Gary Ablett, Sr.

Who is Gary Ablett, Sr.?

Gary Robert Ablett, Sr. is a retired professional Australian rules football player who played the majority of his career with the Geelong Football Club. Ablett was best known as a prolific goalkicker and spectacular marker of the ball, and his biography on the Australian Football League website states, "He has left a legacy wherein Gary Ablett is one of the greatest players to have played the game".

After making several country league representative teams, Ablett was recruited by the Hawthorn Football Club from Drouin and made his professional senior debut in the 1982 season. However, he failed to settle down in the city and retreated to Myrtleford the following year. The Geelong Football Club managed to lure him back to the Victorian Football League in 1984, where he eventually settled down to become one of the league's biggest stars during the late '80s and early '90s. Ablett helped Geelong to a Grand Final appearance in 1989, where he kicked a Grand Final-record nine goals in a losing team. Ablett shocked everyone by abruptly announcing his retirement from football at the beginning of the 1991 season, but made a comeback midway through the year.