Former Hawthorn champion Jason Dunstall flashed a wry grin when he delivered his private evaluation of how he would have fared within the trendy AFL surroundings.
“I wouldn’t get through pre-season, to be brutally frank,” the 59-year-old mentioned.
On Monday, it was introduced Dunstall could be elevated to Legend standing within the Australian Football Hall of Fame on June 18.
The four-time premiership Hawk is just the thirty second particular person within the historical past of the sport to be provided that title.
But Dunstall, who who sits third on the all-time listing of AFL/VFL goal-kickers with 1254 majors, is not positive he would have flourished below the calls for of the trendy sport.
“I don’t know if I’d be a good enough athlete, honestly,” he mentioned.
“But you kind of think if you were brought up in a different time, you’d be physiologically a little different and better prepared to come into the game.
“Because they’ve such an excellent pathway now, which wasn’t actually in existence again within the eighties.
“Look, maybe, but I don’t know where I’d play because I’d be too small to play midfield. I’d be a (forward) pocket or a flank, I think.”
Dunstall was listed at 188cm and 98kg, making him shorter and heavier than Brownlow Medal-winning trendy midfield beasts Patrick Cripps (195cm, 92kg) and Nat Fyfe (192cm, 96kg).
The former Hawthorn captain kicked a century of targets in six separate seasons and would rightfully have few regrets about how his glittering 269-game profession performed out earlier than his retirement in 1998.
But he mentioned his recommendation to his youthful self could be a easy message.
“Be a better athlete before you get here and work on your endurance a little bit,” he mentioned.
“But I was lucky, we never ran up and down the ground the way they do now. It’s such a different game.”
One that he nonetheless loves?
“Whilst the game’s changed a lot, the basic premise for me hasn’t,” Dunstall mentioned.
“There are still some great games to watch and still some where I think I’ve just wasted a couple of hours.
“That’s eternally and a day the way in which it should be. It’s a incredible sport, you simply benefit from the journey whilst you can.”
Dunstall was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002.
Since retiring as a participant, he has served as an assistant coach and board member at Hawthorn and is now a revered media commentator.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
