Luke Dunstan had never been dropped from anything in his life.
It came as a shock, then, when after a quiet outing in Round 5 last year, Dunstan found himself on the receiving end of the selection committee’s wrath and was dropped for the first time in his footballing career.
Suddenly, the first-round draft pick who’d earnt a Rising Star nomination in his first game found himself preparing to play for Sandringham in the VFL.
The then 22-year-old didn’t take it well.
Normally a charismatic and energetic personality around the club, Dunstan’s demeanour soured after the very public assessment of his performance, and he was ultimately dropped on three occasions in total in 2017.
Doubts had begun to creep into his game, and by his own admission, the former South Australian captain’s body language both on and off the field “wasn’t great”.
After all, big things were expected from the man who had been personally handed down Lenny Hayes’ famous No. 7
His omission from the senior side in Round 16 was the catalyst for a change.
Working closely with renowned sports psychologist Emma Murray, the midfielder switched his focus to approach VFL football as an opportunity, rather than a snub.
“It was obviously pretty hard to take at the time,” Dunstan said on being dropped.
“Looking back on it, it’s probably been the best thing for me, just to go back and actually get to play on instinct."
- Luke Dunstan
“You’re not worrying about the bloke you’re playing on getting a kick and whatever else, you can just go back and play how you did as a junior and get after the footy and go and win the ball.”
It worked, and following Dunstan’s senior recall, the bullish midfielder reached near career-best form in the last six games of 2017.
Luke Dunstan cuts the figure of a natural leader at St Kilda.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and a year on from being dropped for the first time, the more mature Dunstan is grateful for the opportunity he had to hit the reset button.
“It’s very hard to play well each week, you can just get a bit lost,” he said.
“It happened to me last year and it just sort of spirals … but if you go back down to the VFL, you’ll go out there and blokes will get 30 and kick three.
“If you talk to them, it’s actually about them feeling like they’re going to go out and they’re going to dominate, so it’s just a bit of a mindset thing and something we’ve been working with Emma on.”
Dunstan: Competition for midfield spots heating up
Now into the fifth year of his AFL career, Dunstan’s diligence in his preparation has the midfielder full of confidence on matchday.
“I think now I’ve nailed my preparation,” he said.
“It can take a while to find out what works for
After finishing so strongly in 2017, Dunstan was a surprise omission from the Saints’ opening two rounds of 2018.
“I was left out of Round 1 and I was pretty upset about that,” he told saints.com.au.
“I felt that I’d done the work over the pre-season, and then to be left out, I was really disappointed.”
Symbolic of his attitude shift from the previous year, though, he saw the positive.
“It was really good to go back and get a look at some of the younger guys that I hadn’t played with yet … and trying to lead them and help them improve their game was something I was really focussed on.”
The hard-nosed onballer prides himself on his aggression and intensity at the contest, and it’s his natural on-field charisma that has him earmarked for a leadership role in the future.
“At the moment, I’m just focussing on helping the team trying to play some good football and helping the younger boys,” Dunstan said.
“But now that I’ve got my spot in the team a bit more cemented, (leadership) is something I can probably look to focus on.”
Dunstan’s advice to out-of-form footballers is straightforward, but it’s grounded in his experience of a total reset at VFL level.
“It’s about getting proactive and trying to get on the move a bit more,” the 23-year-old said.
“As I said, you can sort of become a bit of a robot when you’re playing in the AFL side, and it’s good to go back to playing on instinct and just see the ball and go and win it.”
Dunstan will look to bring his trademark aggression against an equally bullish Tigers midfield when the Saints take it up to the reigning premiers this afternoon.
