Jack Gunston's career resurgence has been like no other, and he can thank Brisbane premiership captain Harris Andrews for that.
The Hawthorn forward was always a noted goal-kicker throughout his journey, but the last two seasons have yielded career-best goal tallies (73 and 61) as well as a deep finals run.
When Gunston returned to the Hawks after a 12-month stint at the Lions, coach Sam Mitchell used the veteran as a defensive forward, utilising his smarts, leading patterns and goal sense to pull the opposition's best interceptors out of the action.
As it turned out, it was a tactic that resulted in goals that rivals didn't know how to stop.
"Basically, that was Jack Gunston's role that he plays now, where he's quite deep (inside 50) came from him playing as a defensive forward on players, Harris Andrew being one of them," Mitchell said on SEN.
"There were a lot of players like him who were dominant interceptors; when we probably didn't have the forward potency, we needed to curtail opposition intercept players."
Behind-the-goal vision consistently shows Gunston remaining inside 50, helping stretch the ground and force his opponent to make the call on whether to join in on the defensive press, or remain deep with the goal sneak.
According to WheeloRatings, the breakdown of the 34-year-old's stats further supports Mitchell's brilliant use of Gunston as a stay-at-home forward.
In 2026, Gunston averages 10.4 disposals, of which seven are inside 50. Of the remaining 3.4 possessions, 2.6 are in the attacking half of the ground.
He is 30th in the competition for average score involvements (6.8) but leads the competition in average goals (3.4). Talk about low possessions, maximum impact.
The stats read similarly last year. Gunston recorded 12.5 touches per game, of which 7.7 were inside 50. He was fourth in average score involvements (7.7) and second in goals to Coleman Medallist Jeremy Cameron.
Ironically, Gunston and Andrews may face off on Saturday night at the MCG, with a grand final berth awaiting the winner.
