Hawthorn in 2003 where he played just a couple of games before announcing his retirement from the AFL. He returned to the WAFL in 2004, but to East Fremantle not Claremont, and played 33 games and kicked 49 goals both that season and the next to add to the 49 games 114 goals registered with the Tigers.

Hunter’s AFL career comprised precisely 100 games: 41 with Fremantle, 57 with Western Bulldogs, and two for Hawthorn. Meanwhile the goals split was 86 Freo, 28 Bulldogs and one Hawks.

Author - John Devaney