Geelong coach Chris Scott has said Gary Ablett will be a midfielder first throughout the 2018 season.
After Ablett found his way back to Geelong in the trade period, there has been plenty of conversation about where the former favourite son will play next season and Scott has put to bed any rumours of what may happen.
"We brought Gary in to be a midfielder."
"We didn't bring him (Ablett) in to be a forward," Scott said.
"Like a few of our players like (Nakia) Cockatoo, (Patrick) Dangerfield, (Joel) Selwood, (Mitch) Duncan, (Sam) Menegola, (Mark) Blicavs – we think they can play forward but they're mids.
Ablett's inclusion will make the Cats more versatile and potentially more damaging next season with Scott going on to add that Ablett will see his fair share of time up forward.
"He didn't come to us and say, 'I think I'm almost cooked here, can you hide me in a forward pocket for a couple of years and I'll snag you 30 goals a year,'" Scott said.
"He has an aspiration to help the team as much as possible and we all believe that's in the midfield first."
While many of the public may believe Ablett is a shadow of his former self due to a number of persisting injuries that he has suffered in recent seasons, Scott said Ablett hasn't been hampered throughout the pre-season so far, pinpointing one particular trait that has impressed himself and his coaching staff.
"His motivation has impressed me," Scott said of Ablett.
"He's training really well. He's got a desire to show his competitiveness on the track and he wants to instill that in some of the young guys as well, which is what we were after [when we pursued him]."
Scott said the club had no intentions on placing a games restriction on the Brownlow medallist.
"We don't have any intention of limiting him at this stage but we'd need to have a contingency there," Scott said.
"He would be one of a group of players that if we saw some signs we might be a little more proactive than we might with others.
"If he did miss any games (through resting), we wouldn’t expect he'd play as little as 14 games or anything like that.