Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nHe\u2019d endured the tough times up north, including bottom two finishes in his first three seasons, before the Suns finally broke their finals drought under Damien Hardwick last year. <\/p>\n
So to leave the club right when it\u2019d finally surged up the ladder was a tricky decision.<\/p>\n
Ainsworth in action against Sydney (Photo by Matt King\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah it was (hard). But at the same time I couldn\u2019t be happier with where I am at the moment in Carlton colours,\u201d Ainsworth told foxfooty.com.au in the rooms after last Thursday night\u2019s win over Richmond.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously no hard feelings for the Gold Coast Suns, I loved my time there over nine years. <\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Dimma\u2019 was a very good operator, as is \u2018Vossy\u2019. Pretty lucky to play under two very good coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ainsworth celebrates a goal with fellow Bleus recruit Will Hayward (Picture: Michael Klein.)Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Ainsworth\u2019s trade to Carlton was a whirlwind.<\/p>\n
Despite playing 24 games for the Suns last year, he saw the writing on the wall at his exit meeting, leading to his return to Victoria.<\/p>\n
There were a couple of clubs interested in the dynamic forward but the 28-year old had already been in talks with the Blues after meeting with the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all happened pretty quickly, to be fair,\u201d the 160-gamer said when reflecting on the trade. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had our exit meetings and everything sort of fell from there. It was mostly around opportunity and where they see the Suns line-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut couldn\u2019t be happier now. Coming here with Will Hayward and Ollie Florent always helps, they were actually in my draft year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd everyone is really good blokes so can\u2019t really complain and I\u2019m loving my time here. Especially through pre-season, everyone has been really welcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFooty clubs are pretty similar. Everyone is trying to do the same thing, win a flag. All the foundations are pretty much the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Ainsworth celebrates his first win for Carlton (Photo by James Wiltshire\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Ainsworth played in his first win in Carlton colours over Richmond along with several other new Blues.<\/p>\n
While Ainsworth didn\u2019t have as much as his Blues debut \u2014 when he kicked two goals from 14 disposals against Sydney in Opening Round \u2014 he described playing in the traditional Round 1 opener at the MCG as a dream come true.<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty average out there tonight, just running patterns. But to play on the \u2018G on a night like tonight is something you always dreamt of as a kid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying juniors I always looked forward to the first game of the season between Carlton and Richmond on a Thursday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be involved in it is pretty special.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blues recruit Ben Ainsworth admits it was a hard call to leave the Suns after their rise from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,2095,64,63,689,55,639,25877,684,270045,3239,60513,38426,2105,2485,9130,33693,12412,673,2041,2067,677,49673,701,6858,270044,85,270046,670,7200,104403,1133,2614,660,4899],"class_list":["post-545288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-america","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-ainsworth","tag-ben-cotton","tag-blues-recruit","tag-carlton-blues","tag-exit-meetings","tag-finals-drought","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-james-wiltshire","tag-matt-king","tag-new-south-wales","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-ollie-florent","tag-queensland","tag-richmond","tag-rising-contender","tag-sports","tag-sudden-trade","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-swans","tag-tough-call","tag-trade-period","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545288","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=545288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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