Nathan Ablett in training at Werribee. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo
NATHAN Ablett is back in Geelong, ready to give football another shot for the third time. And as the words of his favourite scripture in the book of Jeremiah reveals, there is a plan, and it is already unfolding.
"My reasons for playing football back then were different to now," the 26-year-old said. "I tend to feel a lot better knowing there is more to life than to just accumulating and performing. It's about just enjoying life and making the most out of what has been given to you."
The adage life isn't meant to be easy is as old as a pair of musty football boots or a Collingwood supporter's duffle coat, but Ablett now knows it is more than just a cliche.
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He joined VFL club Werribee last week, hoping it will help earn him another chance in the AFL.
The reluctant forward — the son of Geelong champion Gary Ablett and younger brother of dual Cats premiership player turned Gold Coast captain Gary junior — has already had two cracks at the big league, but as he admitted to The Sunday Age, "I haven't really given it a fair dinkum go".
"Looking back on my football days it was about taking easy options, and of course if you are always taking easy options you are not going get very far in life because as we know it, it is overcoming those times, which are tough, that make us who we are.
"I believe I still have something to offer. I have still got skills and talent in the game of footy, and I don't want to look back years from now and sort of think that I wasted that and I could have done this or that."
At 21 he quit football, walking from Geelong after helping break the Cats' 44-year premiership drought in 2007. He again surprised when he re-donned a Cats jersey, except this time at Broadbeach in the Queensland state league, before making a return to the AFL last year with the Suns. But all didn't go to plan — that is if there was a plan back then.
The Suns delisted him at the end of the season after he was edged out of the side, having injured his groin, played just two senior games and kicked one goal for the year.
Former Geelong team-mate Cameron Mooney labelled him the biggest waste of talent he had seen.
Ablett said that looking back, he he hadn't realised his full potential while playing at Geelong, where he was drafted under the father-son rule in 2005.
"It was there and I just took it," he said. "I think I was doing nothing else at the time, I suppose I had a bit of a passion to play football, it was very tempting in terms of money and lifestyle. But as I went along I suppose I really just took it for granted the position I was in."
He said he didn't even rate himself as much as a footballer when he first walked into Kardinia Park, saying he was slow and only got his break in the seniors because other players were injured.
"I was quite a shy sort of a guy, and I really didn't know what I wanted in my life at that stage. I still remember walking into the club on my first day, and [brother] Gaz was taking me around the locker rooms and introducing me to all the boys and shaking hands and stuff, and I don't think I even look at any of the players in the eye. I was looking at the ground the whole time.”
Yet when he got his chance in the seniors something clicked, he said the ball bounced his way and soon he became a solid performer for the team.
By the end of the year, while watching Sydney and West Coast contest the grand final, like every footballer, he dreamed of a premiership medallion around his neck, thinking “wow, how great would it be to play in front of a massive crowd like that, and it would be even better to be up on stage as a team holding the cup”.
Little did he know that two years later he would taste that ultimate success, but it would come at a cost. He booted three goals in the 119-point thumping of Port Adelaide to seal the flag, but as the euphoria faded and the 2008 preseason started he felt tired, sore, and needing to escape Geelong, and the game.
"For me football was everything. If played a good game, I felt good about myself, If I played a bad game, I felt pretty bad about myself.
"It drained me because it was just footy, footy, footy, all the time. When I was outside the footy, I was always still thinking about it and I think it just became too much, and I suppose I gave in."
Ablett moved almost as far away as he could, to the Gold Coast, mainly because he loved the warm weather and lifestyle.
"I think it was a lot of things. Obviously one, there was pressure being in a town where footy is pretty big. I obviously had money at the time and with little injuries and stuff like that, I chose the easy option to leave football and do my own thing.
"I thought the right thing for me to do at that time was to continue on and push through with football, which was quite disappointing because at the time I thought I had a lot to offer, not just to the game, but to people, and to make a career out of it. But I shied away from going through the tough times"
Nevertheless, the game found him again, first at a local level, then state, before chancing the big time again.
"When I was up there I was staying with a couple of mates, and I thought I could still do all right playing footy. I started off playing locally and played in the seconds for the Gold Coast and then built my way into the seniors. Looking back, I don't have any big regrets."
Although he said it was difficult watching his old club extend its 2007 success to the 2009 and 2011 premierships, it was also satisfying because he knew how hard his team-mates worked, and how much the wanted to win the flag. “It's what they deserve.” And Ablett considered himself fortunate to be able to have another chance in the AFL with the Suns, and play with his brother again.
"I was rapt when I heard [Gary] was coming up to the Gold Coast. I was over the moon about it. Obviously to be living with Gaz again and hanging out and doing stuff together was something that I had missed being away from Geelong."
His brother had helped ease him into the big league from day one with the Cats.
"I think in that first year I probably hung around him, pretty much the whole time. If he was in one group, I'd sort of sneak into that group and train with him. He was very supportive through the whole time I was Geelong. It was great to have a brother, it was great to play alongside a brother and we could obviously talk about stuff between each other, it was great."
But despite having a sibling to confide in, Ablett wishes he had opened up to other people, so he could have "pushed through" with his AFL career, and said it is important for young players to communicate with one another and share their experiences.
“I sort of found it difficult at those times because I never really shared with what I was going through with others.
“I think being an Ablett in Geelong has a little bit to do with that because you don't share things with a lot of people because you get worried that they want to know things because they want to get the gossip. But it's a massive help in life if you can learn to communicate properly and share things with people.”
And this is where Ablett believes he has changed and what will give him the best chance of making an AFL comeback.
He said he had been grateful to football for the lessons the sport had given him, but he has also learnt to combine his faith, sport, and general enjoyment of life.
"The big thing for me is that the more I understand about Jesus and what he has done, the more I understand about life and what it's really about.
"My reasons for playing the game were pretty much all about me. It was about how fit I could get, how many marks I could take, how many goals I could kick, how well I do, you know, is my six pack showing and stuff like that. But seriously, I didn't think too much about how fortunate I was and the opportunities I had to influence other people's lives.
He said his sport/life balance was becoming more even and for the first time has has combined football and study.
Ablett moved back to Geelong two months ago, not only to be close to family and friends again, but also to study personal training at the Victorian Fitness Academy, and he is set to become qualified next month.
"Looking back at Geelong I wish I had done some study. It's going really well and it's something I can see myself doing because I have a passion for the fitness industry. Hopefully I'll finish that quite soon and get out there, and get some clients."
Although he has unfinished business in the AFL, Ablett said his main priority was focusing and enjoying the year ahead with Werribee, and he said his Gold Coast delisting, although he wishes he was still playing for the Suns, might have been a "blessing in disguise".
"I wish I got more games and there a couple of things I could have done differently. But I think it has probably worked out in my favour in a way, because I get to play a year in a lower league and find out if AFL is for me or not.
"I over-emphasise footy and it still even wears me out to this day. I think a big thing with me is learning how to get away from footy . . . when I'm there to do everything I can with training and working hard, but when I'm away making sure I am doing other things in life, and having other interests in life.
"Hopefully if I get the opportunity again, it's something that I've learned that pushing through the hard times, once you get through to the other side you end up the better for it."
In the meantime, he is still enjoying a close relationship with his brother, even though they are a two-hour plane flight apart and they still have their "little wars"
"Gaz is going really well. He is such a professional about the way he goes about his football, not just in his sporting life but he is someone that I look up to and love to be around with.
"I reckon as kids, if he was playing soccer, netball, or table tennis, as a sport that's most likely what I would be doing.
"On that topic of table tennis, I have actually got him covered these days, but he won't admit it." said Ablett before winking and giving a broad grin.
"Make sure you put that in. We have our little wars, and he reckons he's got me covered. He'll love it."
