Nathan Ablett to make Suns' AFL debut - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Nathan Ablett to make Suns' AFL debut

Sam Lienert 18/08/2011 04:51:38 PM Comments (0)

Nathan Ablett will play his first AFL game since being part of Geelong's 2007 premiership in Gold Coast's home clash with Adelaide on Saturday.

The 25-year-old younger brother of Suns captain Gary Ablett walked out on football at age 21, citing a lack of motivation.

He had played just 32 senior games with the Cats, ending with three goals in their record 2007 grand final victory over Port Adelaide.

He has battled in the Suns' reserves team since joining the club at VFL level last season in an attempt to reignite his AFL career, before finally earning his call-up.

His Suns debut means Nathan and Gary will achieve the extremely rare feat of brothers playing alongside each other at two different AFL clubs.

Remarkably, the pair's uncles, Geoff and Kevin Ablett, brothers of Gary and Nathan's father Gary Sr, also completed the same double.

Geoff and Kevin lined up together at Hawthorn during the late 1970s and also played several games together at Richmond in 1984.

Nathan Ablett said he was hoping his AFL experience would count for something, given the youth of most of Gold Coast's squad.

"I'll start down forward, it's going to be quite a young sort of forward line, so hopefully with my experience, I can do a bit of leadership stuff down there," he told the Suns' website.

"But (I'll be in the) forward line and hopefully to kick a few goals would be nice."

Suns superstar Gary Ablett joked he would be doing everything in his power to ensure his brother started his Suns career with a bag of goals.

"I've told all the other forwards, if they're free don't bother leading, (even) if he's six on one, I'm definitely kicking it to him," he said.

"Watch out, I'll probably have 10 goal assists and he'll probably kick 10 goals."

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