Gary Ablett Sr. is a former professional Australian rules footballer. He played for Hawthorn and Geelong in the Australian Football League. Ablett is widely regarded as one of Australian football’s greatest players. He is Geelong’s all-time leading goalkicker, with 1021 goals. He has been inducted into the Australian football Hall of Fame.
About Gary Ablett Sr. in brief
Gary Ablett Sr. is a former professional Australian rules footballer. He played for Hawthorn and Geelong in the Australian Football League. Ablett is widely regarded as one of Australian football’s greatest players. He was especially renowned for his high-flying spectacular marks and his prolific goalkicking. He is Geelong’s all-time leading goalkicker, with 1021 goals; and, in 2006, was voted by past and present Geelong Football Club players as the greatest Geelong footballer of all time. He has been inducted into the Australian football Hall of Fame, an AFL Team of the Century selection, the 1993 AFL Players Association MVP award, and three Coleman Medals. He also played for Victoria in the State of Origin game for Victoria against South Australia. He retired from AFL football at the end of the 1996 season, but made a comeback midway through the 1991 season. He won the Norm Smith Medal for his performance in the 1989 VFL Grand Final, during which he kicked a grand final record nine goals for a losing side. His father, Alfred Ablett, also played in the VFL and was a member of the Melbourne Football Club’s premiership-winning side in the 1970s and 1980s. His mother, Colleen, is from Gippsland, Victoria, and he has four elder brothers and three sisters. He grew up in the country town of Drouin, Victoria. He dropped out of high school at 15 to become a bricklayer’s labourer.
He made his senior VFL debut in 1982 and played for the Hawthorn Football Club. In 1983, he moved with his young family to Myrtleford. He spent the year playing under the tutelage of his cousin Len Ablett in the Ovens and Murray Football League, before returning to Hawthorn in 1984. In 1984, Ablett signed a one-year contract for the 1984 season with Geelong. After just nine games on the wing, he was selected to his first State of Queensland game. He kicked 15 goals and earned best-on-ground honours after kicking 8 goals from the half-forward flank. In 1987, he signed a new contract with the club and played 33 games and earned three placings in his first year. He then retired at the conclusion of the 1987 season. Although Ablett had developed a reputation for his laconic attitude to training, under coach John Devine, he did not prevent him from earning three best and fairest awards from 1985 to 1987. In 1988, he played 82 and 65 goals with the Geelong club. In 1989, he made his final appearance for the club, kicking 65 goals in the final round of the season. In 1991, he announced his retirement from the game, but returned to play in the 1992, 1994, and 1995 grand finals, before officially retiring after the 1996season. In 1998, he returned to the club to play a further five games for Geelong, kicking 10 goals in a total of six games and ten goals.
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