Geelong premiership player Nathan Ablett will start pre-season training with the Gold Coast Football Club next week.

Ablett met with Coach Guy McKenna this week and convinced him he was ready to start the journey back to AFL football and a possible place in the GCFC side when it enters the AFL in 2011.

He will train with the club and play with the Gold Coast in the VFL competition next year. Ablett said he looked forward to the challenge of being a leader in what is a young club.

“It is exciting because it is going to be such a young group and hopefully from playing three years of AFL I can give a bit of experience to the boys of what to do and what not to do,” he said.

“My aim is to play AFL again so hopefully I can use this as a bit of a stepping stone and play some good footy as well as getting myself fit.”

McKenna said Ablett had convinced him and new GCFC assistant coach Ken Hinkley that he was ready.

“I have had two or three chats and he has said all the right things. He has put his hand up so he has 12 months to prove himself if he wants to be part of the club in 2011.He has already been involved at an elite level in AFL football and knows what it takes to reach the top. We are more than happy to give him the opportunity.”