[editorial originally published in April 2004]

Gary Ablett Senior has requested that Geelong stop nominating him for the AFL Hall Of Fame.  His nomination is just going to initiate the debate about his off-field behaviour again and nobody - especially the family of one other person involved - really wants that.  It's an interesting case.  Ablett is without doubt one of the most exciting players to ever play football.  If he was a normal player the debate would end quickly and his off-field problems would keep him out of the Hall Of Fame and nobody would really care.  But he wasn't a normal player and it's hard to leave him out because he was so damn good at playing football.  Without disrespect many of the players already in the Hall Of Fame simply weren't as good as Ablett.  He was incredible.  Each time he played it was like a carnival arrived at Kardinia park and the sleepy little town of Geelong rocked hard.

Unfortunately for Gary Ablett the Hall Of Fame desires more than that for entry and he did do something bad.  Player behaviour is an issue all football followers have been confronted with this year, even though Footy Rocks now wonders why there was so much smoke but nobody can find any fires.  Our footballers are role models whether they want to be or not.  Just look around next time you go to a game and witness the kids with numbers on their backs.  This hero worship is what makes the players and clubs a lot of money and they work very hard at getting it.  Because we love our footy heroes we overlook what they do while they perform for us.  After all, who would give up an important player if your team needed him to win the flag?  With all the events across the different football codes this year we ask does anybody have the will to treat a sporting icon as if they were a normal member of s ociety when they misbehave?  When laws have been broken should the AFL, the clubs, or institutions such as the Hall Of Fame punish the players or should they just leave it to the proper authorities and forget about it?  This is the debate where Gary Ablett has unwillingly found himself each year for a long time now.