Despite being acclaimed by his peers as the second-best captain in the competition, behind Geelong’s Joel Selwood, Gold Coast’s inaugural skipper Gary Ablett says he’s eager to hand over the captaincy to one of the Club’s emerging leaders. 

“For us to be a successful playing group we need to have some of our young guns stepping up in that area and hopefully they’re part of the leadership group in the next couple of years,” Ablett told RSN’s breakfast show this morning.

“I’m actually hoping one of them can take the captaincy off me because if that happens then it shows we are not too far away from having success.”

Never given a true opportunity as Captain or Vice-Captain to lead from the front in Geelong, Ablett has been sensational in his mentorship with the Club’s young and inexperienced playing list. 

In fact, since relocating to the Gold Coast, the Brownlow Medallist has been awarded captaincy in three consecutive All-Australian teams (2010-12).

But with the 29-year-old superstar midfielder not getting any younger, he’s looking forward to handing over the reins, identifying young guns Jaeger O’Meara and Dion Prestia as possible successors. 

“I think at the moment you could look at Jaeger O’Meara and Dion Prestia, but I think we’ve got six-seven guys that can potentially be captain at the football club.”

On reflection, Ablett said the underrated cornerstone to Geelong’s premiership years has been their constant supply of on-field leaders, with the likes of Matthew Scarlett, Corey Enright and Cameron Mooney all having displayed great leadership qualities despite not wearing the badge. 

“I’ve always said that a big reason why Geelong had so much success is because they had 18 leaders out there on the field every week and all led in their own different ways.

“If we can have that on the Gold Coast, with the amount of talent we have, we’ll definitely be heading in the right direction.”