Gary Ablett Jr will wear new colours of red, white and black as he joins his first Victorian local league game.
The former Geelong star is set to play on June 24th, representing Central Highlands club Creswick. Vice-president Brad Munro recounted to News Corpย how long it took the club to land the deal with Ablett, with the process starting back in October of last year.ย
"During pre-season, which started in October, Ryan (Knowles the president) and I discussed and said โhow do we get someone who can put us on the map a bit, promote the community and someone who has a good following," Munro said.ย
"With my current work, there's a guy who has got a connection with Gary. He got in contact with Sean Tobin, who is Gary's manager, and then an email I thought was reaching for the stars come out with Gary putting on the red, white and black,".ย
Ablett was an influential player, with a combined total of 357 games and 445 goals for both Geelong and Gold Coast. His new club Creswick is hopeful that with Ablett's extensive experience, he will be able to influence and guide the younger players and lead the team to their first victory of the season.
"We've got a very young crop and it's hard to recruit in this area,โ Munro said.
โIt's hard to get that experience. If these players learn a couple of things from him and ask him questions and get tips, we thought this was a win-win for both Gary and the club.โ
With Ablett joining the team, the club is also hoping to draw in bigger crowds, with people wanting to see the former AFL star in action. Munro predicted that the crowds could double the amount of spectators that came to watch Dane Swan, a couple of years ago.
โIf it is a nice day, Ryan (Knowles) last night said we're expecting anywhere between 6500 to 7000 people," Munro said.
โHe played at Trinity Beach on the weekend just gone and by all reports they got 4500 to 5000. With Victoria being the football state and our area is massive, we'd expect to get a lot of people coming from Geelong and Melbourne (to see him).โ
