Gary Ablett of the Gold Coast Suns addresses the media during a press conference at Crown Casino in Melbourne. Slattery Images
Every year around this time, the country is refreshed, not so much by the weather, but in that as the cricket season slowly, ever so slowly, comes to a close and the nights become cooler, footy boot sales rocket and office football related gossip flourishes.
This marks the period in which the summer sun sets. And this year, a new Sun will rise.
Yes, although the Gold Coast Suns will not rise to a premiership in 2011, the AFL have proven that they have certainly risen to the challenge of maintaining the countries number one code mantel by invading two of the NRL’s biggest hubs in the Gold Coast and Western Sydney.
This season is one of anticipation, as it is every year, but with the inclusion of the Gold Coast-based club, it brings a myriad of unanswered questions.
Most of these questions relate to, either, the team’s performance in the eagerly awaited round two, which is when the club will make their debut on the big stage due to a bye in round one, or the clubs’ leader and the star of the AFL, Gary Ablett.
We’ve already had more than a sneak peek at what we should expect from the Suns through the VFL last year and the NAB Cup/Challenge this year. The results such as the one against Sydney earlier this week, in which Adam Goodes starred, reinforced our low expectations of the club in 2011.
I will again remind you that the Gold Coast will have close to zero effect on the premiership this year.
However, I’m sure we are all interested to see who will be named in their starting squad and how they will fair against Carlton, a club approaching it’s 150th anniversary in the game.
Now to the question looming over every footy fan in the country: can Gary Ablett maintain or improve his game as the captain of the Gold Coast Suns?
Over the past few years, it has been Gary, and then the rest. He’s been in a class of his own.
He is the only player in the history of the MVP award to have won it three times. His peers, all the players of the AFL, in fact, vote for this award.
He has actually won this award for three consecutive years and arguably is on track for many more MVP and Brownlows.
However, this is the question: can the ‘Little Genius’ maintain or improve his game now that he has left the club that made him and now that he endures the responsibility of the captaincy of an extremely inexperienced group of players.
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