I WANT TO COME HOME
Suns block Ablett bid to move home to Cats
GARY Ablett sensationally requested a move back to Geelong before Gold Coast swiftly stepped in to avoid another high-profile exit during the trade period.
The Cats last night said Ablett had instigated talks to see if there was anyway he could move back to Geelong.
GARY Ablett sensationally requested a move back to Geelong before Gold Coast swiftly stepped in to avoid another high-profile exit during a stunning trade period.
Contracted for two more years on a lucrative deal, coupled with Geelong’s lack of trading options, Ablett’s desire to return home was always going to hit major roadblocks.
The Cats last night said Ablett, 32, had instigated talks to see if there was anyway he could move back to Geelong, where he played 192 games between 2002-2010.
Geelong football manager Steve Hocking last night said the Suns instantly rejected the prospect of Ablett leaving the club.
Ablett was keen to return to Geelong to be closer with his family, despite having $2 million and two years still remaining on his current contract.
He would have needed to have taken a significant pay cut to fit into the Cats’ bursting salary cap, and the two clubs would have needed to have agreed to a suitable trade.
“Gold Coast was very clear on the fact he was their player and will continue to be their player,” Hocking told News Corp.
“He had just signed a threeyear deal earlier in the year.
“They were very clear on that and shut it down very quickly to Gary. We respected their opinion right from the word go.
“It was him looking to come back to the club and it was all to do with him and the Gold Coast. It didn’t drag on too long, it was shut down by the Gold Coast.”
Had Ablett left, it would have been a further blow to a Suns side reeling from the exits of young stars Jaeger O’Meara and Dion Prestia to Melbourne clubs.
Rumours of Ablett’s desire to return home were rampant during the trade period but while the assertion was never denied, no official was prepared to comment on what would have trumped all others as the biggest trade of the twoweek movement window.
The two-time Brownlow medallist has been restricted to just 35 games in the past three seasons at Gold Coast as a result of knee and shoulder injuries.
THE romantic notion that Gary Ablett could finish his career at Geelong suddenly has a pulse that is beating louder than ever.
Ablett wants to come back to where it all started. But it is seemingly a case of whether Gold Coast will let him go next year, after refusing to do so this year.
The Cats would do their best to play their part in completing the fairytale, but the issue is the collateral damage it would have on Gold Coast, a club reeling from the departures of two of its best young products in Dion Prestia and Jaeger O’Meara.
The Suns need champions to commit to the club, not the opposite, and it is part of the reason why the Ablett move to Geelong was blocked by the Suns earlier this month.
So delicate was the situation during the trade period, when the Geelong Advertiser contacted the Cats, Ablett’s management and Gold Coast to discuss the topic, no one was prepared to talk. Everyone was as evasive as Ablett in full flight.
When the Cats heard about the star’s interest in returning home, how could they not become excited about the potential of adding him to a side cherry-ripe for another premiership crack? Selwood, Dangerfield, Ablett: what an A-list cast.
It appears the dream was driven by Ablett, not Geelong.
But the magnitude of the move and all the logistics around trades, salary cap, contracts and Ablett’s age means it remains a challenge to get done next year, but it will undoubtedly form a compelling backdrop to the 2017 trade period.
The only benefit for the Suns would be an Ablett move would free up considerable salary cap space for them to target almost anyone they wanted in the competition, in much the same, audacious way they lured Ablett in the first place.
They have got more than they could have expected from Ablett, but it is not working out and Ablett, rightfully, knows time is ticking on his career.
When he signed in 2010, he would hardly have thought the Suns would still be 15th on the ladder six years later, all while his former club continued to rack up finals appearances and remain in premiership contention.
Ablett would have to take a considerable pay cut to come to Geelong. Firstly to fit into the salary cap, secondly because of his age (he will be 33 at the start of 2018) and thirdly because, in the brutal reality of football mortality, there is no guarantee exactly how much footy he will be able to play — and at what level — given his recent injury troubles. But here is where it could work. The Cats’ cap should have some flexibility for season 2018 given Josh Caddy has moved to Richmond, coupled with the possible retirements of Tom Lonergan and Andrew Mackie after next season.
Geelong would still need to orchestrate a trade to get the deal done.
It could be an amicable one-sided deal like the ones that sent Sam Mitchell to West Coast and Steve Johnson to Greater Western Sydney — a token pick just to get the transaction done.
Or, the Suns could play hardball, as is their right, on a contracted player, a marquee one at that, who until only recently was seen as the best player in the competition.
Ablett still has two years to run on his current, lucrative contract at the Suns. The Cats have always left the door open to a potential move back home for Ablett. Publicly they have acknowledged the romanticism of it but kept expectations firmly in check.
The benefit is twofold for Geelong. On the field his impact is obvious, but off-field the Cats’ marketing team would run into overdrive with the money-spinning potential of having another Ablett back at the club.
If this year’s trade period has taught us anything, it is to expect the unexpected. And to think this Ablett circus was playing out behind closed doors. Nothing, seemingly, is off limits, not even an Ablett return to Geelong.