Cusworth, a school teacher before entering media, taught Ablett and his siblings at Waurn Ponds’ Christian College, and said that family connection had led the superstar to ask him
“I taught Gary when he was in Year 10 — prior to working in the media I was a school teacher, before my first full-time media job was sports editor at the Shepparton News,” Cusworth said.
“We reconnected a few years ago, I do a lot of master of ceremonies work, and he and I had a two-hour drive to Drouin one day for a sportsman's night and had a really good chat. I taught all four Ablett kids and know his dad personally from church, so we really got talking on that family level.”
Once Ablett had agreed to write a book, he asked Cusworth for his assistance; while the opportunity to delve deep into the mind of one of Australia's best sportspeople sounds like a journalist's dream, Cusworth said he had needed to think hard about taking the project on.
“I did have to have a think about it, I haven't done an interview of that magnitude before,” he said.
“But I'm confident in my writing, I got a really good grasp of writing at the Shepparton News. I worked pretty closely with (News sub-editor) Ronnie Anderson, Ronnie is a really good assistance as well as a sub-editor, he really helped me shape my writing for print.
“The writing process was almost a year long. Once I said yes to the book in around April of last year, Gary and I sporadically caught up for coffees, dinners, I just really got to know him on a far better level.
“We were very busy with it over Christmas when he had more time in the off-season, we really nailed it down over that period. It was a lot of work, but a fabulous process.”
Plenty separated Cusworth's first version of interactions with Ablett from his second — most notably, a legendary AFL career of 357 games, two premierships, two Brownlow medals, eight All-Australian selection and six club best-and-fairests.
But it was Ablett's personal development that impressed Cusworth most in producing the autobiography.
“What delighted me was seeing a guy I'd taught as a 15-year-old when he was a typical 15-year-old boy — probably a lot more interested in sport than he was learning — develop into a fabulous adult,” he said.
“Caring, engaging, he'll look you in the eye and shake your hand, and show a real interest in what you're doing. He made me feel equally valued, he asked as many questions of me as I did of him.”
The book — Gary Ablett: An autobiography — features contributions from Mark “Bomber” Thompson, Joel Selwood, Liam Pickering and a forward from AFL champion father Gary Ablett Sr.
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