Probably because he and his family are so heavily linked with the Cats and the city of Geelong. You can probably thank the Broadbeach Cats for convincing the Abletts that the Gold Coast was an ideal location to live. That fateful day in late 2008 when Broady signed a 23 year old Nathan Ablett:
Just 12 months later you have Nathan signing for the GC17 VFL team and Gaz Jr flying up to meet Travis Auld in his Broadbeach apartment. A year after that Gaz signed a 5-year contract with the Suns and Nathan was officially drafted to the club. Despite the fact that the team was woeful for most of 2011, I'm sure Gary really enjoyed playing and training with his brother again. Even though Nathan was delisted after their first season, I know he has remained on the GC and I think he may even live with Gaz these days. They've made plenty of connections through the church scene on the Gold Coast and on the whole I think they are happy with their lifestyle.
The Abletts are quiet personalities by nature and the Gold Coast offered something most footy cities in Australia can't - anonymity. When Nathan was assessing which QAFL club he would play for back in 2009 he actually said he toured the facilities at the Southport Sharks and thought it was too good! He wanted to keep it low key and went with the considerably worse facilities offered at Broadbeach. Neither Ablett enjoyed being under the microscope and Geelong is possibly worse than Melbourne because it really is so small and you can't do anything without word getting around. The city lives and breathes one team.
The Gold Coast is so different and I think that's appealing to their personalities. Does he feel like he belongs here? Probably not. Deep down he'll always be a Geelong person but for the time being it's convenient to live and play on the Gold Coast with his brother. When Gary retires I fully expect both of them to move back to Victoria.