"A lot of people don't know this; I lost interest in footy around the age of 15," Geelong and Gold Coast champion Gary Ablett revealed upon his induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday night.
"I had some other passions at the time. A lot of my mates were skateboarding and surfing, and I think there was a 12-month period where I wanted to be a pro surfer.
"I worked out pretty quickly that that wasn't going to work out for me."
At 16, with his various boards tucked away, Ablett accepted an invitation from the Geelong Falcons and enjoyed a strong TAC Cup season.
It confirmed in the Cats' minds they would pick up the son of "God" as a father-son selection at the end of 2001.
Ablett, who has joined his father and namesake in the Hall of Fame, admitted he first arrived as a player at Kardinia Park not believing he was good enough to make it at the top level.
"There was a lot of talk at that time around whether I'd been drafted because of my name or whether I actually deserved that chance," Ablett said.
"I found that hard as a young man, but at the same time I really wanted to prove people wrong and make my own name in football."
He certainly did that, turning down the chance to wear the famous No.5 jumper before starring in Geelong's 2007 and 2009 premierships with No.29 on his back.
Ablett won the Brownlow Medal in 2009 and 2013 - though he believes 2010 was his best individual season - as well as a swag of other individual accolades throughout his 19 seasons and 357 games with the Cats and Gold Coast.
An eight-time All-Australian, Ablett was also named the AFL Players Association MVP five times and AFL Coaches Association champion player of the year three times.
Ablett has always preferred to avoid comparisons with his father, who is one of just six players in AFL/VFL history to kick more than 1000 career goals and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005.
But 'The Little Master' couldn't resist a light-hearted dig at his old man on stage, noting the reclusive Ablett Sr would have been watching the Hall of Fame ceremony on television.
"Every now and then we'll reflect back on our careers and everything we were able to achieve," Ablett said.
"I know we get compared a lot. I think we were very different players and I don't like to compare players.
"Each player brings something to the game that maybe another player doesn't and Dad could do things that I couldn't, and I got to win a Brownlow, which he didn't."
Ablett Sr played in each of Geelong's four losing grand finals over a heartbreaking seven-season stretch from 1989-1995.
Ultimately, his sons Gary and Nathan were part of the Cats' eventual breakthrough in 2007, when they thrashed Port Adelaide in the grand final to end a 44-year flag drought.
"My dad actually told me after the game, that meant more to him than probably what it would if he had won a premiership himself," Ablett said.
"So to be able to celebrate that with Nathan and my dad is a day that I'll never forget."
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