Gary Ablett Achieves Recognition At Last

Perhaps the greatest player to grace an Australian Rules Football field, Gary Ablett Snr, has been inducted into the Football Hall of Fame.

Three times he kicked 10 or more goals in a game in one season, in a losing team. That had to be 1993. The only game of AFL that I have seen at the MCG was on a day in 1993. Geelong were playing my team Essendon. With Ablett in Geelong's side you couldn't be sure about winning. I had a seat in the new Great Southern Stand among 44000 others.

Ablett kicked 7 goals and 6 behinds by half-time. By the end of the game he had kicked 14 goals and 7 behinds in an absolutely awesome display. It didn't matter if Essendon played three or four players on Ablett, he would still mark the ball and then kick the goal. Astoundingly we still won the match by 24 points with Paul Salmon kicking 10.6.

I will never forget watching that man play. It was absolutely incredible and I've never seen anyone else with his ability play the game. It is so unfortunate that he was involved with drugs and a young girl who died from a drug overdose in his company. That has held up his induction into the Hall of Fame. But I'm glad to see him there now.