By Justin Schwarze<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a sad period for the region with the recent passing of the legendary Kevin Ablett.<\/p>\n
A daring footballer with a hard knack for the footy hailing from the fabled Ablett family, Kevin is remembered fondly for his time as a sporting figure, particularly at Drouin and Lang Lang Football Clubs.<\/p>\n
Growing up in Drouin alongside seven siblings, including future VFL\/AFL footballers Gary and Geoff, the family name soon became entrenched in the community and local region.<\/p>\n
Ablett won an under-14 premiership at Drouin before breaking into the senior side in 1975.<\/p>\n
From there, he joined Hawthorn in the VFL in 1977 and enjoyed a 38-game career at the top level with other stops including Richmond and Geelong.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was extremely quick,\u201d Drouin Football Club life member and former teammate Graeme Davies said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was skilled, a good mark, a huge kick like all the Abletts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was extremely fast, you\u2019d never want to play him, he just had that pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
While still playing at the VFL level, Ablett watched on as his beloved local club won the senior premiership in 1978 while he was at Hawthorn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we won the 1978 grand final, he was the one doing the most celebrating,\u201d Davies said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had three brothers in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his playing days in the top flight were over, he took on a playing coach role at Lang Lang in 1987.<\/p>\n
There, he managed a fierce and strong Tigers side, including leading the seniors to the infamous 1987 West Gippsland grand final against Pakenham.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the Tigers were overrun by the Lions 13.14(92) to 9.4(58) with Ablett booting a goal in the match.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t the only family member to have a mark on the game, with brothers Len also slotting a major and Graham being named among the best on the day.<\/p>\n
Ablett resumed his role in 1988 but Lang Lang couldn\u2019t replicate the success and bowed out in straight sets.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor country footy, he trained us very hard,\u201d Lang Lang life member and former teammate Andrew Wilson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very professional, he was good like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe certainly changed the way things were done at Lang Lang the couple of seasons he was there, that\u2019s for sure, he had a big effect on people.<\/p>\n
\u201cOff the field he mixed well with everybody, he never thought he was better than anybody, everyone was treated on the same level.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was a skilled and tenacious player, usually at his best at half-back or on the wing where he could use his pace to generate run.<\/p>\n
But he was also a heavy-hitter that was never afraid of a contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember he used to say to us when people take a bounce, he said \u2018when they go to bounce the ball, that\u2019s the time you can just wipe them out,\u2019\u201d Wilson laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat split second when they\u2019re concentrating on bouncing the ball, just bang.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll never forget that and he did do it a few times, I can guarantee you that; he was ferocious. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very ruthless when he played, he just had that explosive pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cKevin played with that and he would just explode out of a pack and he was very good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ablett returned to his home club Drouin in 1999 as a non-playing coach, where Davies served as his chairman of selectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a good coach and a mentor for the young players,\u201d Davies remembered.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a really good knowledge of the game and was a really good coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vale Kevin Ablett, 1958-2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Justin Schwarze It\u2019s been a sad period for the region with the recent passing of the legendary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-231026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}