Another week brings another Gary Ablett milestone and one that also has a serendipitous link.
After Ablett brought up game 350 alongside teammate Joel Selwood in his 300th game, Ablett will this week with his father, Gary senior, become only the second father-son duo to reach 600 VFL/AFL games.
They move one ahead of Gary senior’s brother-in-law Michael Tuck and his son, Shane, on 599 games.
Interestingly, the Abletts will bring up the 600 in the same game where Gary Jnr reaches his dad’s total of 242 games in the blue and white.
Ablett snr started his career with six games at Hawthorn before moving to Kardinia Park whilst Ablett Jnr added 110 games to his tally at the Gold Coast Suns.
When looking at the pair’s 483 games combined in the Hoops the stark differences in their game become apparent.
Whilst Senior has booted 703 more goals than Junior, taken 565 more marks and had 341 more kicks, Junior has given a whopping 2084 more handballs and laid 720 more tackles than his dad.
Interestingly, the umpires also seem to see the two Abletts in different lights with Junior having 40 more Brownlow votes so far and a Brownlow Medal whilst Senior leads his son with 142 more free kicks received and 306 free kicks against.
Top 10 Father/Son Combined Games
Fletcher (664 games comprising 264 games for Ken and 400 games for Dustin)
Ablett (599 games comprising 248 games for Gary senior and 351 games for Gary Jnr)
Tuck (599 games comprising 426 games for Michael and 173 games for Shane)
Cloke (589 games comprising 333 games for David and 256 games for Travis)
Silvagni (551 games comprising 239 games for Sergio and 312 games for Stephen)
Watson (527 games comprising 307 games for Tim and 220 games for Jobe)
Murphy (520 games comprising 246 games for John and 274 games for Marc)
Scarlett (496 games comprising 212 games for John and 284 games for Matthew)
Kennedy (493 games comprising 241 games for John junior and 252 games for Josh)
Whitten (465 games comprising 321 games for Ted snr and 144 games for Ted Jnr).
Ablett vs Ablett comparison
Games for Geelong: Senior 242, Junior 241*
Goals: Senior 1021, Junior 318*
Kicks: Senior 3139, Junior 2798*
Marks: Senior 1409, Junior 844*
Handballs: Senior 540, Junior 2624*
Tackles: Senior 197, Junior 917*
Frees for: Senior 409, Junior 267*
Frees against: Senior 554, Junior 248*
Brownlow Votes: Senior 99, Junior 139*
