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"Reprising his best football": Gunston's unlikely return to stardom
Jaiden Sciberras • September 15th, 2025 5:00 pm
Jack Gunston has more than revived his AFL career in 2025.
At the end of 2022, the key forward was traded to Brisbane having played just 17 games across his prior two seasons, in a move that many believed would close out his football journey.
Playing in 17 games and kicking just 22 goals for the Lions, Gunston’s career remained on a knife’s edge as the veteran returned to the Hawks at the end of his first season up north.
Back at his long-term club, Gunston played in 18 games and kicked 29 goals as the Hawks made a late-season September charge in 2024. Substituted out of both of Hawthorn’s finals contests, the forward was far from his side’s best, entering 2025 at 33 years of age and without a guaranteed place in the starting 22.
And yet against the odds, Gunston went on to have his best season in 2025.
Booting a career-high 62 goals in the home and away season, Gunston finished in equal-second place in the Coleman Medal race, claiming an All-Australian blazer, and going goalless in just one game all season to anchor Hawthorn’s elite forward line.
And within two do-or-die finals with the Hawks, the three-time premiership player has starred for the brown and gold, willing his side into a Preliminary Final from eighth place.
Hawthorn’s Semi-Final clash with the Crows was a clinic in forward craft, with Gunston absolutely dominating All-Australian squad of 44 member Mark Keane, kicking five goals from eight scoring shots as the Hawks knocked out the minor premiers in Adelaide.
Commending both Gunston and Hawthorn’s slick ball movement, former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley was full of praise for the veteran forward’s ability to revitalise his playing career.
“He had great supply, so if he was down the other end it would have been a little bit harder,” Buckley told SEN’s Whateley.
“Hawthorn’s slick ball use, and their really strong clearance work, especially early, gave him some really good supply.
“Watching him off ball, outside of the broadcast arc, you wouldn’t see it on the TV as such, but his work rate is through the roof.
“He comes off with a sore hammy, and apparently, he went in tight, but he showed no signs of that. His movement was constant; he would put three or four leads in if it was a congested forward 50.
“I think it was (Jarman) Impey who had the ball about 65 metres out with time, sat on it for a little bit and Gunston was working (Mark) Keane over, flat out.
“He found that skinny side hit up four or five times in the third quarter. He was exceptional, and his finishing has been great.
“He’s been a part of an offensive structure that works really well, and he is reprising his best football and more.”
With his tally of five majors, Gunston has now reached a career-high 70 goals across all games in 2025, top scoring for the Hawks for the first time since 2020 and for the fourth time in his tenure with the club.
Gunston and the Hawks take on Geelong at the MCG in a blockbuster Preliminary Final this Friday night.
