Young St Kilda midfielder Luke Dunstan has credited the use of a sports psychologist for his late-season resurgence, following a challenging period where he was in and out of the team in 2017.
The 22-year-old was sent back to Sandringham on three separate occasions earlier in the year, before returning against Sydney in Round 18 where he collected 29 disposals, and then followed it up with 27, 25, 24, 32 and 30.
In the closing six weeks of the season, no one polled more votes in the Trevor Barker Award than the South Australian.
During his time in and out of Alan Richardson’s best 22, Dunstan met with club psychologist Emma Murray weekly, who divided her time between St Kilda and Richmond this year, where many premiership Tigers lauded her work in the afterglow of their premiership, including Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin.
“I went through a challenging period halfway through last season, so to sort of find out things about myself as a person and a footballer really helped towards the back end of the year,” Dunstan told reporters at a press conference on Friday.
“It was the first time I dealt with a setback in not being selected; it’s probably the first time in my career that I haven’t been picked in a side, so having to deal with that was a new challenge.
“It was something I didn’t deal with the right way straight away, but through that period I was able to learn and move forward; I came out the other side which was pleasing.
“Doing some work with the sports psych was massive for me; I think Emma had a pretty big
“I was just pleased I was able to turn things around and just prove to myself that I can play at the level and to a good level. It does give me confidence going forward.”
Dunstan, who has now played 69 games in his first four seasons since being selected with pick No. 18 in the 2013 National Draft, said his demeanour around the club altered after he was dropped.
“It was probably just the confidence I had in myself, which then reflected in my body language,” he said.
“I wouldn’t say I was my normal self around the club, I was probably a bit down and I wasn’t saying or speaking up as much as I normally would.”
And that was where Murray stepped in, much to the delight of Dunstan and St Kilda supporters.
