Gary Ablett Jr has been inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, and he had plenty of praise for his father.
The 42-year-old was more than worthy of his place among the immortals of the sport having amassed 357 games, two Brownlow Medals, eight All-Australian team selections and 2007 Australian Football Media Association Player of the Year.
Many believed that when he began playing that Gaz had an impossible legacy to try and live up to.
And yet by the end of his career he had absolutely done so and even more, with many suggesting he had surpassed his father’s career.
But that hasn’t stopped Ablett Jr from heaping praise on his father and the impact he had on his footy career.
Unfortunately, his father couldn’t be there to share in the magic moment, but Jr said, ‘Dad, who can’t be here tonight, but I’m sure he’s watching on TV – I can still remember being a kid, watching you play football and thinking: ‘When I grow up, I want to be just like you.’
Gary Ablett Jr was full of praise for his father as he accepted his induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame
His father wasn’t in attendance at the ceremony but Ablett Jr made sure that everyone knew how he felt about him
‘I feel very blessed to have been able to hang around the football club with Nathan, watch you train, and play the game you love.
‘To see how you went about your career, the competitor you are – which, clearly, age hasn’t hindered … I’m grateful for how you’ve never pressured me into football, encouraging me to give everything a go and for always telling me you’ll always love me for who I am, not for what I do.
‘Those words meant a lot to me, and I now speak them over my own children. Thanks for being the Dad you’ve always been; I love you.’
Despite declaring his love and adulation for his dad, Ablett Jr still had time to poke fun at achieving a certain individual honour that even ‘God’ could not reach.
‘Every now and then we’ll reflect back on our careers and everything we were able to achieve,’ Ablett said.
‘I know we get compared a lot. I think we were very different players and I don’t like to compare players.
‘Each player brings something to the game that maybe another player doesn’t and Dad could do things that I couldn’t, and I got to win a Brownlow, which he didn’t.’
Ablett, who retired in 2020 and became eligible for Hall of Fame induction this year, joined Geelong in 2001 as a father-son selection under huge pressure, given Gary Ablett Sr’s revered status at Kardinia Park.
But the son of ‘God’ lived up to his name in two stints with the Cats, either side of seven seasons with Gold Coast as the expansion club’s marquee signing.
‘The son of a champion, bore the same name, expectations quite rightly could be felt to be through the roof – but Gaz seemed quite disaffected by that,’ Ablett’s Cats premiership teammate Tom Harley said in a video tribute.
‘There’s the romance of the Ablett name and the Ablett family, but he carved his own identity very quickly.’
