Dangerfield the midfielder a much better fit for spluttering Geelong
GEELONG has a dilemma and so does Patrick Dangerfield, with the champion Cat struggling to adjust to being asked to play two roles — as a midfielder and a forward. Time to give him one job writes MATTHEW LLOYD.
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PATRICK Dangerfield is having a good season, but not a great one by his lofty standards.
Midfielders Nathan Fyfe, Jack Macrae, Tom Mitchell, Patrick Cripps, Trent Cotchin and Steele Sidebottom are all ahead of him and inside the top 10 of the coaches’ association player of the year award in which each coach votes 5-4-3-2-1 on a weekly basis.
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Dangerfield has polled in multiple games but has yet to be the best player on the ground in any, which is a far cry from the form that has made him both a Brownlow medallist and a five-time All-Australian.
Dangerfield’s form sums up Geelong in many ways.
Their best has been exceptional, but the Cats, like Dangerfield, have been both spasmodic within games and from one week to the next.
When a champion like Dangerfield isn’t at his best, we often ask the question: “Is he playing sore?”
Only those inside Geelong know the answer.
What I do know is that Dangerfield is being asked to play two roles for Geelong, as a midfielder and a forward, and I don’t believe he has quite mastered either in 2018.
Dangerfield has spent 59 per cent of his game time in the midfield and 41 per cent in the forward line in 2018.
In 2017, that breakdown was 74 per cent in the midfield and 26 per cent in attack.
In his Brownlow year with the Cats in 2016, his first at the club, that ratio was 83 per cent in the midfield and 17 per cent forward.
Dangerfield’s current ratio is not allowing Geelong to see the best of him in either role.
Seeing Dangerfield contest the ruck last weekend showed just how much Chris Scott is asking of his main man and the frustration was there for all to see in the way Dangerfield went about those contests.
Dangerfield has kicked nine goals from his eight games this season, yet he had 16 after nine rounds last year when playing more through the midfield.
That surprise factor of Dangerfield going forward doesn’t exist at the moment as he is stationed there so often.
Opponents plan for it as they know it will happen for large periods, every week.
I will never forget the chaos the move caused in Alastair Clarkson’s coaches’ box last year when Dangerfield hurt his knee.
Dangerfield went to full-forward and kicked 5.6 on one leg when the Hawks were pressing up high and it left him inside 50 with Hawthorn defenders petrified at the thought of who was standing 10m behind them.
Even Luke Hodge was wanting out of his customary loose man role he plays so well.
John Longmire and his rampaging Swans were also not ready for the Dangerfield express in last year’s semi-final win at the MCG when Scott started Dangerfield at full-forward.
Dangerfield took the game away from the Swans by quarter-time in a powerful display of overhead marking.
Dane Rampe has never looked as nervous seeing an incoming ball as he did that night, with Dangerfield in his area. Again, it was a move that couldn’t fully be planned for by the Swans as he had been a midfielder for most of the season.
Geelong is the 18th-ranked clearance side and its underwhelming rucks in Zac Smith and Rhys Stanley give them little opportunity to be proactive at the stoppage, with the Cats ranking 15th for hitouts to advantage.
The lack of consistency in their ability to compete from Smith and Stanley must drive competitors like Dangerfield and the Selwood brothers crazy.
That will not change, so a lot will be asked of Esava Ratugolea in the back half of the season.
This is all the more reason to get Dangerfield back playing mostly in the midfield.
His Brownlow Medal-winning year — in which the ratio was 80 per cent midfield and 20 per cent in the forward line — looks to be the right balance for what would be best for Dangerfield and Geelong.
Scott needs to allow Dangerfield to dominate one area of the ground, not be pulled between two which hurts the continuity of a player’s game, no matter how good they are.
The dynamics of the midfield dream team with Gary Ablett in the mix also looks to lack cohesion. Getting the midfield personnel gelling with the right blend of ball hunters and role players has never quite looked right at Geelong this season.
Injuries have hurt Geelong’s continuity and getting Brandon Parfitt and Nakia Cockatoo back for the second half of the year should allow for Dangerfield to be the midfielder Geelong needs him to be to challenge for this year’s premiership.
A premiership is all that is missing from Dangerfield’s CV and asking him to be Superman is only taking the Cats further away from that.
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Originally published as Dangerfield the midfielder a much better fit for spluttering Geelong
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