A team man through and through, Gary Ablett heaped praise on his Gold Coast team mates in an interview with FOX FOOTY’s Sarah Jones, as the inaugural skipper looks set to earn All Australian honours for a seventh time.

“Obviously we won more games this year and I’m super proud of the boys and the footy we played this year,” Ablett said on AFL 360.

“When your team mates play well it’s easy to play well yourself.

“We enjoyed the year and are now looking forward to jumping into the pre-season and hopefully we are not too far away from playing finals footy.”

Conceding he’ll be forced to spend even more time around goals next year as the champion midfielder looks to add more longevity to his prolific AFL career, Ablett said the keys to the SUNS midfield were in capable hands with the likes of Dion Prestia, David Swallow and Jaeger O’Meara in the driving seat.

“I’m getting older and no doubt will have to start moving up forward soon.”

“Like every pre-season I’ll work on my game and look to improve in other areas.

“The boys are getting older and as they step up they’ll play more time through the midfield.”

Despite being bombarded with extraordinary expectations at just 19 years of age, O’Meara took it in his stride during his inaugural Premiership campaign – picking up the NAB AFL Rising Star and AFLPA Best First Year.

“It was a fantastic effort for someone to come in with those sorts of expectations and have the season he did. It is a credit to himself and the exciting thing is he has only had one pre-season and one season so there is so much improvement left for him.”