Ablett was clearly Geelong’s best player in its thumping loss to Collingwood in Friday night’s preliminary final.
But his 40-possession effort might be his last appearance in navy blue and white as he has received a massive offer to join the league's newest club, the Gold Coast Suns, for their debut in 2011.
“I don’t think we’ll lose Gary. That’s my personal opinion,” Costa said after the Cats had been beaten by 41 points.
“But I don’t know, because the arrangement we made with Gary’s management at the start of the year was that we wouldn’t talk about it until after our last game.
“This is our last game, so it will be spoken about next week.”
Costa is adamant the 26-year-old can be better off financially if he turns his back on the lucrative deal put to him by the Suns.
“If I was Gary’s father, or his advisor, I’d be saying to Gary, ‘Stay here, because you’ve got a hell of a future at Geelong after football’,” Costa said.
“If he stays a one-club man, then for the rest of his life his earning capacity in the environment of Geelong and district, with the aura around the Ablett name, would be mega-bucks higher than if he goes to Queensland.
“He’s not silly. He can see that.”
However, Costa stated he would not try and speak to Ablett in the coming days.
“I won’t talk to him at all. It’s not fair for me to do that,” he said.
“I’ve left it to Gary’s management and the football department. They’ll sort it out.”
Ablett’s teammate Matthew Scarlett said the players were unsure if he was staying or going.
“Honestly, I have no idea,” Scarlett admitted. “If he knows, he hasn’t shown it to us.
“I hope he doesn’t go but it’s Gary’s decision. I don’t want to speculate, because I have absolutely no idea and I don’t think anyone else does to be honest.
Geelong coach Mark Thompson is also in the dark when it comes to the future of his best player.
“I don’t know, really,” Thompson said.
“We’d love for him to stay, but we just don’t know. We’re like everybody else, we don’t know which way it’s going to go.”
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