Luke Dunstan Excited for 2022

[Dee Dee 1,105]

Dunstan’s from South Australia I believe. I wonder if he’s related to Don?

[Dante 2,739]

13 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

I'm not a Dunstan fan at all, similarly I wasn't a huge Ben Brown fan either. I was worried about his body and I thought it was going to be very difficult to change his game. For half a season I felt I was right, but with a top up mini preseason and maybe a bit of a humbling effect of going to Casey Brown came back in a far better player. I don't think it was getting up the ground that was the big thing for him, it was more making big improvements in his contesting work - particularly when out of position - and sharpening up his defensive efforts.

It's a good point that Dunstan has surely been recruited to be a different player than he was. He was also chopped from a non finalist and there wasn't a single team that wanted him enough to promise a starting role. So much so that he chose the games best on ball brigade rather than a lowly side. That tells me he's more than willing to make significant improvements to his game.

I think Dustan's got tools but hasn't been shown how to use them, when you're in a side that's not interested in you it can be difficult to shine, maybe if he's given a role and sticks to its he'll do ok. All I'm saying is don't get too excited, in my opinion, he's behind quite a few and whilst he will never work his way to the top he will get a game if there are injuries.

Jack Viney should take him under his wing and show him how to win the ball at stoppages and stick a tackle, and Harmsy should give him a few tips on how to tag a player and still win then ball. Williams can teach him to kick and preferably to a teammate. 

I've seen him did some good things and some bad thinks, when he has to kick the ball in to the forward line he seems to freeze and kicks a grubber or to no one.

At Melbourne you are either in or out, you don't half tackle you hit them with all you can, you don't throw a half hearted arm at them. That's Melbourne of old.

[FlashInThePan 1,893]

12 minutes ago, Dante said:

I think Dustan's got tools but hasn't been shown how to use them, when you're in a side that's not interested in you it can be difficult to shine, maybe if he's given a role and sticks to its he'll do ok. All I'm saying is don't get too excited, in my opinion, he's behind quite a few and whilst he will never work his way to the top he will get a game if there are injuries.

Jack Viney should take him under his wing and show him how to win the ball at stoppages and stick a tackle, and Harmsy should give him a few tips on how to tag a player and still win then ball. Williams can teach him to kick and preferably to a teammate. 

I've seen him did some good things and some bad thinks, when he has to kick the ball in to the forward line he seems to freeze and kicks a grubber or to no one.

At Melbourne you are either in or out, you don't half tackle you hit them with all you can, you don't throw a half hearted arm at them. That's Melbourne of old.

Completely agree with this. Something was certainly going on with him at StKilda. We only need to look at how much better every player looked at Melbourne in 2021 when they started playing for each other. You can times that by ten when your team mates or coaching staff are against you. We’ll never know what happened there but it speaks highly of his talent that he still managed to do alright.

I don’t think we need to worry about whether he is better than Viney or Sparrow or JJ. This next season is going to test our depth to the max. We are going to get a pretty good look at most players on our list. I’m really interested in how he develops under Goody, Yze and Williams with a team who actually wants him there.

[durango 2,005]

I have not seen him play except when we played the Saints but he was recruited to have more midfield depth and has played over 100 games so he must have done something right in his football career.

I believe the extra pressure on the younger players like Jordan and Sparrow will be good for their development since they will have to earn a spot in the 23.

For players like Harmes and ANB they will have to maintain their form or they will be playing at Casey.

I general the replacement of Vandenberg and Jones by Dunstan who is only 26 was a good get and allows players like Rosman, Laurie and Woewodin time to develop their game at Casey rather than being thrown in the deep end al la Watts, Grimes and Trengrove.

We are the premiers and we have only lost some players who played less than a total of 25 games last year.

In the past the club kept on losing core players and the club relied on recruits to fill the holes.

He made this move to the premiers knowing he will have to fight tooth and nail to get a game, so he backed himself to break into this team on form not injuries.