Hawthorn's Benjamin Button: The curious case of Jack Gunston

His performances on the football field are undeniable, but off the field Jack Gunston is one of the game’s great enigmas.

Nurturing but notoriously grumpy.

Generous but fiercely competitive.

Confident but relentlessly self-critical.

Uncomfortable in the spotlight...unless you ask Luke Hodge.

“Well, I messaged him after his 600th goal when everyone was jumping on him, putting a crown on him, and he was trying to push away as if he didn't want the attention,” he told the AFL Record.

“That's bullshit. I reckon the only reason he was pushing away from the players was because the cameras could actually get a better shot of him just all by himself. That's my thought.”

Hodge is joking, of course. But Gunston had already predicted the sledge hours earlier when the Record caught up with him after training.

“He’ll say I love the limelight and act like I hate the limelight,” Gunston says of his former captain and three-time premiership teammate.

Is there a kernel of truth to that?

“No, I hate the limelight,” he says, laughing.

“Early days, you try and make your way, and you want to go to this event, you want to go here and there, but as I get a bit older, I’m happy to just stay low key and stay out of the spotlight.”

That’s becoming increasingly difficult in a year in which he could spend some considerable time on a dais.

At the time of writing, he’s in the running for a third Peter Crimmins Medal (Hawthorn’s best and fairest), a third All-Australian blazer, a consecutive podium finish for the Coleman Medal, his fifth club goalkicking title, and the prospect of a fourth premiership for Hawthorn.

For now, he’s feeling reflective about a milestone he never dreamed possible when he first began playing the game.

“It’s crazy to think, game 300, from where I started my first game in Adelaide. It’s something you really don’t think you’re going to get to. I thought 250 was going to be my last milestone.”

He wasn’t the only one.

BRIEFLY LION

Gunston had left the Hawks for the Brisbane Lions in 2022 for a change of scenery following the unexpected death of his father Ray, a widely respected and much-loved AFL executive.

In his own words, Gunston didn’t head north to win premierships, but watching his teammates lose a thriller against Collingwood from the grandstand still stung. It was a chapter that didn't work out as he might have hoped, but one he doesn't regret.

“Fages (Chris Fagan) took a risk getting me up to Brisbane,” Gunston says.

“But for him to be able to do that, I’m extremely grateful. I wouldn’t change my footy journey for anything.”

Back at Hawthorn in 2024, he found himself in and out of the team until some late-season form earned him another year on the list. By then, the Hawks saw value in keeping him around for reasons that extended beyond what he could still produce on the field.

“The way Mitch (Sam Mitchell) was selling it to him, he was going to be last on the list and there for development and his knowledge and trying to fast-track some of these other younger guys,” says his great mate Luke Breust.

One of those younger guys was Calsher Dear, whose own father – Norm Smith medallist Paul – died within three days of Ray Gunston. The shared experience created a bond between the father-son recruit and the veteran that transcends football.

Somewhere along the way, the elder statesman role took on an identity of its own: the grumpy Unc. It’s a persona Gunston has embraced with open arms. From time to time, he even puts a bit of mayo on it, especially when the cameras are on him.

“I probably play it up a little bit,” he says, laughing. “I swear I do smile.”

So how does his own “unc” Michael Brown – the brother of Gunston’s mum Mandy – feel about the newfound moniker? Well, he couldn’t be prouder.

“He’s looked the challenges in the eye of losing a parent and he’s still right there playing the game at an elite level. He’s still there helping Calsher Dear and others, and he’s still highly regarded as a person.”

But then something unexpected happened. The selfless work Gunston was putting into other began reflecting in his own performances on the football field.

His patchy 2024 form had him looking down the barrel of retirement, but by midway through the 2025 season, he was Hawthorn’s leading goalkicker and looking very much like the Jack Gunston of old.

He kicked a career-high seven goals against North Melbourne, finished third in the Coleman Medal with 65 home-and-away season goals, won his second Peter Crimmins Medal, and a second All-Australian blazer. Another nickname was coined: Benjamin Button.

But there were other reasons for this stunning return to form. In the lead up to the 2025 season, Gunston had adopted a nothing-to-lose mentality that goes some way in explaining why he’s in career-best form at age 34.

That shift came after he sought counsel from his inner-circle of family and friends including premiership teammates Breust, Jarryd Roughead, and Sam Mitchell, who is now his coach.

“I just wanted the truth — how they saw it. They’d experienced it themselves. They all believed one more year was the right thing to do; so the next off-season and pre-season was all about just having a crack. If the body breaks down, it breaks down. Fortunately, it held up pretty well.”

That’s an understatement. Some players limp towards 300; Gunston is charging towards it. Not that he ever imagined his career would take him to this place.

CROW BECOMES A HAWK

A second-round pick in the 2009 draft, Gunston landed in Adelaide via the Sandringham Dragons.

At 193 centimetres, he was trying to make his way as a third tall but was so skinny a normal-sized guernsey looked, in his words, “like I was wearing a 3XL”.

Even those closest to Gunston weren't necessarily convinced they were watching a future AFL star.

His uncle Michael had spent years around elite sport, most notably as Hawthorn’s chief executive, and remembers a teenager who didn't exactly fit the prototype.

“He wasn’t tall, he wasn’t small. He wasn’t super quick,” Brown says.

Gunston was a talented wicketkeeper who was mentored by none other than Australian test player Brad Haddin. “I reckon he was a better cricketer,” Brown says.

It wasn't until Brown watched Gunston kick five goals for Adelaide against Richmond in his second season that he began to see something different.

“I just thought, ‘God, he’s got some really good moves.’ He knows where to make space, and he’s just got better and better.”

What Gunston lacks in physical attributes, he more than makes up for in strict attention to detail and footy smarts.

“His timing's impeccable,” Hodge says. “He understands when to use his body, when to create space, when to initiate contact.”

Breust knows Gunston's forward craft better than almost anyone.

He describes one particular weapon as “blindsiding” or disappearing into the defender's blind spot so they can no longer see their opponent and the football.

From there, Gunston effectively takes control.

“If the defender wants to try and sit in front, then he'll go out the back, and if the defender tries to get to his back, then he'll just lead up on them,” Breust says.

“He sort of gets to control everything when he does that. He's so difficult to defend.”

That footy IQ has allowed Gunston to continually reinvent himself.

Now, at 34, he has somehow become the deepest and most dangerous forward in a Hawthorn forward line that includes Nick Watson, Mitch Lewis and Mabior Chol. He’s evolved his set shot routine many times over the journey, too.

“I still pride myself a lot on the goalkicking and do a lot of work and want to make the most of the opportunities that I get.”

Breust, now at Richmond in a development role, has watched the latest evolution from the unique vantage point of former teammate turned opposition coach.

Although he recalls Gunston not talking to him for a week after he hatched a plan, along with fellow premiership teammate and Richmond development coach Taylor Duryea, to restrict him to just one goal when the Tigers and Hawks met last month.

“I feel like he's really revolutionised the modern forward,” Breust says.

“The ball's moving faster than it probably ever has before and having a target ahead of the ball is really valuable these days. When you've got someone as crafty as Jack, then it's going to be difficult to defend.”

It’s some of these attributes that Alastair Clarkson and Hawthorn’s recruiting manager Graham Wright saw when they brought him over from Adelaide in 2012. Back then Gunston faced an uphill climb: trying to make his mark in a forward line that featured Roughead, Lance Franklin, Cyril Rioli, and an emerging Paul Puopolo.

“He came across with his blonde tips and a few of the senior guys, of course, gave him a bit of a hard time early on,” Hodge recalls.

“That's one thing about Jack. Jack had enough confidence as a young fellow that he backed his ability … he knew that his best would match it with anyone.”

As it turned out, another skinny kid – albeit from country NSW – was vying for a spot in the forward line, too.

Breust arrived from Temora, looking just as much like a wet rag, except instead of the peroxide he was getting paid out by the senior players for wearing a helmet.

The pair hit it off instantly, although nothing made sense about this unlikely brotherhood.

“I’m a city Melbourne boy and he’s a country Temora lad. At the start, we probably didn’t know what to talk about. I don’t know anything about farming or doing anything like that. But we got along so well. We had a lot of common interests.”

From golf to basketball, table tennis to time trials, almost anything between them became a contest.

“We were so close to each other that it was just this constant battle of who was going to beat each other, no matter what we did,” Breust says.

“But as much as there was a rivalry,” Gunston admits, “it was probably just me wanting to be as good as Luke Breust.”

And for most of his career it felt that way.

When I interviewed Gunston for Breust’s 300th in 2024, he had nothing but high praise for what his best mate had achieved.

But there was a slight sense of resignation in his voice when told me, “Only some of the best get to 300”.

That milestone felt elusive.

“There was a period there where he was genuinely the bridesmaid,” Breust says. “I had him for games. I had him for goals. I had him for All-Australians.”

Two years later, the ledger looks rather different.

Gunston has overtaken Breust for career goals, notched up his 600th in a memorable 93-point win over Essendon at the MCG, drawn level on All-Australian selections, and now has Breust’s 308-game mark in his sights having signed on for his 18th season.

“He is just absolutely mowing me down in nearly every category you can think of,” Breust says, laughing.

Not that he begrudges him any of it.

“The rivalry was so good for both our careers. If it means that he can give me a bit of shit over the next 40 years when we’re done, then I’m OK with that.”

HEAVENLY HUGS FOR DAD

When Gunston runs out for his 300th game, his father Ray won’t be far from his mind. His sudden death in 2022 left a hole that football milestones have a way of exposing.

Ray had been there for virtually every step of the journey. Despite his seniority at the AFL, he would turn down the comforts of corporate hospitality to watch his son from the outer, often following him from one end of the ground to the other.

“He was the perfect sporting parent,” Gunston says.

“He’d never give his opinion unless you asked and he’d never overstep the mark. He’d just be there to listen.”

His mum Mandy now fills the void, rarely missing a game, as does a new generation of Gunstons - his sister Kate’s children and the bevy of extended family members who wear the famous #19 on their back.

Gunston’s 600th career goal was one of those moments when Ray’s absence was particularly acute. After being mobbed by his teammates — including teenager Ollie Greeves who was famously more overjoyed than him — Gunston instinctively looked towards the sky.

“I think it just happens,” Gunston says. “You kick the goal, your teammates carry on and get around you, which is great, and then you just think about who got you to this moment.”

“The 300th and the day I retire will be two days that I’d want to say thank you and give him a hug that I won’t be able to.”

But retirement feels a long way from Gunston’s mind now, particularly when there’s unfinished business: a fourth premiership that would draw him level with the 2008ers and his three-peat teammate Issac Smith, who defected to Geelong.

“That’s why I play football, because I want another premiership,” Gunston says. “To do it with a completely different group would be so unique and special.”

Not to mention giving him one more thing to hold over Breust, his old sparring partner.

Then again, there’s always golf, and tennis, and basketball, and pool, and…