What do you see as his deficiencies Dannnnnn ...?
In general play, his kicking is below average - he misses targets and picks incorrect ones. Under pressure his ball use drops off even further. Even at VFL level he is a scrappy user of the ball and as a player whose greatest attributes are commonly referred to as being "skill and class" it's not really a glowing endorsement. In addition he very much struggles to keep his head in the game. Early days we believed that this was due to endurance, but now that he has a nice tank it's still happening. He'll bob up and look threatening for five minutes then go unsighted for the rest of the match. Low impact + inconsistency is not a good combination.
However my biggest concern is just what role he plays at AFL level. As a forward he doesn't provide enough of a target; aside from the odd screamer or crumb he's not getting to the right spots as a small and he's not presenting well or often enough to have an impact playing taller. He's a dreadful set shot, he applies very minimal pressure and too often lets his man run off him. As a result of these things he's not excelling offensively (ie. he's not a consistent goal scoring threat), nor is he excelling defensively (he's not contributing to locking the ball in). On the wings he struggles with his disposal by foot, doesn't offer much speed, doesn't apply pressure and doesn't accumulate heavily; as a result he is again a low impact player. He hasn't proven that he's capable of stepping inside the contest aside from as a pinch-hitter and doesn't win the ball often, nor is he an imposing figure in close.
In my opinion, in order to excel Hunter needs to become more relevant inside the contest; he needs to be winning 50-60 odd percent of his disposals contested and using his dangerous handballs to open up the ground and clear the pressure zones. He also needs to up his work rate to be capable of (a) pressuring constantly; and (b) pushing up and down the field heavily to impact in all areas of the ground. We want him delivering the ball inside 50 but that can't be his only trick. At present it pretty much is at AFL level.
He does have strengths, though; I'm not biased to the point where I can't see any - he can run all day, has great entries inside 50, uses excellent attacking handballs, has a very creative footy brain, excellent vertical leap, pretty good aerial judgement, reads the game extremely well, excels at opening the ground up, can kick goals from the midfield, is very agile, etc. He's talented - not denying that.
Don't get me wrong - Hunter is extremely talented and obviously still very young; he certainly does have the ability to develop into a superb player. As such I would
very much prefer to keep him. That said - I don't think we can be afraid of moving a player if the right deal presents (and they're happy with it, obviously). As it stands he's not in our best team even with injuries to Wood, Boyd, Bont etc, and I struggle to see him becoming a permanent fixture as we attempt to add more outside speed and genuine skill. My only point is that he's one of very few that, in my mind, could have OK value in a trade without hurting us too much -
BUT the deal would have to be right. I'm not looking to ship him out for whatever we can get.