Scott Walsh: It’s OK for Adelaide Crows fans to feel cheated by Dangerfield’s departure

FEEL free to vent, Crows fans. Feel cheated. As much as I can’t agree with you, I applaud that you care enough to be upset.

BIG Matt is in the beer game. Makes his quid pouring pints for thirsty tradies, truckies, tax accountants ... whoever slaps their cash on the bar.

And — this is important — he doesn’t do it in one of those self-indulgent hipster joints where people happily pay $14 a jar for slow service, exposed brick and weird music bouncing off concrete floors.

Nope, this is a pub where you can hear your mate talk. Hell, it’s a boozer where you don’t even need to bring a mate because fellas like Matt know their regulars and can hold a conversation.

Pouring cold beer is part of Matt’s gig, but equally important is talking to blokes — everyday blokes who play footy, know footy and love footy.

Matt and his colleagues hear every opinion and every solution to every problem in the game. They agree and disagree, discuss and debate. They are basically your own personal version of Rowey and Bicks, or Jars and Louie, but who refill your glass and never hit the “dump” button.

So when it comes to pulling apart the Patrick Dangerfield situation, Matt is perhaps second only to Dangerfield himself for time spent talking about it. He’s close to holding a PhD on the subject.

Which is why his Facebook post on Wednesday afternoon, just hours after Dangerfield’s departure was confirmed, came as such a surprise.

“Absolutely stunned how accepting everyone is with Dangerfield leaving,” he said. “He’s only 25 and about to hit his absolute peak. At least Ablett and Buddy delivered flags to their teams, Danger has delivered a prelim (nothing) and the smart money says he won’t be at the Cats as everyone is presuming!”

For what it’s worth, I cannot buy any argument that says Dangerfield owes anything more to Adelaide. The club held a contract with him and paid for his services. That contract is finished. And no-one could refute that Dangerfield hasn’t busted his gut to hold up his end — especially this year, amid all the speculation, tragedy and, in the end, the knowledge that he would not be part of the effort next year.

He was named All-Australian for the third time, is the favourite to win the Malcolm Blight Medal tonight and might even run down Nat Fyfe to win the Brownlow Medal on Monday night.

From a business sense, he’s been paid well and, as much as any one player can influence a team outcome, he’s earnt every cent.

Matt, it must be said, is also a Crows man. But, still, surely those countless hours of front-bar debate ensured that common sense would over-ride the one-eyed, irrational side of fandom?

So I bit. How many 25-year-olds can say they’ve spent eight years in the same workplace, I asked. And if this is all about loyalty, then where was the loyalty shown to the 20 or so players who had their AFL careers ended when they were delisted by the Crows across the eight seasons Dangerfield was at West Lakes?

It was a watertight case. A clinical counter-argument. Rational, sensible, logical.

Then Matt hit it with a three-corner jack.

“Supporters are allowed to feel like that though,” he said. “It’s natural when it comes to sport, when you’re emotionally invested in it, to feel a sense of betrayal, whether it’s justified or not, towards someone who you’ve ‘known’ for eight years that is all of a sudden ultimately in a role trying to prevent your team from achieving success.”

Bang.

The concept of Adelaide fans feeling cheated by Dangerfield’s move might not make 100 per cent sense. But neither does wearing a blue, red and gold scarf in public. Or sitting in the rain on a freezing July Saturday night. Or paying $9 for beer in a plastic cup.

But it doesn’t have to. Because that’s what being a footy supporter is all about. You just do it.

So vent, Crows fans. Feel cheated. As much as I can’t agree with you, I applaud that you care enough to be upset.