ABLETT TREASURES LATEST SUNS ACCOLADE
Inaugural Gold Coast AFL captain Gary Ablett reflects on his time with the club as the Suns prepare to present him with life membership
EVEN as Karmichael Hunt’s teammates mobbed the incredulous former rugby star, Gary Ablett showed his perfect powers of timing and evasiveness.
Hunt had slotted the goal that ripped out Richmond’s heart in Round 16, 2012 and the Suns were all of a sudden a bona fide football team.
Code-jumper Hunt had kicked the goal with Ablett’s calm advice and his teammates were coming from everywhere to launch themselves on to a heaving pack.
A decade later, as Ablett prepares to receive life membership at the Gold Coast at this afternoon’s game, it is another moment he will treasure from his seven-year tenure at the Suns.
Yet even as he reminisces about that moment, he remembers why he wasn’t the first player in to mob Hunt.
“No way. I learned that in my younger years not to go in first. Because then you always end up on the bottom,” he says with a laugh.
“It was a pretty big win. Richmond were starting to play consistent footy and I have told a few people this story and I will stick with it. Karmichael took the mark and I said to him if you want to fake an injury you are more than welcome, but he backed himself in to kick it. He was a really good kick from that distance and I told him to go back and go with his routine and he went back and kicked the goal.”
Mark it down as another life lesson for Ablett, who took a leap of faith to join the expansion Suns as their inaugural captain. The Geelong megastar had won two premierships but believed he could add a leadership component to his football resume.
He does not sugar-coat the challenges of an expansion club with below-par facilities that built from the ground up with so many staffers not from an elite AFL background.
But Ablett says it helped make him the resilient person he has become.
“I am always very honest about this, that they put a very good offer on the table. But it wasn’t just about the opportunity to set my family up, it was about the opportunity to play with (brother) Nathan again, he was up here at the time. And to work with Ken Hinkley who was an assistant coach. I had been offered the captaincy and the chance to work with those young guys was really appealing to me. I knew there would be temptations for them to come to the Gold Coast but I wanted to set a good example for them and none of us is perfect. At times some of the guys made a few silly decisions but even though I walked away not having success on the field, I truly believe the club was in a better place.”
The club’s what-might-have-been moment is easy to identify.
The Suns started the 2014 season 8-2 and yet in the space of one afternoon in Round 16 Ablett’s shoulder was ruined in a tackle as Trent McKenzie, Charlie Dixon and Sean Lemmons all went down with injury.
The Suns held on to beat Collingwood but lost six of the next seven games to miss finals as Mckenna later said of that clash: “it cost me my coaching career”.
Yet if that injury cost Ablett his third Brownlow it allowed him to broaden his perspective on life.
“People talk about that year and my injury but we also had other key players who went down. For me on a personal level it was the first time I went through a long-term injury and reflecting on it now you don’t wish to have a long-term injury but it was a time of growth. It was a time where things changed. I couldn’t be on the training track and I had to find different ways to lead and have an influence on people. It was more around identity. Understanding Gary Ablett the footballer doesn’t last forever. So I needed to get a better balance.
“I started a life group at the time to create an environment where the boys felt comfortable to come along and share their struggles, I started a couple of businesses and launched a charity, Active Faith, that I am really passionate about.”
On Saturday, Ablett says he is leaning towards supporting the Suns over Geelong but he had high hopes for Chris Scott’s side.
“They are back playing some really great footy. I caught up with Joel Selwood in the pre-season and he said they were making a few changes. I love the way they are taking the game on forward of centre. They have such great forwards there so you back them in to get it in as quickly as possible. This is definitely their year. It’s a great opportunity for them and it’s all about peaking at the right time with a healthy list but they are my pick.”