The honest feedback session with Ablett Jr. that changed the course of the 2007 Cats

After finishing 10th in 2006, Geelong knew they had to make some changes heading into the 2007 season.

The club’s list was simply full of too much talent to be missing out on finals, so in an attempt to get the most out of what they had, the Cats brought in consulting company Leading Teams.

Part of the Leading Teams method included peer feedback sessions where players gave honest and often brutal assessments to each other.

Cameron Mooney recalls most of the playing group getting in front of the rest of their teammates for these feedback sessions, and the one that he remembers most is Gary Ablett Jr’s.

While Ablett had finished third in the club’s Carji Greeves Medal in 2006, Mooney says that he and his teammates gave the budding star some brutal feedback.

According to Mooney, the feedback was that honest that Ablett was shattered and almost left the room in tears.

“We had Leading Teams come into our club at the end of 2006 for the 2007 season,” Mooney told SEN Breakfast.

“I would say without a doubt, it was the most important thing that we did it as a football club.

“It's something that's not for everybody and you've got to want it, and you’ve got to be prepared for it.

“Most of us got up in front of our peers (to receive open feedback) and Gary was one of them, it can be quite confronting with what players are saying to each other with what we expect, want and need, all of those types of things.

“I mean, we got Gaz up and he virtually walked out in tears, he was shattered with what we told him.”

While Ablett was beginning to deliver on-field, Mooney says that he and his teammates urged him to train harder as they felt he was nowhere near reaching his ceiling the way he was currently going about his footy.

Clearly, that feedback hit home for the then 22-year-old as he’d become All-Australian for the first time in 2007 – a year where he’d also win the AFL MVP, AFLCA Champion Player and 2007 premiership with his Geelong teammates.

“He was a man who finished third in a club best and fairest in 2006 playing virtually in a forward pocket and he thought he was doing everything right,” Mooney said.

“But we thought he should be training harder and could be training harder.  We told him in no uncertain terms that we thought that he could be our Chris Judd - Juddy was the best player in the competition at that stage or the best midfielder in the competition at that stage.

“He walked out quite upset, but to his credit, he came back, trained the house down and the rest is history.”

Ablett Jr. finished his career as one of the game’s greats with 357 games, two premierships, two Brownlows, five AFL MVPs, three AFLCA Champion Player awards, eight All-Australian blazers and six club best and fairests across his time with both Geelong and Gold Coast.