Gunston's Price Has Dropped $47k Since Round 1. He Just Scored 97 on Return. The Registry Says Buy the Dip.
Gunston's price has dropped $47k since Round 1 after a mid-foot sprain. He returned in Round 12 with 97. At 419k averaging 81 with five scores above 95 this season, the registry says buy the dip.
Gunston's Price Has Dropped $47k Since Round 1. He Just Scored 97 on Return. The Registry Says Buy the Dip.
A 287-game premiership forward at 419k with a proven 100+ ceiling. The foot sprain was two weeks. The buy window is now.
The market sold Jack Gunston because of a foot sprain. Two weeks later, he came back and scored 97. His price is still $47k cheaper than where he started the season. The registry says buy. Here's why.
Premium output, frustrating availability
Gunston opened 2026 at $466k and immediately justified the price tag. R1: 101. R2: 106. Two straight tons from a 34-year-old, 287-game veteran who the doubters keep writing off. Then R3: omission. Avoid verdict. The first wobble.
He came back in R5 with a 60 — below his 67 BE, hold verdict. Not the return coaches wanted. But R7 told the real story: 98 points, five goals four behinds, rated 9.5 out of 10 by the community. Buy verdict at confidence 8. "Irreplaceable in Hawks' forward structure."
R8: 48 with a shoulder niggle. Watch verdict. Then R9 happened.
The foot sprain that created the window
R9 was peak Gunston: 113 points, six goals, "absolutely sublime" — 51 clear of his 62 BE in a genuine 15-point contest against Freo in Perth. The kind of score that makes you forget he's 34.
Then he copped a mid-foot sprain late in the game. Confirmed out R10. The registry called sell — not because the signals were bad, but because the R9 spike would inflate his price right before a miss. Smart process.
The price dropped from 466k at the start of the year to 419k-ish. Two missed weeks and a couple of sub-par returns wiped nearly 50k off his value. The market priced in injury risk and moved on.
What the return told us
R12: 97. First game back from the foot sprain. Hawthorn's 52-point away win over St Kilda, and Gunston was right in the middle of it. Thirty-five above his 62 BE. The foot is fine, the role is locked, the ceiling is still there.
At 419k averaging 81, his BE is 62. Cash gen has flipped positive. For a FWD with a proven 100+ ceiling — he's hit 101, 106, 98, 113, and 97 this season — that's genuine mid-pricer value from a player who scores like a premo when he's fit.
Five scores above 95 in ten games. Find another FWD at 419k doing that.
The call
The math is simple: Gunston started at 466k. He's at 419k now. He's scoring the same way he was before the injury. If you sold during the sprain, you got the process right but the outcome wrong — and the buy-back window is still open because nobody's noticed.
At 34, there's always the age question. But 287 games of evidence says the bloke knows how to score, and the foot sprain was two weeks, not a season-ender. Would expect him to sit around the 80-90 mark for the rest of the year — at 419k with a 62 BE, that's value.
Buy the dip.
Updated: 25 June 2026. Data sourced from RookieBible intel registry.
Want to challenge this take? Our SuperCoach coach is pre-briefed on Gunston's full season arc — every score, every verdict, every signal. Pre-briefed. Opinionated. The more you challenge it, the sharper it gets.
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