Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood fired but they had no help on poor night for Geelong

IT won’t be any consolation to Patrick Dangerfield, but he will at least be able to have a drink at the Brownlow Medal count on Monday night and he may need more than one.

IT won’t be any consolation to Patrick Dangerfield, but he will at least be able to have a drink at the Brownlow Medal count on Monday night.

After what happened last night, he probably needs one. Or more than a few to quell his disappointment.

For as hard as Dangerfield worked in Friday night’s 37-point preliminary final loss to a relentless Sydney, he and Joel Selwood effectively went two-out against a maul of Sydney midfielders who dismantled the Cats’ hopes.

So much of the talk this year around Geelong this year centred on a catchword — Dangerwood — denoting the importances of Dangerfield and Selwood to the club’s fortunes.

Both had 39 touches on Friday night. But they simply did not get enough help around the contests and unless the Cats can extract more from their other mids next year, more frustration will roll on.

A disappointed Patrick Dangerfield after the preliminary final loss. Picture: Michael Klein

As Triple M’s Jason Dunstall pointed out on Friday night, too much reliance sits on those two players, whereas Sydney’s core group of midfielders — which bats as deep as any side — stretches to more than half a dozen.

Dunstall said: “They (Geelong) are a two-man team ...” The same couldn’t be said for Sydney’s hard-nut midfielders.

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In keeping with blue-collar work ethic, and ubiquitous approach around every contest, the Swans don’t need fancy catchwords. They wear teams down because there are so many of them, and each is better known as part of a collective rather than as individuals.

Isaac Heeney was enormous, and could in a handful of years come to rival Dangerfield as one of the best players in the competition. Tom Mitchell got the Swans going early which would have brought a smile to the face of Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson, who was watching in the crowd.

Joel Selwood tried his best to get Geelong back into the game. Picture: George Salpigtidis

Dan Hannebery and Josh Kennedy were solid as usual. Luke Parker looked done for the night at one stage with a knee scare, but emerged almost as indestructible as ever. And there were others, too.

The Swans extracted the ball out of the middle with the sort of monotony that wins premierships. If they can do the same as they did on Friday night, they will be hard to stop.

It started less than thirty seconds in the match as the Swans wrested the ball out of the first centre contest.

By quarter’s end, the Swans had seven goals to nil, and the game was effectively over. So much of that rested on the hard work generated out of the middle, as well as the rock-solid run from defence.

Dangerfield has a date with what has long seemed his Brownlow Medal destiny; Sydney has something that he would value even more — the chance to win an AFL flag in seven days’ time.

Originally published as Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood fired but they had no help on poor night for Geelong