Gary Ablett at Gold Coast: Do we still pick him?

With the news today that Gary Ablett has joined the Gold Coast Suns, we now need to think about one of the biggest Dream Team players in the game… do we still pick him?

My simple answer is no.

I feel that he won’t have the same protection that he had at the Cats, as he won’t have the likes of Jimmy Bartel, Paul Chapman, Joel Selwood, etc around him to 1, take away attention and 2, feed him the ball.

His role is likely to be different. More will be expected of him. This could be a good thing for Dream Team, but he will still need to get the ball.

I can see him being a ‘cash fowl’ as Roy puts it. At his price (will be priced at his 2010 average of 119 points per game), he will be the second most expensive player in the game. I can’t see him maintaining anywhere near that average, especially early on. It will be a big 5-6 week learning curve for the Suns, and we wont see the smashing scores that we’d expect from Gazza.

Oh, and Gold Coast have the bye in Round 1. Another downside considering a lot of our benches will be GC players (will be hard to cover him for the first week).

On the other hand, he will be the focal point for the side. Their main go to guy in the midfield where a whole lot of possession will go through. He isn’t easily tagged, but will that be different at a new club? Hmm… time will tell there.

I think it will be far too risky to be picking the nude nut early on, but once he hits his straps, he will be a bargain/upgrade target worth considering!