Gary Ablett wants to bring a premiership to the Gold Coast Suns and has no intention of leaving the club after his current contract runs out.
Ablett is preparing to suit up for his 250th AFL game when the Suns take on the lowly Melbourne Demons at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night and cannot envision himself leaving the club to return to Geelong or any other side.
“I’ve got another two years after this on my contract and hopefully the club will extend from there,” Ablett said on Tuesday.
“I really want to win a premiership up here, that’s a big part of the reason why I came up here,” he said.
“It’d be great to hold up that premiership cup one day and hopefully we can do that before my time’s up.”
The Suns are poised for what should amount to a decade of success thanks to the development of their young core.
The likes of Jaeger O’Meara, Harley Bennell, Charlie Dixon, Trent McKenzie, Rory Thompson, David Swallow, Tom Lynch, Dion Prestia and Sam Day all look set to carry the club into a successful transition period once the 29-year-old Ablett begins to slow down.
Ablett remains the AFL’s top player and has showed no signs of old age, but said taking on a lesser role is something he will embrace happily.
“I’ve always said as soon as one of these younger boys is ready to step into the captaincy role I’ll be happy to step down, if it’s better for the team and for us to move forward,” he said.
“I don’t want it to be something where I hold on to the captaincy when one of these younger boys are ready to take it over.”
Gold Coast’s noticeable improvement in 2013 means Ablett should once again compete for a second Brownlow Medal honour.
“Every pre-season I go into I try to work on areas of my game,” he said.
“There’s no doubt over the next couple of years I’m going to have to push down forward a little bit more. I am looking forward to that.
“In the next pre-season I’ll work on areas of my game as a forward line player and I’m sure as the years go by my percentage of time in the midfield will go down.”
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