off-contract at season\u2019s end and is playing for his future in Saturday night\u2019s derby<\/a> against the Titans at Cbus Super Stadium.<\/p>\nWhile he is feted as the ultimate team man, Hunt admits there has been some personal angst over the utility role that has seen him play four positions in just 25 games since his return to Red Hill last year.<\/p>\n
In his second coming at the Broncos, Hunt played games 13 at five-eighth, six at halfback, four at hooker and two matches off the interchange bench.<\/p>\n
Hunt played just 28 minutes off interchange in last week\u2019s 26-12 derby defeat of the Dolphins and in the new realm of the six-man bench, there is no guarantee those outside the starting 13 will get game time.<\/p>\n
Broncos coach Michael Maguire has named Hunt in the No.14 super-sub role for the Titans showdown and the former Queensland Origin star concedes his outstanding utility value has its challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it\u2019s frustrating in some aspects,\u201d he said ahead of the Gold Coast derby.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done it before in the past throughout my career at different stages.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m used to it and as frustrating as it is doing that, it\u2019s something that, like I said, I\u2019m used to and I just have to get on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hunt has made it clear he prefers playing in the halves, but with Ezra Mam and Adam Reynolds regarded as Brisbane\u2019s pre-eminent scrumbase pairing, \u2018Dozer\u2019 has been content with a support role.<\/p>\n
There is a view Hunt is Brisbane\u2019s best No.7. When Reynolds missed Brisbane\u2019s round 3 clash against the Storm with a rib injury, it was Hunt who stepped up to superbly engineer the Broncos first win on Melbourne soil in 10 years.<\/p>\n
Maguire regarded Hunt as his No.1 hooker in his \u2018Dream Team\u2019 spine last year alongside Mam, Reynolds and Reece Walsh and the 359-game champion is determined to nail down one spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cMate, I\u2019d hope it happens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way it\u2019s going, I don\u2019t know. We\u2019ll have to wait and see.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I\u2019m not the coach. I\u2019m not in the performance staff and all that. I\u2019m not pulling the strings. I\u2019m just here to do my job and wherever I\u2019m asked to go that week, I\u2019ll go and do the best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hunt celebrated his 36th birthday last week but the premiership hero insists retirement is not on his mind.<\/p>\n
The Broncos will lose Reynolds (retirement) and superstar prop Payne Haas (South Sydney) next season and Hunt believes he can plug the leadership hole \u2014 possibly as Brisbane\u2019s captain in 2027.<\/p>\n
The 18-season stalwart remains open to signing a 12-month extension \u2014 if the Broncos want him.<\/p>\n
Asked if he has considered retirement, he said: \u201cNot at all, mate. I\u2019m still pretty keen to play next year at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously there\u2019s a long way to go in this season and whatnot, but at this stage I\u2019m feeling good and pretty keen to play on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess there is a little bit of that there (filling the leadership void). Losing two great leaders of this club (Reynolds and Haas) … they\u2019ve been here for a long time and they know what it is to be a professional rugby league player.<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing, guys like that will definitely take a toll, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Hunt has spoken of his frustration at his musical-chairs role at the Broncos as Brisbane\u2019s Mr Fixit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-578876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}