SHARK SIGHTING:
SOUTHPORT TO ENTER REVAMPED VFL
GEELONG captain Joel Selwood says football may never see Gary Ablett’s ilk again as the Cats pick up the pieces of another finals heartbreak.
Selwood described the season as a “step forward” after Geelong broke its preliminary final hoodoo to reach its first grand final in nine years.
“He’s had a hell of a career. I was a Geelong supporter growing up, so I wasn’t only his teammate but I was a fan of what he was able to do for a long period of time,” Selwood said of Ablett.
“He’s given this game more than anyone over a 20-year period ... We’re going to miss him, I reckon, because there might not be another one like him.”
Teammate Patrick Dangerfield called Ablett a “champion of the game”.
He said it was no surprise to see him return to the field after aggravating his troublesome shoulder early in the game.
“He is incredibly strongwilled, mentally tough, whatever adjectives you would like to use to describe someone who is incredibly resilient,” Dangerfield said.
“He’s a pleasure to play with, awful to play against and I count myself lucky, as we all do, that I’ve been able to experience him.”
The Cats were again unable to keep pace with a rampaging Tigers outfit that caused similar damage in last year’s preliminary final match-up.
“We knew they were going to get the momentum at some stage,” Selwood said.
“I can’t really remember what missed shots we had … we’ve kicked 7.8, so maybe we missed a couple that we could have (kicked).”
Selwood said the Cats stuck with standard process and did not speak in the rooms after the match. It is an approach Chris Scott has long instituted to ensure the emotion of the moment doesn’t cloud the message to the team.
The Cats spent Saturday night as a team in their Southport hub.
“We’ll do that (chat) at some stage,” Selwood said.
“But we’re not a side that usually speaks on emotion and we’ve made that noted many times.”
Selwood praised the club’s “outstanding effort” to reach a grand final after more than 100 days on the road across three states – NSW , Western Australia and Queensland.
“I can’t speak highly enough of how the boys and staff have been during the period,” he said.