HAWTHORN forward Jack Gunston says he still plenty of room for improvement as he prepares to play his 50^th AFL game tonight at Etihad Stadium.

Gunston arrived at Hawthorn at the end of the 2011 season, having requested a trade back to his home state and more specifically to the Hawks with the idea of playing as a third tall forward alongside Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead.

He was just 20 years of age when he landed at the Ricoh Centre, having played 14 matches for the Crows.

He was given the famous number 19 guernsey by the Hawks, which only compounded the expectation on his shoulders.

Almost immediately he was nicknamed “Gunstall” – a name that combined Hawthorn great Jason Dunstall and Gunston’s surnames.

It was a lot of pressure for young forward still finding his way in the AFL.

He made his debut for the Hawks in Round 1 last year against Collingwood and gathered a modest seven disposals and kicked a goal.

His next three games saw him struggle at his new club, gathering just four disposals against Geelong in Round 2, 10 touches against Adelaide in Round 3 and eight disposals against the Eagles in Round 4 before being dropped to the reserves.

Gunston spent seven matches playing for the Club’s VFL affiliate Box Hill and gathered the momentum and confidence he needed to make an impact in the seniors.

He kicked seven goals against North Ballarat, but that still wasn’t enough to earn him a senior recall.

It seems though, that Coach Alastair Clarkson knew exactly the right amount of time his new forward needed to gain the confidence he needed to make an impact for Hawthorn.

Gunston returned to the Hawthorn side against Port Adelaide in Round 11, where he gathered 11 disposals and kicked two goals.

He missed only one more game for the season (Round 13) and kicked goals in each of his games, including an impressive stretch of four, three, three, four, one and four goal hauls in the absence of Franklin.

His impressive end to the year and form over the pre-season and carried on into 2013 where he has improved again and achieved career-best numbers for disposals, tackles and goals – twice kicking five goals.

Speaking to hawthornfc.com.au before his 50^th AFL match, Gunston says he isn’t yet the player he hopes to become.

“I’m into my fourth season, so I feel like every year I’m improving but I’ve obviously got still a lot of work to go with my body and the way I want to play,” he said.

“I need to keep developing myself as a player and as a person.

“I felt like I’d sort of done my apprenticeship over in Adelaide and matured a bit over there, but I’m still very raw here.

“It’s been really good to learn off the guys here, they’ve helped my game in a way that I might have played in a way where I’m a bit older than I am in terms of my experience.

“To have ‘Roughie’ and ‘Buddy’ next to me, they probably make me look a lot better than I probably am so it has been good.”

It goes without saying, however, that he’s proud of what he’s achieved so far at Hawthorn and is enjoying his time in brown and gold.

“It’s come along pretty quickly to be honest, it’s obviously daunting to be playing your first game – you feel very small out there but as you keep building and keep building you get more confident the more you’re out there,” he said.

“To get to 50 games, I’m pretty proud of what I’ve done so far and hopefully there’s a lot more to go.

“My time at Hawthorn has been great so far, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

“We had some great highs last year and had a few lows as well, but we’re building this year and it’s very enjoyable to be part of it.”

He had an impressive finals series last year, kicking two goals in each of the three finals matches and although he played in the 2012 Grand Final loss, he says there’s nothing like beating your old club in a big game.

“There are a lot of things you look back on and are pretty happy with, obviously the Grand Final is up there but probably beating my old team in the Preliminary Final was a pretty good moment,” he reflected.

But now, he just can’t wait for September 2013.

“Just playing in my first finals series was exciting and I’m really looking forward to the one this year,” he said.

“Hopefully we can go one better.”