League of Ireland countdown: Emmet Malonetalks to a player who has played a key role at Bohemians
The term roller-coaster ride may be bandied about a little loosely when people talk about players' times at particular clubs, but it does seem inescapable when considering the nearly nine years Kevin Hunt has enjoyed and, by turns, endured at Dalymount Park. The Bohemians skipper was initially brought in to help the club avoid relegation but went on to play a key role in their 2001 double as well as the league title secured under Stephen Kenny two years later.
When the money got tight the 31-year-old Englishman chose to stay on and help through further tough times while others moved on. His reward is to be a part of a side that are again being tipped by some for the title and are clearly on the up again.
"It's been an eventful few years, all right" observes the amiable midfielder, "but I've enjoyed it all, really. When the club needed to rein in the spending I talked to a few other clubs. When you're out of contract and you've a mortgage to pay the reality is you've got to but Bohemians were always the club I wanted to play for and I'm delighted to still be here now as things are looking up again."
Hunt has seen more than his fair share of managers pass through Dalymount and having turned down the opportunity to have a stint at the helm after Gareth Farrelly's departure, he starts the new campaign under another, Seán Connor.
The former Sligo Rovers boss, with money to spend, has set about a dramatic overhaul of a squad that performed poorly last season and while Hunt is, like Connor, anxious to avoid making the sort of predictions that might come back to haunt him, he is confident the club's supporters will witness a substantial improvement over the coming months.
"We have a new manager, a lot of new players, we've had a good pre-season and there's a sense of belief about the place again which is great," he says.
"We probably didn't have the best of luck last year with injuries; I had a lot of problems myself, and a few decisions that didn't go our way, but we still shouldn't have finished where we did in the table and I'd certainly expect us to do a lot better than that.
"It must have been very frustrating for the fans but looking at the last couple of years from the club's point of view it's hard to be too critical, particularly after what's happened at Shelbourne. They felt they needed to take a step back and they were probably right," he says.
"That doesn't change the fact that when you look around the dressingroom now and see players with experience, lads who've won things, it gives you a good feeling. Now, obviously Derry City, Drogheda United and Cork City are all a little further down the line than us in terms of having a settled squad but Shelbourne's collapse has maybe left a gap in the top four for us to fill and I don't see any reason why we can't make an impact this year . . . good players can play together."
One of the few brighter aspects of last season's troubled campaign was his own partnership in central midfield with Farrelly (when they were fit), but Hunt reckons the Dubliner will perform better again at Cork City now that the additional responsibility of running the team has been lifted from his shoulders.
"To be honest, I'm not sure that management is something I'd ever want to get into but really I think it's impossible to juggle it with playing. I know people go on about us finishing at two in the afternoon, but for me being a player is absolutely all-consuming."
As part of the club's link up with DCU, in no small part engineered by Farrelly, Hunt has enrolled as a business student at the university. "I'll miss the odd lecture because of training but I'm enjoying it," he says before mentioning that he recently passed his first round of exams.
A popular figure around Dalymount, Hunt's attempt to lay the foundations for a life outside football is admirable, but the Bohs fans will expect him to deliver on the pitch; starting with Friday's televised encounter against Drogheda United.
