Kiss him goodbye: An emotional fan plants one on the bald head of Cats champion Gary Ablett after the 2009 premiership. Picture: Tommy Ritchie 54112
Erin Pearson
A BLUE week has settled on Geelong Football Club with champion player Gary Ablett announcing his defection to Gold Coast Suns and doubts over the future of coach Mark Thompson.
Wednesday’s announcement ended months of speculation over Ablett’s playing future after another blow the day before when two-time premiership coach Thompson told the club he was suffering “burn out”.
Geelong chief executive officer Brian Cook acknowledged next year would “present a challenge”.
“We want Mark to stay, Gary’s gone – he’s now the opposition,” Cook said.
“Sure, we have a few issues at the moment but we’ll get through them.
“We’re still a very strong club.”
Cook said the club knew the introduction of the Suns and Western Sydney into the AFL competition would “entice” Geelong players to greener pastures.
“We should see this as a compliment,” he said.
Cook admitted Ablett’s announcement in Melbourne that he would leave the Cats was an emotional moment.
“It did tug at my heart strings a bit.”
Ablett said the Gold Coast’s salary offer of around $9.5 million over five years was attractive but reinventing himself as part of a new football team was “far more exciting”.
“There’s been a lot of speculation around my future and everyone has had an opinion on what I should and shouldn’t do,” he said.
“After three grand finals and two premierships I’m honoured to have achieved some amazing things with [Geelong].
“The decision I’ve made had been incredibly difficult to make. It’s time for a fresh, new challenge.”
Geelong fans left comments on the Independent’s Facebook page pledging their support.
“From what I’ve heard his family is up there, so I can understand why he would want to leave,” Emily Downling said.
“However, his other family, the Geelong supporters, are here and will miss him greatly”.
Tutran Duong said Albett’s decision “saddens me but it was inevitable”.
“Instead of booing, we should be proud of his achievements”.
The Cats will receive two first-round draft picks as compensation.
Cook on Tuesday rejected reports Thompson would leave the Cats to join new Bombers coach James Hird at Essendon.
The Cats had offered Thompson three months leave, Cook said.
“The issue isn’t (whether) he goes to Essendon, the issues is (whether) he wants to continue coaching at all.
The Cats also said goodbye to Frank Costa as president this week.
Ablett played 192 games and won two premierships and a Brownlow medal with the Cats.
