Karmichael Hunt, a superstar mainly known for his time in the NRL, but also for stints in the AFL and Super Rugby, has become one of the best emerging NRL coaches.
In the Queensland Hostplus Cup, Hunt has taken South Logan, the 2022 wooden spooners, to the top of the ladder and is set to clinch the minor premiership with the current season coming to a close.
Before this round began, Hunt was three points clear in first position with a record of 13-2 (two draws). Their stunning turnaround comes after their 2022 record was 2-16 from 18 games.
The former Queensland and Kangaroos representative revealed toย News Corp that he was in no rush to make the switch from reserve-grade to the NRL but it is likely he will make the transition in the future.
โI'll continue to do what I'm doing,โ Hunt told the publication.
โI've just got to get my hands dirty, which I'm doing, and run my own team, develop my own players and recruit.
โThe full coaching experience you get at Cup level is exactly what I need now and in the immediate future. Then I'll think about a plan to move into the NRL landscape at some point.
โI'm under no illusions and have tremendous respect for how much a head coaching job contains. I just want to make sure I tick all the boxes off before I rush into anything.
โI'll be staying at Souths next year and I'm looking forward to piling on the experience. First and foremost we need to finish this year well then build again and keep learning.
โI'll move into full-time next year and maybe some work with the Broncos in development. That's all to be worked out.โ
Debuting in 2004 for the Brisbane Broncos, the fullback would go on to play 126 NRL games during his first stint for the club between 2004-09. His time at Brisbane earned him selection to the Queensland Maroons (ten games) and Australia Kangaroos (11 games) where he was heavily featured alongside his Broncos teammates and cemented the number one jersey before the arrival of Billy Slater.
Then at the end of the 2009 season he made a shock decision to take his talents to Aussie Rules where he would join the new expansion club the Gold Coast Suns. Playing there for four seasons, his career would never reach the heights of his NRL career but he had moments of brilliance, including kicking a goal after the siren to gift the Suns a victory.
Instead of returning back to the NRL, Hunt decided to further his career in another sport, this time rugby union. Making his professional debut for Biarritz Olympique - a team in the second division of French Rugby - he would go on to play with the Queensland Reds (2015-18) and NSW Waratahs (2019-20). Just like rugby league he would represent Australia for six games in 2017, before finally making his way back to the NRL in 2021, completing a full circle.
His wealth of experience has allowed him to help coach and develop the younger talents at Souths Logan where he was the coach to their Under 18s Mal Meninga Cup win last year. Hunt spoke about what it was like talking over the top job at Souths Logan at the start of the year after only being an assistant with the reserve-grade side.
โMy initial observation was the footy conditioning levels weren't up to standard so we hit them pretty hard in the pre-season and paired that with getting some key players in that we thought we were missing, namely in the halves,โ Hunt said.
โWe were able to retain some of our core group and we worked on the conditioning base first then put some decent footy players in to run the program on the field. So far they're going pretty well.
โWhen you're travelling that well, there's quite a few contributors each week.
โFrom my Cup group, Jack Campagnolo and Rory Ferguson have been really consistent performers along with Jesse Jennings and Jordan Pereira, who has been fantastic all year.
โTristan Sailor is a class act and we knew he'd get back to playing his best football pretty soon. Blake Mozer has come along in leaps and bounds and Ben Te Kura and Logan Bayliss have been fantastic as well.
โThey're all contributing and standing out, which is fantastic.โ
