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Message: [QUOTE="GCBRONCO, post: 2552272, member: 1808"] [URL]http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl/emerging-star-ben-hunt-out-to-make-no-7-slot-his-own-at-brisbane-broncos/story-fniabjcr-1226788046721[/URL][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue] [IMG]http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2013/12/21/1226788/046665-aa45efd6-6932-11e3-bdad-d26236de09de.jpg[/IMG] [COLOR=white]Ben Hunt trains with the Broncos. Picture: Peter Wallis [I]Source:[/I] News Limited[/COLOR] [/FONT][/COLOR][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue][B][B]IN THE high stakes poker game that is the battle to be Brisbane's halfback, Ben Hunt is the one man left sitting at the table with all the chips.[/B][/B][/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]And that is no surprise, given he is not only a grinder but one of the few teenagers to stare down a threat from Wayne Bennett and come out on top.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]Hunt was entering his final year at St Brendan's College in Yeppoon when then Broncos coach Bennett requested the teenager, who the club had on scholarship since he was 13, move to Brisbane immediately.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"We both said no, that won't happen," Hunt's father Geoff said.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"He is not missing his senior year with the mates he grew up with all his life.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"(Bennett) didn't threaten us but more or less said they could cut his contract.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I said 'Wayne, you do what you want to do but I'm not taking that away from the kid, because I've been through it and I know what it means to him'."[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"So they flew him down once a week, every week, to train that year. That is when Wayne chose to say he is going to play seven, because he had never played seven until then.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"That is how he got to become a seven because Bennett wanted him to become a seven at school." [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue] Hunt is finally in a position to permanently wear the No.7 jersey that Bennett earmarked him for seven years ago. After a 2013 season that was one of the most difficult of his career, falling behind Peter Wallace, Corey Norman and new recruit Scott Prince in the battle for a halves spot, Hunt can now see the light.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]All three positional rivals have left the club and former under-20s player of the year Hunt is left as the man to carry the Broncos forward.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]Hunt is so committed to the challenge that, for the first time, he tipped the training scales under-weight after giving up alcohol leading into Christmas.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"It was a bit frustrating at times last year," he said.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I wanted to be in the halves since I've been at the club and I was just getting frustrated last year more than any other years," he said.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"But the club did sign some other players and I know it made me want to work harder to be in those positions.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"This year, getting a full pre-season in the halves, hopefully I can just keep developing my game and become a consistent first-grade starter in the halfback position.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I got in trouble (this month), I was a couple of kilograms under-weight. I don't think I've ever been told I was under-weight before - a couple of years ago I came back and was told I had to lose about six kilograms.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I feel it's a good thing. I guess it's a sign I've lost fat and I just need to put back on muscle and get to a good weight."[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I've decided from the preseason to Christmas I was going to get off the drink for a while, just put the head down and get stuck into it." [/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]Raised in a town called Dingo, 90 minutes west of Rockhampton, Hunt enjoyed an active childhood.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]A thrill seeker who enjoyed riding motorbikes, horses and bulls, Hunt was about six when he had his first accident and slammed headfirst into a gum tree near a railway line.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]By 10 he was keen to ride bulls, until his dad put him on a "big one".[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"He thought he was a gun bull rider until then," Geoff laughed.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"That sorted him out, he didn't want to ride a second one."[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]Growing up in the country Hunt learnt the value of a hard day's work.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]After school usually was a trip to the family's 320 hectare 800 acre property to build and repair fences, a chore Ben still has when he travels home for holidays in his "off-season".[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I think last time he came home we cemented 70 posts in and he mixed all of it by hand in the mixer," Geoff said. "I got my worth out of him."[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]This off-season, there was a difference. Ben awoke every day with a spring in his step for a morning training session and kept to a strict diet.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I've never seen him so committed," Geoff said.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I know he has been doing a lot of extras … myself and my wife could notice the difference, how much more committed and intense he was." [/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]As much as Ben gained a strong work ethic on the farm, nothing could have prepared him for life as a Bronco.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]A regional sprint champion in his younger years, Hunt was told he was too slow on his first camp with the Broncos. At 14, he got the chance to join first-grade training and finished doubled over in exhaustion with Shaun Berrigan in his ear.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"It was a pretty big shock really, the first time I got asked to go to a camp. I didn't really know what it was or what to expect," he said.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I was just in awe ... We trained one session with the first-grade squad and it was the best thing I've ever done in my life.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I was so grateful just to get that opportunity to do that.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"We ended up doing the conditioning session with first grade and we had to jump into the back end of it. We were about halfway through the bit we had to do and were missing lines and Shaun Berrigan absolutely sprayed us, he just unloaded.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I thought 'geez I don't want to be part of this any more'."[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]Nearly a decade since that camp, Hunt is one of the leaders at Broncos training, setting the pace whilst Brisbane's World Cup heroes were away.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]He has had a rollercoaster run but only needs to look at good mates Jharal Yow Yeh or Jordan Kahu, and their struggles with injury, to realise how fortunate he has been.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]Barring injury, Hunt will play his 100th NRL game next year and will ideally lead the Broncos back to the finals after their worst season.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"I've been extremely lucky - a lot of times there I shouldn't have been in the team, I wasn't playing good football," he said.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Helvetica Neue]"Hopefully this year I can take it to another level."[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE] [/QUOTE]

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