NEW GAZ HOPES
THE path has now been smoothed for Gary Ablett’s return to Geelong.
Rodney Eade’s sacking was predictable and smacked of a club realising he was a scapegoat but needing a fresh start anyway.
If Mark Evans’s review has been thorough it will point to the fact Gold Coast’s failings are mostly about the cult of the individual. The coach as saviour. Individual brilliance winning games over cohesive game plans and team defence.
And an unhealthy reliance on Gary Ablett that has become distracting and regularly caused resentment among those who played or worked with him.
Now is the time for the Suns to make a clean break from Ablett — and the circus that surrounds him — and let him return to his former club.
A club that right now is realising that if it is to win another premiership with its stars at their peak it might need Ablett as much as it ever did.
If Eade had won a single-year extension he would have fought tooth and nail to retain Ablett because at his best he is still a regular matchwinner. But the new coach — say it is Jon Barker — will know he has to make the best use possible of his honeymoon period.
It will likely only be a year before the rampant expectation to play finals descends upon him as it did Eade.
Does he want to use that period dealing with the Ablett sideshow?
Then realise he is going to have to significantly rejig that onball unit when Ablett retires or goes home at the end of his contract next year.
Or does he tell his list management group to agree to Ablett’s request, play hard ball and get the best possible replacement for him.
Gary Ablett’s recruitment at the Suns all those years ago was a masterstroke — you can only get the best player in the league as your marquee star.
But making him captain and then keeping him in that position for six years was in hindsight a disaster.
“Rocket”, who could write a book on his dealings with Ablett, will instead toe the party line in coming months and talk only of Ablett’s “quirks”.
Yet consider the drama that has surrounded Ablett again in just one year, even if much of it is media-generated.
First Ablett was forced into a round of November media interviews admitting he wanted out, then after a pre-season nursing his shoulder he was brilliant in Round 1.
Then he stunk it up in Round 2 before widespread and overblown condemnation and a tell-all paid interview where he repeated his threat to retire if not traded.
Then he pulled up sore leading into the China game but didn’t return to rehab it early, which cued more headlines about his dedication.
Then he began missing away games, which led to Matthew Lloyd and others wondering if he was preserving himself for his return home.
When the Ablett trade didn’t go through last year one Geelong official admitted to a Gold Coast official on draft day the Cats had dodged a bullet.
In other words, they know all of the distractions and dramas and controversies that come with having Ablett on the list.
Brian Cook said on Friday Ablett was “not a priority” and Chris Scott says it is unlikely he will get there.
Yet the next few weeks without Joel Selwood might lay bare that they just don’t have enough A-grade talent to win another premiership.
Joel Selwood is 29, Harry Taylor 31, Tom Hawkins 29 and Patrick Dangerfield, Lachie Henderson, Scott Selwood and Zach Tuohy all 27.