Former Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna opens up about his relationship with Gary Ablett

It was one of the biggest signings in AFL history. Geelong superstar Gary Ablett was off to the Gold Coast. But it almost didn’t happen.

Former Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna has dismissed suggestions Gary Ablett was unwilling to play through pain and strongly rebuked rumours the Suns players didn’t want him as their captain.

Speaking on the Sacked podcast, McKenna also revealed Ablett almost reversed his decision to join the Suns from Geelong at the end of the 2010 season.

“I know he got cold feet at one stage,” McKenna said.

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“I was just coaching, and my logic was that if he turns up to pre-season, then we have got him, and if he doesn’t, we don’t.”

McKenna couldn’t have been happier when Ablett finally signed a five-year deal which made him the highest paid AFL player in the country at the time.

Ablett was relatively injury-free during McKenna’s four seasons with the Suns, playing 76 of a possible 88 games, with the shoulder injury he suffered against Collingwood in Round 16, 2014 the most serious.

But Ablett later came in for serious criticism for allegedly not being prepared to play through injury, a tag his former coach doubts.

Gary Ablett and Guy McKenna after Ablett signed with the Suns.

“I’ve got my view into why Gaz is not big into the painkilling stuff, and I think that’s a personal issue with him, with his background” McKenna said.

“That’s probably all I need to say on that.

“It’s not like he wouldn’t take them (painkilling injections), but he didn’t like the thought of where that might lead, I assume.

“But he could play with pain.

“It was more around the taking of things that would help him and I just don’t think he liked that entering his body.

“I respect that.”

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It is believed Ablett’s reticence may have something to do with a family history of addiction.

McKenna cited a game against Adelaide in 2011 as an example of how Ablett could deal with discomfort for the sake of the team.

“We were playing Adelaide at Footy Park in those days,” he said. “It was a cold and miserable day and he had like pneumonia.

“I would spend two weeks in bed (with a similar ailment). He is snorting, taking panadols and all that sort of stuff.

“He sounded like a spluttering car on a cold and windy morning … I kept saying to Kenny (Hinkley) ‘he is not going to play mate, he is going to have to pull out, we are going to have to get another bloke to fly in from Gold Coast’.

“Kenny said, ‘no, he loves playing Adelaide mate,’.

“He (Ablett) went out still with his nose running … and he had 14 touches and kicked two goals in the first quarter.

“You might say ‘that’s not pain, Bluey’, but he was (tough).”

Gary Ablett and Guy McKenna celebrate after a Gold Coast win.

McKenna brought the voting tallies for Gold Coast’s 2014 captaincy to the Sacked podcast recording session to show all but one of the 44 players voted for Ablett.

He later asked the player who hadn’t voted for Ablett — Richmond forward Tom Lynch — if he had a problem with the Suns skipper.

Lynch embarrassingly confessed he thought he had voted for Ablett, but had made “a completely honest mistake” on his ballot.

“(The players) wanted him as captain — categorically,” McKenna said. “So all the smoke and mirrors … that he was elected by the board or the coaches and all that sort of stuff (was wrong). Certainly in my time, that’s how it was run.”

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McKenna has no qualms in labelling Ablett — still firing at 35 back at Geelong — the greatest footballer he has seen.

“I never got to see Leigh Matthews, who was voted and revered as the best player and coach, and all that sort of stuff. I played around (the time of) Gary Ablett Sr, and he was a freak as a full-forward,” he said.

“Forwards are great, but a midfielder has to go and find his pill. For Gary (Jr) to do that, and deliver it in the manner he delivers it in, I have never seen that before.

“He’s a clear No.1.”