Geelong star Gary Ablett set for move to attack

Gary Ablett will make one of the biggest positional changes of the season with the champ­ion Geelong ball-winner set to play mainly forward.

Gary Ablett will spend more time up forward. Picture: Getty Images

Gary Ablett will make one of the biggest positional changes of the season with the champ­ion Geelong ball-winner set to play mainly forward.

The dual Brownlow medallist confirmed he had spent the bulk of the summer training in a forward role after talks in the off-season with coach Chris Scott.

Ablett, 34, will go down as one of the game’s greatest midfielders, but his impact in the engine room waned last year.

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While the eight-time All-Australian still averaged 29 possessions a game, he finished outside the top 10 in Geelong’s best-and-fairest.

Ablett said he was happy to step out of the midfield mix to become a more damaging goalscoring option this year.

“I sat down with Scotty in the off-season and we just spoke through where he and I thought I was the best fit for the team and how I can help win games,” Ablett said.

“We decided that was going to be down forward.

“It is going to be a new role for me, but a role that I’m ­really looking forward to.

“It might be that I’m only getting half the possessions I’m used to getting, but just ­making sure that I’m damaging with those possessions.”

Gary Ablett celebrates a goal with Patrick Dangerfield. Picture: Michael Klein

The Ablett move is further evidence the Cats are prepared to make changes to improve their premiership prospects this season.

Geelong ranked 12th for centre clearances last season and was criticised at times for its lack of forward pressure.

The Cats lost an elimination final to Melbourne.

Assistant coach Nigel Lappin confirmed the Cats planned to “make sure we play the game a little bit more in our front half” this year.

Superstar Patrick Dangerfield will play more of a full-time on-ball role, while former Bulldog Luke Dahlhaus will ramp up the tackling pressure and former Swan Gary Rohan will add much-needed speed out of the back half.

Youngsters Quinton Narkle, Lachie Fogarty and Brandan Parfitt will be given the chance to secure increased midfield minutes in the early part of the season.

Ablett, who started his AFL career as a small forward, said the Cats were tweaking their set-up in line with the rule changes, which are expected to result in an increase in centre-clearance goals.

“A big focus for me has been my contested work inside forward 50 and those one-on-one contests … I want to make sure I’m winning them,” he said.

“We’re putting a few of our stronger bodies down forward and hoping we can hold the ball in our half.’’