{"id":74129,"date":"2025-05-07T15:38:51","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T05:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/?p=74129"},"modified":"2026-07-03T10:29:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T00:29:56","slug":"the-tao-of-dangerfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/2025\/05\/the-tao-of-dangerfield\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tao of Dangerfield"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Gary Ablett Jr returned to Geelong after the 2017 season, the theory was that he would play forward mostly and pinch hit in the middle.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.afl.com.au\/news\/97681\/ablett-will-kick-40-plus-goals-next-year-bartel\">I remember plenty being made of him being the second coming of Leigh Matthews \u2013 the ultimate midfield star who is so good that he will just go forward and kick a ho-hum 40 goals.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jsXnv9ClAmQ&amp;ab_channel=AFL\">Ablett kicked 16 goals in 19 games in 2018, but did sniff 40 in 2019 kicking 34 in 24. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>None of that is to denigrate Ablett, one of the best players ever.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s to make the point that what Patrick Dangerfield is doing is generally impossible even for the greatest players.<\/p>\n<p>Dangerfield is playing mostly as a forward who goes into the middle if and when the game reaches nut crunch time.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1918641481398546774&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2025%2F05%2Fthe-tao-of-dangerfield%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In eight games this season, he\u2019s kicked 16 goals &#8211; already his best tally since 2021.<\/p>\n<p>If he keeps up his two-goal-per game average for 20 games, he\u2019ll kick 40 goals this year.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not just goals. He\u2019s also been involved in about 26% of Geelong\u2019s scores, which is second on the Cats behind only Jeremy Cameron and his best since 2020.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1918639714044666237&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2025%2F05%2Fthe-tao-of-dangerfield%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As a Richmond fan, I\u2019m hesitant to say this.<\/p>\n<p>But what has impressed me most is that Dangerfield has entered Dustin Martin territory when the ball is coming to him in a 1v1.<\/p>\n<p>Geelong fans have worked out that Patty has worked out how to use his strength as a key forward.<\/p>\n<p>They swell as the ball goes toward an isolated Dangerfield close to goal.<\/p>\n<p>You can feel the crowd warming their vocal cords in anticipation, waiting for him to win and for them to roar.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s become a symbiotic relationship, similar to what Richmond fans had with Dusty.<\/p>\n<p>Also like with Dusty, Cats fans have generally been right.<\/p>\n<p>It is a triumph of coaching that no general forward has more offensive 1v1 situations than Patty Dangerfield this year with 2.9.<\/p>\n<p>It is a triumph of Dangerfield that he wins 52% of them.<\/p>\n<p>The way he\u2019s used, and the way Geelong operates generally, is another triumph of coaching and shows that Chris Scott is on another level to everyone else.<\/p>\n<p>That goes far beyond the Xs and Os on the field. The Cats\u2019 infrastructure is the envy of the league.<\/p>\n<p>Geelong is a <em>White Lotus <\/em>footy club, where the same spirits swan in and out of the club but they come in new forms.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1910192438825677264&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2025%2F05%2Fthe-tao-of-dangerfield%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Nowhere is that clearer than the forward line.<\/p>\n<p>In their 2022 premiership, their three medium-tall forwards were Jeremy Cameron, Tom Hawkins and Gary Rohan in that order.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1820716441911369838&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2025%2F05%2Fthe-tao-of-dangerfield%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Today Jezza is still the alpha dog up there, Shannon Neale is a worse version of Tom Hawkins, but Dangerfield is what would have happened if Gary Rohan and a tank (rather than a physio) had a baby.<\/p>\n<p>The shortfall of Neale not being Hawkins is made up for by Dangerfield being approximately 15 million times better than Rohan, and they\u2019re kicking about the same number of goals as their premiership year.<\/p>\n<p>No other club has the vision and the infrastructure to cycle players in and out of key roles like Geelong.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, none of it truly captures the experience of watching Patty Dangerfield this year.<\/p>\n<p>He has been transcendent.<\/p>\n<p>He attacks the ball like George Costanza eating the sundae at the US Open.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G7MgaRS0MIE&#038;ab_channel=LordSiriuz<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s as committed as he is ferocious.<\/p>\n<p>He sees the ball and doesn\u2019t appear to see anything else around it, because nothing can impede his path to the ball.<\/p>\n<p>Two weeks in a row, in Geelong\u2019s games against Carlton and Collingwood, a friend and I have exchanged texts that just said \u201cDanger\u201d as he ran through would-be tacklers like a freight train while gathering the ball.<\/p>\n<p>In one-on-ones or when the ball is in dispute, his opponents have as much chance of stopping him as Seth Rogen did of impressing Rebecca Hall\u2019s doctor friends in <em>The Studio<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1917403474418938061&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2025%2F05%2Fthe-tao-of-dangerfield%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>His ability to be bigger, stronger, and still faster than most of \u00a0his opponents is LeBron-ish.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1911458466192896378&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2025%2F05%2Fthe-tao-of-dangerfield%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Both guys, even at an advanced age, were such good athletes in their prime that they\u2019re still better than pretty much everything else.<\/p>\n<p>I want to close with this.<\/p>\n<p>The AFL is a zero-sum league.<\/p>\n<p>You either win the premiership or you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>For that reason, and for reasons of massive bias, I will always hold Dustin Martin in higher esteem historically than I will Patrick Dangerfield.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"EVERY goal Dustin Martin kicked in the finals | AFL\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7nMV0uaBK8o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Having Dusty on your team was guaranteeing yourself the best player in every big game.<\/p>\n<p>But this season has given me a new appreciation for Dangerfield and his week after week excellence.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s played 345 games in his career and virtually none of them have been bad, especially in the last decade.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s been true even he\u2019s morphed from a skinny sprinter at Adelaide, to a contested beast with a barrel chest at Geelong, to a key forward who can still be the best midfielder in the league for a quarter if his team needs it.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a privilege to watch him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Gary Ablett Jr returned to Geelong after the 2017 season, the theory was that he would play forward mostly and pinch hit in the middle. I remember plenty being made of him being the second coming of Leigh Matthews \u2013 the ultimate midfield star who is so good that he will just go forward&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":74131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8298,598,344],"tags":[29,611,8260],"hub_post_cat":[],"class_list":["post-74129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-rules","category-guywholikessport","category-special-interest","category-sports","tag-afl","tag-geelong-cats","tag-guywholikessport"],"acf":{"md_tip_date":null,"md_tip_date_end":null,"md_market_url":"","tip_date":"07\/05\/2025","event_country":"Australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74129"},{"taxonomy":"hub_post_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post_cat?post=74129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}