Entering their fifth year as a member of the Australian Football League, the Gold Coast Suns are the second team from the state of Queensland (on the eastern coast - Brisbane is the other one). In their expansion year, as well as year two, they managed a record of 3-19, not unexpected for a pack of youngsters. In 2013, their third year, they raised the bar with an eight-win season, and in 2014, they were headed for their first finals berth in just their fourth year, sporting a record of 7-2 after round ten, and still at 9-6 and firmly within the top eight when, during their round 16 match with Collingwood, star player Gary Ablett Jr. was thrown onto his left shoulder, injuring it sufficiently to require season-ending surgery.
When Gold Coast was forming their initial roster in the summer of 2010, they made a remarkable move to acquire Geelong star Gary Ablett, Jr. (pictured above). Ablett was already a Brownlow medalist in 2009 ("MVP", Americans) and was generally regarded as one of the best midfielders in the game. Over the last four years, Ablett has established himself as the undisputed best footy player in the world, winning the 2013 Brownlow and, amazingly, coming in second for the award this year despite missing the last seven games of a 22-game season! When Ablett went down, so did the Suns: 1-6 over their last seven games, falling to 10-12 and two games short of their first post-season play.
So...a young team with a transcendent superstar player, trying to lead them to heights they've never accomplished. Hmmm...
Their American counterpart: The Cleveland Cavaliers
Who else but LeBron could Ablett be rightfully compared to? LeBron James "came home" to Cleveland this summer to play once again for his hometown team, to bring a championship to Ohio for the first time. And he's surrounded by young talent like Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Tristan Thompson. Ablett has a quickly-improving stable of young guns around him as well - Dion Prestia, Harley Bennell, Tom Lynch and Jaeger O'Meara, the Young Gun winner last year as top rookie.
Without Ablett, the son of legendary Geelong scorer Gary Ablett (Sr.), the Suns are bottom-fodder; with him, they will threaten for a top-4 spot in the AFL in 2015. When LeBron left Cleveland in 2010, they went from the best record in the NBA to a club-record 19-game losing streak the following season. Transcendent players change the game. Both Ablett and James are the very definition of transcendent within their own sport.
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