Just when you thought the game’s best player couldn’t possibly get any better – he has.
At age 29, fans could forgive Gary Ablett for playing out the latter part of his career as a damaging small forward, enjoying the luxury of kicking goals while his younger accomplices in David Swallow, Dion Prestia and Jaeger O’Meara shoulder the grunt work in the midfield.
But after a record seven consecutive All Australian honours, five AFLPA MVP awards, five Best & Fairest awards, two Brownlow Medals and two premiership medallions, Ablett is showing no sign of slowing down. In fact, based on his opening six performances, statistics reveal the superstar is actually improving with age in four key areas.
He has won an average of 18.3 contested possessions in his first half-dozen matches this season, up from his previous best of 15.1 in 2011.
His clearance count has rocketed to a career high 8.5 per match, his tackling is more potent than ever at 6.7 per game and amazingly his scoring accuracy is marked at 90.9 per cent, which indicates how dangerous he can be inside the forward 50.
Of course, none of this has come as a surprise to Gold Coast’s midfield coach, Matthew Primus, who in his two seasons with the GC SUNS has had the joy mentoring one of the game’s modern greats.
For Primus, the most impressive feat to come from Ablett’s sustained place at the top has been his ability to withstand hard tags week-in, week-out.
As the constant focus for competition rivals, almost every one of his touches has come under the duress of tight opposition attention.
"As a team we've focused on our contested possessions, because it helps us stay in games longer. And there's no doubt that, even over the last couple of weeks, Gary knows when games are slipping away from us or when our intensity's dropping, and he's very good at winning balls at key moments in games," Primus told The Age.
"Most of the time he does have someone in his back pocket, so to do what he does around contests is outstanding.
“His tackles stick, he's really good at stripping the opposition of the ball, and some of the games we've played have been pretty wet and slippery, so that might have contributed as well."
Primus believes Ablett can continue to wreak havoc for opposition midfields for as long as he wants to keep playing.
Despite still being in career-best form, though, Primus knows only too well the body and mind can only keep charging for so long.
But for now, he says the Gold Coast champion still has the keys to the SUNS midfield engine.
"We'd like Gary to not get crashed and bashed as much as he does, but it will slowly turn around. At the moment, him winning it in close usually ends up in a possession to us, but our midfield group's synergy is getting better and better and more of that work is getting shared around," he said.
"You'd think that as we mature as a team, it's going to make his job easier. Other guys will learn to win their own ball and, as they become better skilled and take better care of the ball, Gary might become even more dangerous.
"He's just such a competitor. It doesn't matter what anyone says to him - that he's getting older, that his body will get sore - he doesn't believe any of it and he wants to be our best player for as long as he can be."
