Rex Hunt

Rex Hunt
Personal information
Full name	Rex Hunt
Original team(s)	Parkdale
Position(s)	Full-forward / Centre Half Back
Club information
Current club	Retired
Number	Rich. 43, Geel. 5, StK. 2
Career highlights
Richmond premiership side 1969 Richmond premiership side 1973
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

for the British diplomat see Rex Hunt (governor)

Rex James Hunt (born 7 March 1949), is an Australian television and radio personality featured on his own fishing and wildlife programme on the Seven Network. He is also a former Australian rules football player, commentator and police officer. Hunt owns a restaurant, the D'lish Fish located in Port Melbourne and lives in mansion incorporating a miniature golf course in suburban Beaumaris, Victoria.

Football career

Hunt, recruited from Parkdale, made his debut with Richmond in the then-Victorian Football League in 1968 . He was a key position player who was used usually at full-forward or centre half-forward, but later played at centre half-back. He was part of Richmond premiership sides in 1969 and 1973 . In the middle of 1974, Hunt moved to the Geelong Football Club due to his job as a policeman. The big strong forward played at Geelong from 1974–1975 playing only 32 games for the club, before moving back to the city and playing with St Kilda. He retired from VFL football at the end of 1978, but continued to play in the lower-level VFA in 1980 and 1981, with Sandringham.

Commentary career

After his retirement Hunt became a popular football commentator for 3AW, helping them surge up the ratings. He also hosted Sunday morning panel shows on the Seven Network, the Sportsworld Footy Panel and I'm Rex Hunt and You're Not. Early in the 2007 season, Rex celebrated his 1500th game as a commentator of VFL/AFL games.

Nicknames

See also List of nicknames used in Australian rules.

He is best known for his commentary on standing up against the thugs in the scallop industry, 3AW, and has a penchant for making up nicknames for players such as 'four touchdowns in a single game', 'Ot 'n' Sticky for Geelong footballer Brad Ottens; Yellow Brick Croad for Hawthorn footballer Trent Croad; "Oysters Kilpatrick" for Geelong footballer Glenn Kilpatrick; "Special Fried Rice" for ex-Carlton footballer Dean Rice; "The Mediator" for Kangaroos footballer Troy Makepeace; "Heavy Overnight Dew" for Hawthorn footballer Stuart Dew; "Horney Torney" for Richmond and Adelaide footballer Jason Torney; "Awesome Wells" for Kangaroos player Daniel Wells;"Hooligan" for Blues player Ryan Houlihan;Thomas the Tank for Collingwood player Dale Thomas the list goes on. He is also known for his fat lady and the build up that surrounds her when he (or she) bellows out a tune declaring the match over.

Gary Ablett's 'Mark of the Century'

This was no doubt Rex's finest and favourite moment in his commentary career, when on in the last quarter at the MCG on Mothers' Day, May 8th 1994, Geelong's Gary Ablett launched himself over Collingwood's Gary Pert to take the 'Mark of the Century'. Hunt explained the situation to listeners by quotes such as "they didn't go that high when they went to the moon!", "The girl's happy!" and "I don't believe it. I do not believe it.".

Fishing journalistic career

In 1981 Hunt was giving regular radio fishing reports and had made two videos on the subject. His first television fishing show was Angling Action on the Ten Network. Two series of 13 episodes were made and were shown in 1981 and 1982 respectively. His 3DB radio fishing show began in 1982. Throughout the 1980s, Hunt continued to write for a number of newspapers and magazines. In 1991 a series of Rex Hunt's Fishing World was made and broadcast in Victoria on Channel Seven. A new and longer series of the show went national as Rex Hunt's Fishing Australia the following year. In 1992, the name changed again to Rex Hunt's Fishing Adventures, which remained on air until 2004.

Controversies

Airline Incident

In May 2004, Hunt made a curious attempt to make a statement about airline security, which has been markedly increased in Australia after terrorist threats. Hunt was agitated at having to remove his pants and footwear after setting off a metal detector. He then took ten metal forks from the Qantas Club, and took them on board a Qantas flight from Adelaide headed for Melbourne in an attempt to prove that airport security was totally flawed. A concerned passenger who did not recognize Hunt alerted the flight crew and he was detained and questioned upon arrival in Melbourne, where he was questioned for approximately 30 minutes and let go without any charges filed against him.

Byron Bay Fight

In 2005, Hunt and his son were involved in an incident in Byron Bay where he claimed to have been attacked by local teenagers. The teenagers involved, however, claim Hunt was extremely intoxicated at the time and his son had thrown the first punch.

Sex scandal

On 17 May 2006 News Ltd exposed Hunt's 15 years of secret sexual liaisons. When confronted Hunt confessed he had paid three women in succession for ongoing sexual relationships over a period of more than 15 years. The final relationship, with a beautician in her 30s, began in 1997 and cost Hunt $1000 a week. Hunt acknowledged he is a hypocrite given his repeated attacks on other media personalities for sexual infidelity. Hunt followed this by an interview with radio broadcaster Neil Mitchell on Melbourne radio 3AW. A quote from Rex Hunt's radio comments,

I'm invincible, I'm paying money, the girl's happy, she's got no money, I got my rocks off, how good is this?

has gained its own noteriety when being featured repeatedly on national Triple M radio program Get This hosted by Tony Martin and Mick Molloy. Robyn Hood, 40, one of the three women subsequently sold her story to New Idea magazine. Robyn was quoted as saying:

Rex was never unfaithful to Lynne. "We never had sex... he was affectionate, very touchy-feely... then he'd either, in the car or out of it, depending on how cold it was, fling off all his clothes. The more public, the greater the danger and the more exciting Rex apparently found it.

Rex Hunt's wife of thirty four years, Lynne, said she would stand by Hunt and also revealed she suffers from bipolar disorder, which had placed pressure on the couple's relationship.

Road rage incident

Hunt has been charged with assault over allegations he bashed a cyclist in a Melbourne road rage attack. He will face a preliminary hearing at Melbourne Magistrates' Court this month over the July 2008 incident that left the cyclist with a broken finger.

Personal life

Rex, who is a total pill, is married to wife Lynne and has one son, Matthew and one daughter, Rachel.

External links

• Official site
• Rex Hunt at IMDb