In 1995 the NBA awarded its 28th franchise to the Canadian city Toronto in the hopes of capitalising on its new found global popularity due mostly to the rise of Michael Jordan as a global superstar. Canada was not known at all for its basketball exports at the time and was very much a country obsessed with ice hockey. Toronto in particular was known for passionate supporters of the local Maple Leafs NHL team and virtually no other sport could get a look in at the time. This was always going to be an uphill battle for the NBA but something very significant occurred in Toronto's third year in the league...
The Toronto Raptors acquired Vince Carter in the 1998 NBA draft. This coincided with the retirement of Michael Jordan and the NBA was looking for a new star/face of the league. Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Allen Iverson were leading the charge in terms of ability but Vince Carter had something those other players didn't... Vince Carter could fly. Not literally, but quite possibly the closest thing we've ever seen to a human flying through the air. Carter would really stamp himself as must see TV when he entered (and dominated) the NBA's slam dunk competition in the year 2000. People were calling him Vinsanity, Air Canada, Half Man - Half Amazing etc. Carter made the Toronto Raptors interesting in their formative years when they weren't qualifying for the playoffs and was instrumental in inspiring a generation of Canadians to take up basketball instead of ice hockey. He would regularly show up and open new basketball courts around the city of Toronto and gave the youth an opportunity to play basketball when they would have otherwise played ice hockey or pursued something else.
So... what happened? Sadly, Carter was traded in 2004 but his seven years in Toronto were enough to create a significant shift in the city of Toronto's sports preferences. In 2011, 14 years after Carter began his career at the Raptors, Toronto native Tristan Thompson became the first Canadian player to be taken with a lottery draft pick (top 14) when Cleveland selected him with pick 5. Two years later another Toronto native Anthony Bennett becomes the first Canadian player to be selected with the first selection in the NBA draft. Shockingly, 12 months later another Toronto native in Andrew Wiggins becomes Canada's second player to be selected with the number 1 selection in the NBA draft. It continued in 2019 when we saw Toronto native RJ Barrett drafted to the NY Knicks with pick 3. A generational change in a market tends to take between 10-20 years so this is in line with that theory.
Toronto is regularly producing high end NBA talent at this point in time, but what about the Raptors? Well, they would also reach the ultimate success in 2019 when they went on one of the craziest playoffs runs of all time to claim their first ever NBA Championship. To cap it all off, the Canadian national team defeated the United States at the FIBA World Cup earlier this year and claimed its first top level international competition medal in close to 100 years. 10/12 players that played for Canada in the FIBA World Cup this year came from Greater Toronto. Canada has arrived as a basketball nation and its mostly due to players from Toronto who were very likely inspired by Vince Carter when he was playing for the Raptors. This is often referred to as The Carter Effect and you can see the documentary video above.
What's this got to do with Ablett? Gary Ablett Jr was the best player/face of the AFL when he decided to join an expansion franchise on the Gold Coast. At the time, the Gold Coast was considered rugby league heartland and Aussie rules only had a niche following within the community. However, the footy Ablett produced in those early years while wearing the red and gold was scintillating and may even be the best few years of football we've ever seen from any player in the history of the game. He was an irresistible force to the point that it seemed like no one could stop him at the time and you couldn't help but tune in to marvel at his efforts. Importantly, he made the Suns interesting in their formative years when there wasn't a lot else to get excited about. He gave the youth of the Gold Coast a reason to try footy when they would have previously been directed towards another sport like rugby league. Ablett spent seven years on the Gold Coast (just like Carter in Toronto) and although he returned to Geelong in the end, recent evidence is starting to suggest he had a similar effect on the youth of the Gold Coast.
12 years after Ablett started his career at the Suns we see Gold Coast native Will Ashcroft come through as the best junior in the land and he has been quoted as saying Ablett inspired him to work as hard as he did in his younger years. A year later we see three Gold Coast natives being selected in the top 15 picks of the draft and there is photographic evidence of all three as kids attending games while Ablett was captaining the side. Two of them even went as far as to say Ablett was their idol growing up in their pre-draft interviews. These three players plus several other Gold Coasters played significant roles in the Allies historic U18 National Championships win this year as well.
To put it in perspective, we hadn't seen the Gold Coast produce a first round pick in over 20 years prior to 2022 and it would only be one in any given season if it did happen 20+ years ago. Another GC native is expected to be drafted in the first round next year and it's been much publicised that there were five Gold Coast natives named in the U16 AA team this year. It should also be mentioned that several new Aussie rules ovals have been built on the Gold Coast over the last decade just like the basketball courts that were built in Toronto after Vince Carter made a name for himself.
So, do you believe in The Ablett Effect? Did Gary Ablett Jr change the fortunes of footy on the Gold Coast forever and are we now seeing the fruits of that labour?
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