"You need to ring me right now," his friend told him, and when Hunter called, listened and worked out why it was so urgent, he needed to sit down, think for five minutes and decide what to do.

He was already out of the team, suspended for a few weeks after sleeping in and missing a recovery session. He knew his teammates weren't happy with him, and that he had let down the new coach.

His friend was upset and anxious, having accidentally used Hunter's betting account to back Melbourne, and it was hard to feel too angry at him for making what he realised straight away was a huge mistake.

Hunter told the people he needed to tell and the AFL was made aware of what happened while the game was still going, within an hour of the bet being placed. Seeing himself on the back page of the paper in the next few days wasn't easy, even though he knew he had done nothing wrong. But it wasn't as bad as that day.

"It wasn't a very good afternoon. I knew he didn't mean it, but after I spoke to him I sat there thinking, 'What's going to happen next?' Because I knew a fair bit would come off the back of it," Hunter said. "After everything that had happened it was the worst timing you could get, and it wasn't a great couple of weeks, but luckily it got sorted out quickly and the club was really supportive of me.

"With the situation I was in I was wondering what people would think, because if you read the paper it was as if we had 10 people trying to match-fix who were going to end up in jail.

"The players were good, and the coach was really good too. They all knew what happened, and they made sure the players were told the full story. And I knew that once they knew, they weren't going to hold it against me."

That was a relief, particularly given how surprised Hunter had felt when he sat down with the captain and was told he was out of the team for four weeks, and that he would then have to work his way back in. Hunter was at the end of his third pre-season when he set his alarm for 8pm, not 8am. He was running well, playing well and he couldn't help but feel the punishment was over the top.

"I struggled with it, a bit. I didn't really know what to say. I can remember Bob Murphy telling me and I just sat there shocked. I couldn't respond because I wasn't expecting it," Hunter said. "I thought about it in that way for a few days, but then it sunk in that I was the one in the wrong and that I wasn't really in a position to start complaining about things. I hadn't really done anything else wrong, but looking back I can see that they just needed me to lift a bit in a few areas before something else happened. That's what a few people said to me; they said, this could end up being good for you."

Hunter feels it was. He knows it was. Not necessarily because of what he missed out on, but because of how hard he had to work to get his spot back and how desperately he has wanted to hold onto it since.

He worried for a while that the suspension might be held against him for longer than the four weeks, but was assured by coach Luke Beveridge that it wasn't, and that it never would be. It almost made him want to get back even more.

"It went through my head, but Bevo made sure I wasn't thinking like that. I went in to ask how far off I was and what I needed to do, and he said, 'Don't think what happened is affecting selection now.' He was really good. He let me know the whole time where I was at, but at the same time he didn't make it easy for me. I didn't ever think I was going to go straight back in. But I had to earn it, like everyone."

Hunter got his first chance in round six, but was out of the team three weeks later. When he came back in round 15 he started as the substitute player, and was sent to play on a wing when he went on.

Hunter hadn't trained there, hadn't really played there and wasn't expecting to be sent there. But almost instantly he felt it suited his running, and that if he did it well it was a way to stay in the side. In the weeks since he has been one of his team's most consistent players, surprising himself with how much of the ball he's been able to find and making his coaches feel they have a bit of extra help.

"He's very smart," said Daniel Giansiracusa. "He's street smart, and he has a really sharp footy brain ... Those guys are really important to the side, especially given we're so inexperienced. It sounds funny to be saying that about a kid who's in his third year, but he can help us out on the ground and almost coach the guys around him to be in the best places, which could be really important for us late in the year. He's one our our best runners, he's learnt how to use that, and he's matured a lot this year, I think. What happened early in the year should only build his resilience, because he's had to come in and really fight for it."

Hunter is glad he did, and has a feeling it was never going to be easy anyway. "If you're not in the team you've got to find a way in. That's been my challenge, but it's been the same for everyone this year," he said.

"There were weeks were I thought 'haven't I done enough yet?' but I just had to keep playing well in the VFL and I felt like if I did that then my chance would come eventually.

"To get a game this year you've had to do a lot more for a lot longer. You know you have to play well to get into the team, and you know you have to play well to stay there.

"It wasn't easy to get a game before this year. But this year it feels like you have to value your spot in there so much more."