Every club’s biggest ‘what if’ moment of the AFL era – Part Three

What if Ablett's shoulder remained intact in 2014?

With over 40 names on every club's playing list each year, 23 in their game day squads and 18 on the ground and any one time, football is without doubt a team game.

Yet, for the Gold Coast Suns' first seven years of existence, you could be forgiven for believing the opposite to be true, as once they paid the proverbial king's ransom to take the greatest player of the modern era from his familiar stomping round of Kardinia Park, all eyes were on one man only.

Across the more than 150 years of organized football, injuries derail several team's seasons every year, with the team that eventually earns the right to hold the premiership trophy aloft often the team that has not only proven themselves as superior during playing time, but also the group that has been hit least with ailments.

Now, it may be a stretch to say that the Carrara side would have claimed the 2014 flag, but had Gary Ablett's shoulder not required surgery after an impact injury suffered in Round 16, then they would have at least been in the running.

Embed from Getty Images

Although some cynics may believe that this ‘one man team' notion that I am perpetuating is a simplistic and inaccurate one, if this is your believe, you only need look at how badly the Suns fell away after ‘The Little Master' was forced to trade his boots and socks for a sling nearly seven full years ago.

After 15 weeks of the 2014 AFL season, the Suns – then in their fourth season of existence - were on track to make history. With their 8-6 record, percentage of 101.2 and as the owners of the ladder's eighth rung, the new kids on the league block were trended towards a maiden finals berth.

SEE ALSO: What if the AFL allowed Brisbane to play a home Preliminary Final in 2004?

Of all of the expansion teams that have entered the league since 1897, only the West Coast Eagles in their second year and the Adelaide Crows in their third would have played September football earlier than the newest Queensland club.

However, as can be seen from this barely dusty archival footage, the Suns dreams went up in smoke after their king was ‘checkmated' in a Brent Macaffer tackle with plenty of time still on the clock in the third term.

Despite the fact that Gold Coast held a four-point lead that they wouldn't relinquish on their way to claiming the four-points over the Pies, history tells us that this altercation on the outer wing side was the moment that their cue was forcibly removed from their grasp and placed back in the rack for another season.

In Ablett's absence, the Suns would only manage to rise for one more win from their remaining seven outings, with their season finally setting as they sat in 12^th spot.

There are a myriad of queries that come from this one-on-one contest gone wrong, and as I have tried to do for the bulk of the last month, I will try and help you get to the bottom of any you may have.

Firstly, the question of where the Suns would have finished the 2014 season had Ablett's wing not been clipped hurtles to the front of many minds on a regular basis.

Well, of the eight teams that played finals that year – Sydney, Hawthorn, Geelong, Fremantle, Port Adelaide, North Melbourne, Essendon and Richmond – the Suns held a 3-8 record in their contests with them prior to Ablett's sidelining.

Embed from Getty Images

Although this may seem an unimpressive ledger, if Ablett's shoulder never popped out, and the Suns were able to maintain this 37.5% win-rate against fellow finals contenders, then it would have almost certainly have seen them finish inside the eight.

In addition to this, if the Guy McKenna led side also proved adept at beating sides below them on the table to round out the regular season, then a 14-win season would not have been beyond them – especially when you consider their relatively simple run home.

With this record in mind, the Suns could well have found themselves on the verge of a double chance.

SEE ALSO: What if the Bluebaggers were never caught with brown paper bags?

Now, this may all seem fanciful, but as I have stressed on a pair of previous occasions, Ablett – like Bradman in Paul Kelly's 1987 tribute track – was more than just one man, and he could take on any side.

If you're still on the fence about ‘The Moriac Master's single-handed influence in 2014, it is obvious that you need reminding of the fact that despite only playing 14 full games that season, Ablett still manage to poll 22 Brownlow votes and finish just four behind the eventual winner, Matthew Priddis.

Embed from Getty Images

So, if simple addition is not your strong suit – don't worry you're not on your own here, as I still need to take both of my shoes off to count to twenty – it is obvious that had Macaffer's grip been compromised on the Sunshine coast, then ‘GAJ' would almost certainly have a third ‘Charlie' to his name.

Whether or not the Gold Coast Suns would have done any damage in the 2014 finals series is a borderline unanswerable question, but even if they had simply just played off in September, the entire contemporary complexion of the club could well have been different.

Within this alternate reality in which the Suns aren't seen as perennial easy beats and perpetual rebuilders, there is a very real possibility that with Ablett fit and firing and their appetites whet by their inaugural finish in the eight, some of the talented names that departed Carrara could well have stayed on – including Ablett himself.

Embed from Getty Images

I can't profess to know who would have still left and who would have in fact stayed, as I was never a key powerbroker in any of these deals, but what I can say with at least a modicum of certainty is that had Gary Ablett's shoulder never been crunched and surgically re-set, the expansion club's brief history would likely appear a lot less turgid.

Whether any silverware – apart from the honours Ablett claimed – would have actually been won is something that even Nostradamus would have lost sleep over.