Geelong must do everything it can to land Gary Ablett this trade period, writes Sam Landsberger
PATRICK Dangerfield’s amazing ability to swing forward means the Cats must go even harder at Gary Ablett this off-season and make the club a scary prospect going into 2018.
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IT’S time to escalate Operation Get Gary.
Geelong coach Chris Scott might consider locking list managers Stephen Wells (Cats), Scott Clayton (Gold Coast) and Liam Pickering (Ablett’s manager) in a room together until a trade is agreed.
Brownlow medallist Patrick Dangerfield on Friday night showed just how devastating this team would become should the Little Master return home.
Dangerfield played out of the goalsquare and was the matchwinner. In Round 17 against Hawthorn he played out of the goalsquare and was the matchwinner.
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In those two games, he slotted 9.7 and sent his direct opponent — including Hawthorn general Luke Hodge — to bed with nightmares.
Danger went berserk against the Hawks with five goals in 35 minutes.
Against the Swans he had 4.3 by halftime.
Imagine Dangerfield, Ablett and captain Joel Selwood joining forces, with the third wheel spinning to full-forward full-time? Suddenly these blokes could be vying for Coleman Medals, not just Brownlows.
The old-school tactic is now Scott’s September wildcard — and one that might have had Adelaide coach Don Pyke reaching for the Panadol on Friday night.
Next season it could be Scott’s Plan A. The expression on Sydney coach John Longmire’s face, somewhere between shock and disgust, would sum up the apprehension across the league.
Playing against the league’s most miserly defence, Dangerfield disabled Sydney’s system like a computer virus.
Stationing him at full-forward was a move out of the handbook used in decades gone.
Opposed primarily to Dane Rampe, and sometimes to Callum Mills, his superstar reputation evoked a level of fear few players — excluding Ablett — can replicate.
Rampe’s nightmare night helped keep Geelong’s premiership dreams alive. When the game was hot, so was Dangerfield.
He kicked Geelong’s first two goals after grasping a contested mark on Rampe and then drawing a free kick when Mills grasped his jumper.
His third goal came when Rampe infringed and his fourth, to end the second quarter, gave Dangerfield his equal-biggest halftime haul.
There was a flat snap for a behind and another shot blasted out on the full.
Dangerfield decided to move himself to full-forward against Hawthorn after hurting his ankle, albeit low on defensive running.
“I’m not prepared to call it ‘The Legend (of Dangerfield)’ just yet, but it’s getting there,” Scott said after that game.
On Friday night it was presumably Scott who ordered him there from the first bounce.
It worked, and it might have Crows defender Jake Kelly struggling for sleep this week.
Meanwhile Ablett will be sleeping peacefully when this trade is done.
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