Had the pleasure of meeting Luke Breust at work last week and had a quick conversation. I mentioned the improvement of Jed at North and he was pretty happy for him. I think the Hawks probably didn't think Anderson would be useful in the role we are playing him in right now because back then, the Hawks still had their premiership midfield. Also, I didn't ask if they would take him back now.

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Breust was also aware of Cunnington breaking the contested possessions record. Which is nice to see. Wished his side all the best against Hodge and the Lions.
Jed's always been an inside Mid. He was shoe-horned into a small forward role as that sort of player (speed, hardness, power) was what Hawthorn wanted (Puopolo, Rioli). I referred to him as the "working man's Rioli" - if either could have ever built their tank, I thought they were MVP/AA candidates (respectively) and would force their way into our on-ball division.
His problem was physical - he never recovered from the pneumonia, and then once his body was back to 'normal', he was consistently hitting his physical ceilings - he simply could not build a tank. Even then, we tried to play him midfield at Box Hill, he'd star for 5 minutes then burn out, and struggle the rest of the game.
Watching his first few games at North, it seemed your coach had seen the highlights (or worse yet the body type) and typecast as an outside player. Mentally, Jed was shot, trying to go against his natural game to fit the team structures (this was a weakness at Hawthorn too).
It's taken him a good 4-5 years to recover physically and develop his tank - to the point he's probably at a similar physical development as a 22-23yo, but with the extra drive from knowing he's already "half-way through" his career.