How Bill McMaster recruited Gary Ablett Senior against president’s wishes
Revered Geelong figure Bill McMaster passed away this week, and perhaps his greatest achievement in footy was recruiting Gary Ablett. Before his death, McMaster recounted how it happened.
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It was the white lie that allowed Geelong to land one of the greatest VFL/AFL players of all-time.
The late Cyril ‘Bill’ McMaster, who died at the age of 94 on Tuesday, played in two Geelong premierships, coached the Cats for two seasons and then became a recruiting trailblazer.
Perhaps his greatest achievement in football was plucking Gary Ablett Sr, then on arch-rival Hawthorn’s list, out of Myrtleford and getting him to the Cats – all under the nose of Geelong’s president.
Ablett had played six games for Hawthorn in 1982 before returning to the country, deciding that life in the big smoke wasn’t for him.
In an interview with this masthead before his passing, McMaster recalled watching Ablett in action for Myrtleford in 1983.
“The first time I saw Gary play he played in the combined Ovens and Murray side on the half forward flank and played reasonably well, kicked a magnificent goal, but he wasn’t outstanding,” McMaster said.
“But I can remember going into the rooms, Ballarat played the O&M, and I went into the rooms and John Northey was coaching the Ballarat side and I said, ‘Did you see Gary Ablett play?’
“And he said, ‘He played on a pretty good player, Danny Frawley’.
“But I went to see him play in a final and fair dinkum he had the ball all the time. He was kicking goals from everywhere and it was sensational.”
AFL Talent Ambassador Kevin Sheehan was a full-time development manager and assistant coach at Geelong under coaching great Tom Hafey at the time.
Sheehan was recruited by McMaster as a player a decade earlier and then worked alongside him at the Cats during his playing days. He distinctly remembers discussing Ablett with his dear friend McMaster during one of their many chats.
“He said, ‘I’ve seen the best player I’ve ever seen outside of the VFL on the weekend. It was unbelievable, he was kicking them post high with a wet ball through the goals. He was a pretty special player. He is on Hawthorn’s list but he is not that keen to pursue city life and he looks like an amazing player for mine’,” Sheehan recalled.
A month or so later, Geelong president Kevin Threlfall was on the phone to Sheehan.
All 12 VFL presidents had met at Carlton president John Elliott’s home the previous night, discussing a range of topics from the looming national competition, breakaway leagues and pinching players out of rival clubs’ zones.
In the pre-draft era clubs were allocated country and metropolitan zones, and Ablett was part of Hawthorn’s country zone and still on their list.
McMaster and Cats secretary Ian McKenzie had headed up to Myrtleford to meet with Ablett in an attempt to sign the talented yet unknown forward, and Threlfall was onto them.
“There was only half the people in the office in these days, there was no mobile phones. So (Threlfall) went to me, the football guy that was in the office and spoke to me about it,” Sheehan said.
“He said, ‘Can you get onto McMaster and McKenzie — they’re up looking at some kid, speaking to some kid in the bush — and find out what they’re up to and tell them not to sign the kid’.
“So I spoke in the office – I think it was Judy, the lady in the office who knew where they’re up to, And she told me, ‘Tomorrow they’re going to have lunch with the player at the Myrtleford pub, you’ll probably catch them then’.”
Sure enough, Sheehan came calling and got ahold of the pair.
“He rang and he just repeated what Kevin Threlfall had told him. Kevin had just been in to see him and said he was at a meeting last night and you’re not to touch a player from another club,” McMaster said.
“‘You can’t find us, Kevin.’”
That was when McMaster changed the fortunes of the club.
“Bill, who was the most decent man I’ve ever met in my whole life, told one lie and the best lie he’s ever told,” Sheehan said.
“And that was, ‘Tell the president you couldn’t find us, we want to sign him’.
Sheehan kept it on the down low and the Cats unofficially signed Ablett that day, eventually passing on a $60,000 transfer fee to Hawthorn in exchange for the 22-year-old.
“They quietly did that, they didn’t make a song and dance – it wasn’t in the paper the next day. They quietly made a commitment and we just said, ‘Well, couldn’t find them. It’s not possible to find them, I don’t know what they’ve done up there, we couldn’t find them’,” Sheehan chuckled.
“Kevin wouldn’t have even known his name of who they were talking to up (in) the bush, it was just a comment that he just wanted to be honest.
“It was just the irony of the whole thing that it turns out to be Gary that they were talking to at the time.”
However, Ablett wasn’t the only player from a rival club’s zone to arrive at rock up at pre-season training later that year, highlighting McMaster’s exceptional eye for talent.
20-year-olds Frawley, part of St Kilda’s zone, and Greg Williams, who had been sent back to Bendigo twice by Carlton, joined Ablett on the track.
Sad news today that Iconic Geelong player/ coach/Recruiting mgr Bill McMaster passed aged 94 years - great person- among numerous credits had recruits Gary Ablett snr , Greg Williams and Danny Frawley at Cats 1st training session in November 1983- couldn’t get Spud’s clearance. pic.twitter.com/4EW6mKcd1o
— Kevin Sheehan OAM (@AFL_Shifter) January 8, 2025
He might have signed all three mature-agers but St Kilda general manager Ian Stewart put paid to that, snapping up Frawley after a five-week training stint at the Cats.
It should come as no surprise that McMaster was the man who moulded Cats recruiting mastermind Stephen Wells, renowned for plucking players out of nowhere.
McMaster had sent Sheehan up his hometown of Bendigo to watch Williams, who had won two Bendigo league best and fairests before joining the top flight.
Williams’ first session was a sign of things to come.
“He was running, Tommy Hafey had the players running around the ground and round and round and round, Greg was running around and Greg wasn’t very fast,” McMaster recalled.
“And Tommy said to me, ‘I think he is a bit slow’. And I said, ‘Tommy, wait till the balls comes out, whatever you do’.
“And when the ball came out he was a different player altogether. First game he played was against Fitzroy down here and played very well.”
‘Diesel’ had three Brownlow votes in that debut game against the Lions as Ablett had 22 disposals and booted three goals.
Williams would go on to win Geelong’s best and fairest in his second season at the club before departing to newcomer Sydney the next year in 1986.
Incredibly, the ball-magnet won a Brownlow in his first season as a Swan and another at Carlton across a stunning 250-game career.
Meanwhile, Frawley went on to be a St Kilda Hall of Famer and one of the best defenders in an era dominated by key forwards.
Then there is the CV of Ablett, who is regarded by some as the greatest footballer of all-time.
Three Coleman Medals, sixth all-time on the VFL/AFL goalkicking with 1066 majors, a Norm Smith Medal, nine-time Geelong leading goalkicker, a member of the AFL team of the century and Australian Football Hall of Fame, and much, much more.
His son Gary Ablett Jr then followed, helping Geelong to two premierships in 2007 and 2009 and earning four consecutive All-Australian jackets and a Brownlow Medal before moving to Gold Coast.
The Geelong faithful have Bill to thank.
“Ian McKenzie and certainly Bill McMaster and myself were very familiar with the circumstances and as his career unfolded it crosses your mind. ‘Gee, he did make a good call their Bill’,” Sheehan said.
“When you look at the significance of just a moment in time on a player’s career but a club’s future too, he become one of their greatest players of all time.”
Originally published as How Bill McMaster recruited Gary Ablett Senior against president’s wishes
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