Like many kids across the country, Ben Ainsworth always dreamed of one day playing AFL football and lining up alongside and against some of his football idols.
When Ainsworth was 10, current SUNS star Gary Ablett was 24 and just entering the peak of his powers at Geelong.
The Gippsland Power product used to calculate his age against that of the dual Brownlow medallist in the hope of one day taking the same field as the Little Master.
On Friday night at the 2016 National Draft, when Rodney Eade presented the No. 4 pick with a red and gold guernsey, a childhood dream was realised.
“I reckon I was about 10 years of age when I used to calculate the age of Gary Ablett and myself because my dream was always to play AFL footy and I idolised Gary Ablett,” Ainsworth told SUNS TV on Saturday in Sydney.
“Fortunately enough I get to play with him and can’t wait.”
“(I’ll) probably be hanging off him soaking him up like a sponge. Can’t wait to learn from him and he’s one of the greats of the game as well as Tom Lynch and the likes down forward of Cal Ah Chee and Peter Wright.”
Ben Ainsworth’s childhood dream realised
Ben Ainsworth used to calculate his age against that of Gary Ablett in the hope of one day taking the same field.
