The comparisons between the stellar AFL careers of Gary Ablett Snr and Gary Ablett Jnr will be debated from Corio to Cairns for many years.

Former Geelong coach and now Gold Coast Suns' board member Malcolm Blight, who was in charge at the Cats when the elder statesman was in full flight, is the latest to hold the two stars up to the light.

Blight says Gary Jnr, who runs out on Saturday against West Coast for his 200th AFL appearance, is the superior footballer.

Not so insists the man himself.

The Suns' skipper rated his father and boyhood idol as the greatest to have played the game.

"I still rate my dad the best player of all time," Gary Jnr said on Wednesday.

"It's very hard to compare us as players.

"I've played a lot more in the midfield. He took a lot more hangers and kicked a lot more goals.

"Until someone special comes along, I don't think it's going to change."

The Brownlow medallist and dual premiership player did make one concession about his father, best remembered for some of the greatest individual on-field efforts during a 248-game career which yielded 1030 goals.

"The only one thing I do better than him is handball," Ablett said with a smile.

"He used to always say to me 'mate, why would you bother handballing when the goals are in front of you?'."

Being compared to his father - as Blight did in News Limited newspapers on Wednesday - has been as much a part of Gary Jnr's career as lacing up his boots each weekend.

From the time he stepped out for his first match against Essendon in round one in 2002, he has had to deal with it.

And any suggestions that he was only drafted back in 2001 because of his famous name had long been deemed absurd.

"There was a lot of people saying the reason I got drafted was because of my name," he said.

"I wanted to prove those people wrong.

"I moved on from that pretty quickly and, hopefully, I've made a name of myself now.

"Ienjoyed that challenge a lot."

Not only has Gary Jnr proved he is a different type of player on the field, he is far more media friendly than his interview-shy dad.

At Kurrawa surf club at Broadbeach on a chilly and wet Wednesday morning, Ablett engaged the media like his father never did.

Yet it wasn't always like that.

When he arrived on the scene a decade ago, many thought he brought with him his father's reclusive nature and disdain for the media and public speaking.

But there was a reason for his silence and it had little to do with being an Ablett family trait.

"I did for the first couple of years (find it annoying being compared), and it's probably the reason I didn't do a lot of media and didn't take the number five number (the same number his father wore to fame) down at Geelong," Gary Jnr said.

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