There is a lot that has, and will be, said about Gaz this week but there is one stat that cements his greatness for me.
At the Suns, a bottom team, his CP numbers up until his injury are outstanding:
2011: 14.75 - 2nd in comp.; 2012: 14.9 - 3rd; 2013: 14.9 - 2nd; 2014: 17.6 - 1st then injured. In his last year at Geelong, 2010: 11.46 - 3rd.
In that same period, JPK was the only player to come close to Gaz in CP numbers:
2011: 14.7 - 3rd; 2012: 16.9 - 1st; 2013: 16.4 - 1st; 2014: 16.1 - 2nd. In 2010: 8.58 - 31st;
But JPK was never subjected to the same hard tags which Gaz had to endure. We have seen this year what happens to other players when put under a hard tag. Gaz went through that treatment almost every week.
JPK is a renown in-and-under, hard-at-it player. Not Gaz. Why? Is it because his CP numbers get lost in all the other things he does well?
According to CD:
"During 2010 and 2014 Ablett was the only player to finish in the top 10 for contested possessions, uncontested possessions, metres gained, goals, score involvements and score assists.
No other player in that period reached the top 10 in more than three of those categories and only Collingwood star Scott Pendlebury ...... was inside the top 100 players for all six categories."
But it is the CP figures that cement it for me: there is no contest, he is the best I have seen.