WHEN Gary Ablett says he'd usually kick his missed match-winner against Richmond, that's because he usually does.
The Geelong superstar declared on Monday he would take the exact same approach if put in a similar position in this week's crunch clash with Hawthorn at the MCG.
On the run and closing in on 35 metres, Ablett failed to take the opportunity to put Geelong in front and steal the unlikeliest of victories with less than 90 seconds on the clock.
Gary Ablett had a chance to take the lead in the dying stages for the Cats.#AFLTigersCats pic.twitter.com/WNDhPcJuff
— AFL (@AFL) August 3, 2018
Prior to Friday night's loss to the Tigers, Ablett was going at 65 per cent on the run from the same spot over his stellar career.
In his 206 previous games as a Cat, Ablett had kicked 6.2 in open play from 31-40 metres, while as a Sun he enjoyed just one goal from three shots in the same part of the ground.
"I think I would usually kick that more often than not," Ablett told reporters on Monday.
"At the end of the day, you've got a couple of seconds to make a decision and if I had my time again I would've kicked it exactly the same.
"It just came off the side of the boot, it is what it is."
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Coach Chris Scott agreed when facing the media after the match: "I thought he'd kick it."
Just eight minutes earlier, with Geelong trailing by 23 points, Ablett failed to convert from almost the precise part of the ground kicking to the City End.
It worsened his strike rate from 40-50 metres at right half-forward where Ablett has nailed only 46 per cent of attempts.
Ablett requires four more career majors to join Brent Harvey and Kevin Bartlett as the only players in the history of the game with 400 career goals and 8000 career disposals.
From his 317 matches, Ablett has 8126 disposals at an average of 25.6 per match.