The 26-year-old signed a lucrative five-year deal with the Suns on Wednesday, ending a 'will he, won’t he' saga that had gone on for almost a year.
Now Ablett is aiming to fill the top leadership role at his new club in 2011.
“That’s something we haven’t really talked about too much, but leadership is something I’ve really worked hard on over the past three or four years to become the best possible leader I can,” the 2009 Brownlow Medallist said.
“I guess I want to get up there and prove myself as a leader and do the best I possibly can.
“If the guys decide to give me the captaincy, that would be fantastic. If someone else is better for the role I’ll be just as happy for them.”
However, Suns coach Guy McKenna has so far refused to guarantee that Ablett will be handed the captaincy.
“Gary doesn’t know our process, but Marc Lock and our leadership group have done a great job in the past two years in the TAC Cup and in the VFL,” McKenna said.
“We’ll have a spread of uncontracted players like Gary, mature-age players, 17-year-olds and then draftees from this year to fill our leadership group with.
“We’ll put the captaincy to a vote and we’ve can’t do that vote until all the players come together officially on the 22nd of November.”
Ablett’s former skipper, Cameron Ling, believed the brilliant midfielder possessed the attributes to lead Gold Coast’s young team into battle next year.
“I can’t comment on what another club wants to do and how they want to structure it,” Ling said.
“I know Gary was a very good leader within the Geelong footy club. If he can go up there and build similar relationships to what he had here then absolutely [he could be a good captain].
“But that’s all pretty hypothetical stuff.”
