My gut feel is that he will hang the boots up, but I’d love to see him go around for us again.
I reckon it could depend on how we finish this year, he won’t stick around (or be wanted) for a rebuild but if we make the eight we will expect to go deep next year and he would be extremely valuable. One position you don’t have to worry about.
Based on the Port win I think we are looking at finals but the rest of the season will show if we are the real deal or not.
He is playing well enough, looks quick enough and is agile enough to go around next year.
Boak, next to Kelly, on Saturday night looked like an old man.
Still cannot believe Cats let him go.
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Similarly I wonder how many gun young players could’ve been absolute stars of the game if they were drafted by real clubs and not GC/GWS.
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Interesting little fact… He was drafted in 2001 by Geelong at pick 17 We picked shane harvey at pick 18.
Further more… Geelong picked steve Johnson at pick 24. still both playing, one in an elite side of high draftees at GWS. (pick 23 was from Carlton for Justin murphy)
Gary ablett Jnr was drafted at pick 40… still up there as one of the best around…
All three still playing… Geelong blitzed that draft… did not make a mistake.
(And bartel at pick 8)
Mean while at essington… Shane who? we managed to pick nearly every dud available. Andrew welsh the exception.
Point is… well there is none… we should have grabbed johnson at 18 well atleast now we finally got something from pick 18 in some kind of cosmic karmic way… lesson is… get your draft picks right.
You need to give credit to Bomber Thompson and the development Coaches at Geelong.
If it hadn’t been for Thompson (let’s say he got the sack prior to the premierships) The blokes Geelong took, might have turned out to be like many of the other players drafted that year. They may have done nothing more than carved ok careers. Johnson could have easily fallen by the waste side as a kid that had plenty of potential, but was more dedicated to drinking.
Ablett could have easily turned out to be nothing more than a lazy Half forward flankers who just lived on his Dad former glories.
When it comes to drafting, I don’t think anyone puts enough attention on the development programs for players reaching their potential, or in contrast destroying the players careers.
Our drafting was sh*t during that period, with insufficient resources supplied to the recruitment team.
But our development programs post-2000 was pathetic and couldn’t atleast turn a couple of those players into nothing more than just good-average AFL players.
Or maybe Shane Harvey was just ■■■■.
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Poor man’s Josh Green.
Hell, he was probably a poor man’s Corey Dell.
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05-07 were some of the weaker years I can remember. Port/Bris/Ess and the Gehrig/Harvey Saints had fallen away. Swans and Eagles pretty poor premiers, as far as oremiers go.
07 the Cats emerged, but nobody else. They set the bar, then hawks, Dogs and Saints followed from 08 on.
FWIW he’s highly regarded by every Cats fan I know. At the time we got him as a top up player most of them said he would be a great pick up for us.
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Could he possibly go around again?? Clearly his on-field leadership is unmatched in the back line, and there is the high possibility that we will loose a number of experienced players at years end.
(very much jumping the gun from this year, apologise in advance)
Captain Hindsight meets Captain Obvious.
With regard to Gary Ablett Jr. Its not the 2001 recruitment staff who should be criticised, it is the 1981 recruiting staff who didn’t recruit Gary Ablett Sn and have him play 100 games for the club.
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We’ll be off-loading a few at the end of this year, so Kelly should be offered a spot if he wants to go around again. If he wants to hang up the boots, we should offer him a development coaching role. He has a wealth of experience, spent the majority of his adult life immersed at one of the most successful and respected clubs of the modern era, and is an excellent club-man. Having him mentor McGrath, McKenna, Ridley, etc would be a massive win for the club.
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Would not even hesitate letting him go around again,
Champ.
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Against Port he often had no opponent when he stationed himself around CHB. Of all the defenders to leave unmanned.
Aside from fact he playing well it’s almost a must for us.
We have that huge gap in our list between older players to young (and not really ready to impact) players. That said we are going after JJ/Jones.
He is best 22 at present and will still would be next year.
Plays on IMO. And we will be high in finals mix so his experience invaluable.
[quote=“Fairybread, post:1193, topic:2993, full:true”]
Captain Hindsight meets Captain Obvious.[/quote]
I never implied that it was some grand discovery, its a retrospective look at the 2001 draft.
It only came up because shane Harvey was mentioned in another thread… we got him at 18 and dumped him a year later. yet here we have Geelongs pick 17 from the same year still playing and going well with us… then further looked deeper into geelongs selections in 2001 and you can see 3 are all still playing, and doing well… not one of our picks is playing… welsh left years ago.
With regard to Gary Ablett Jr. Its not the 2001 recruitment staff who should be criticised, it is the 1981 recruiting staff who didn’t recruit Gary Ablett Sn and have him play 100 games for the club.
Well he didnt turn up to training at hawthorn… no reason to think he would be any diffrent at other clubs.
Geelong was slightly better, and they turned a blind eye to it becasue of his talent.
If anything it was good recruiting not to get him because he is not a team player. THink Cupido.
yeah screw Gazza. thank God we didn’t pick up God.
#sarcasticafonta
we’ve had enough problems with injections over the last 4 years… probably a good thing we didn’t have a heroin addict on our list.
Yep, Ablett Senior and Cupido are very comparable…
They both have… legs?