PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEAT
Gary Ablett locked in for flight to Perth as Suns shoot down travel myth
SUNS coach Rodney Eade says Gary Ablett’s return for tomorrow’s trip to Perth debunks the theory he hates travel, as the midfield maestro gets set to play out the season.
Ablett and Gold Coast cocaptain Steven May headline a list of inclusions that will leave four players on the 45-man list without a game by the end of the weekend.
The dual-Brownlow Medallist was a late withdrawal from Saturday’s loss to Richmond with a hamstring injury but passed his fitness test without a hitch yesterday.
Ablett played two games between Round 14 and 19 without any back-to-back.
Suns coach Rodney Eade said he was confident Ablett could play regular football again in the last four games and his selection for this week shut down talk Ablett didn’t want to travel.
“He was close last week,” Eade said. “He did some training and some work last week so he has obviously been able to back that up.
“He has had two weeks now of some good solid work on the track. He passed his test easily.
“Unless there is a new injury we are certainly confident he will be able to play the week after.
“Like any other back from injury the expectation is he will play every week.
“Going to Perth probably puts to bed that theory that he just wants to play at home and we come back for two games in Queensland after that.”
Eade said Ablett may never recapture the form that made him the game’s best in 2013 but was confident he could still produce the 2017 standards that have kept him in the race
for club best and fairest and even All-Australian selection.
“He is probably not going to play to that level,” Eade said.
“It’s very hard for anybody but you would think the form he has displayed this year, if he had a reasonable run with injuries you’d think he would be able to maintain what he has been able to do this year.
“He would be really high up in our best and fairest, there is a fair chance he can win that.
“I saw the other day people talking about All-Australia, he is in contention even though he missed a few games.
“His output, except for early in the season when he was criticised, has been very high.”
Eade said the club had not pressed Ablett, contracted until the end of next season, on his intentions beyond 2017 and whether he’d request another trade back to Geelong or retire.
“I don’t know what Gary wants to do,” Eade said.
“You certainly hear that Geelong aren’t going to make a push for him so they have made that fairly clear.
“We haven’t had any conversation, we don’t have any conversation with any player in that sort of situation.”
Ruckman Jarrod Witts (shoulder/foot), Callum Ah Chee (shoulder/concussion), Brayden Fiorini (hamstring), Ben Ainsworth (knee) and Michael Rischitelli (rested) will be missing from this weekend.
Josh Schoenfeld, Trent McKenzie, Mitch Hallahan and Dan Currie will be named alongside Ablett and May.