Watch Tom Hunter talk about his experience serving as the club's runner on Friday night.


Recently retired Magpie Tom Hunter made a debut of sorts on the MCG last Friday night when he donned the bright green uniform to serve as the club’s runner.

Earlier this year Hunter was forced to hang up his guernsey due to potential life threatening injuries sustained through football.  Since then, the club sought permission from the AFL to use the 20-year-old as a runner for the 2011 season.

“I loved just being apart of it,” Hunter told CTV in the rooms after the win.

“To have a kick and a warm up with the boys out on the MCG really meant a lot.

“The club had to take me off the rookie list because they couldn’t have a listed player doing the running so they had to tell AFL that I wanted to do the running. 

“We got the all clear from the AFL last night.”Hunter had the intimidating task of relaying messages from the coach to the players, a job he appeared to have handled with aplomb.

“I delivered (the messages) spot on.  Not word for word but I was told I did an aright job. 

“Hopefully I can do it for the rest of the year.”