- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
This week’s Gold Coast Suns captain Gary Ablett has joined his teammates in full training for the first time after a club-approved extension of his honeymoon with wife Jordan.
Prior to arrival, Ablett send a message to the players that he was 100 per cent committed to the Suns after his former teammate, Campbell Brown, threw him under a bus by tweeting that current Gold Coast players were “filthy” that the Brownlow Medallist was not back in training. Bit harsh Brownie.
It would be a better man than I who races back from a week on the nest for a two-kilometre time trial in searing heat.
Maybe the message should have read “fairly committed given I couldn’t get out.” But I guess that doesn’t have quite the same ring of enthusiasm.
And as reported last month, Ablett requested a move back to Geelong during the trade period, citing family reasons.
It was also reported that Jordan was unhappy living on the Gold Coast, which to me also falls under the heading of family reasons.
I don’t know the circumstances, but an unhappy wife rates right up there with any known medical condition. And call me cynical, but if she’d prefer Geelong weather over the Gold Coast, unhappy might be a gross understatement.
A million bucks a year is good coin, but it will buy you three times as much in Geelong as the Gold Coast. Maybe a complete industrial estate, but I’m no property expert.
So, despite requesting to play with another team in another state, and still playing with a team who knows he wanted out, and still living with Mrs A who clearly doesn’t want to be there, the Suns would have us believe all is going spiffingly.
Clearly the bonds here are strong. And the Geelong salary cap stretched.
Although not strong enough to keep Jaeger O’Meara. Or Dion Prestia who was prepared to go to Richmond to get out. I mean who goes to Richmond by choice? Unless you’re lost or trying to avoid an RBT station.
Still, maybe he’s just one of those guys who was looking for the stability a united board can bring. Or knowing Damian Hardwick would be coaching for the next ten years. Or simply doesn’t want to work in September, we’re all different.
Anyway, all at the Suns are apparently now right behind Gazza, although the talk is that he may relinquish the captaincy. Some teams may use the word sacked, or asked to step down, but let’s not get bogged down in semantics.
This would at least free him up from constantly trying to explain to the fans and media why the team has been so spectacularly unsuccessful given the buckets of money and plethora of draft picks it had thrown its way to create a second successful franchise team in Queensland.
It would also give him more time to pursue property investments in southern Victoria. A win-win I say.
So, all’s good now in the sunshine state. And with the Gold Coast having picked up four quality players in the first ten draft picks, clearly the future’s so bright we’ll have to wear shades. Or at least slightly tinted glasses and a sun hat.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.