The Gunnedah rugby product became a regular starter for the Panasonic Wild Knights and played in the final of Japan’s Top League.

Gunter even went viral when a video of the flanker landing a monster tackle was shared on social media.

They’re all massive moments for the 20-year-old but none sat at the top of his list for the past 12 months.

The top moments for Gunter were having his Mum and Pop – Jeff and Diane Worrell – and Dad – Tony Gunter – in Japan to watch him play.

“To be over there and be able to give Jeff and Di the opportunity to come over to see another country. To watch me play again with these people I’ve grown up playing as them on video games. It was a dream come true. It was probably one of the happiest moments I’ve had in my life so far,” Gunter said.

“The distance has been very hard on Jeff and Di and my father as well. My father lives in Papua New Guinea so I hardly get to see him. Going to Japan, same as Jeff and Di, he was very nervous and worried but now my three parents, as I call them, have all seen where I live and what I’m doing now, that’s the cool thing.”

Gunter was in Gunnedah recently to see family and friends. It’s a trip the Wild Knight makes whenever possible.

“I always try to get back here. Get back to my roots, catch up with everyone. Hang out with Pop and Mum, relax and see my dog,” Gunter said.

However, the trips home are never long enough.

“We’d love to keep him home. The house is very happy,” Di said.

“We want to tie him up and keep him here,” Jeff added.

“When he got a scholarship at BBC [Brisbane Boys College], when he left that day it really hurt us, really cracked us up. I went and hid in the car.

“When I settled down, I came back and said ‘this is for Ben’. He got a scholarship himself then he went from there.”

After the trip home, it’s back to business for Gunter.

While the flanker’s last 12 months have been massive, the next 18 could potentially be even bigger.

“I’m signed until after the World Cup [Japan 2019] with Panasonic, I’m not too sure what will happen after that,” Gunter said.

“The World Cup [in September] has come in to play and I qualify for Japan. There’s big talk around that.

“Me personally, I take things week to week but as a long term goal, it’d be awesome to play in a World Cup at the age of 21. There’s talk at the moment but talk’s just talk.”

While there’s talk about a possible World Cup berth, arguably the biggest talk about Gunter’s season was the tackle he made on Hiroto Kobayashi.

The brutal hit was shared all over social media with one post amassing close to two million views. Gunter said he was “in the right place at the right time” but that particular technique was something he’d honed since he was a youngster.

“That tackle technique, Pop used to get me out the front here with a bag full of wet sawdust and make me smash that until my shoulders went red,” Gunter said.