Patrick Dangerfield suggests 34-round season in bid for greater equality from AFL fixture

PATRICK Dangerfield likes the idea of a 17-round AFL season but can’t see it happening. So he’s floated his own radical idea on how to revamp the AFL schedule. HAVE YOUR SAY

GEELONG champion Patrick Dangerfield has floated his own radical idea on how to revamp the AFL schedule.

As debate continues over the merits of the existing 22-round fixture Dangerfield, a member of the AFL Players Association, says he’s a fan of a shorter 17-match season.

But he can’t see the majority of his colleagues giving that concept the green light if that meant a cut to their pay packet.

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“I don’t mind it, but I think if you said to the vast majority of players ‘it’s going to be a 17-week season, so if you’re going to cut the season by 20 per cent, well we’re going to cut your pay by 20 per cent’, then I don’t think too many would put their hand up and say yes to it,” Dangerfield told SEN on Monday morning.

“I think 17 games makes sense purely because of the fact that it’s fair — you play everyone once.”

Gary Ablett, Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield train at the Cats’ Deakin University base at Waurn Ponds. Picture: Alan Barber

The star Cat, who was at the forefront last year as the player body pushed for its new pay deal, then suggested his own idea on how to create greater equality from the fixture.

“What if you played everyone twice, so you played 34 games? But instead of playing 120 minutes of footy, you cut it to 18-minute fixed quarters, so you’re playing less than 80 minutes of footy?” he said.

“I’ve worked it out, it’s bit over five games extra that you’d play a season ... obviously in terms of the revenue that that would create, it would jump significantly because there’d be more games played.”

“Rather than (clubs) say you can come back in November, you would only give clubs a six-week window of preparation

“You talk to most staff and they say ‘we need 10 weeks to get our players or we need 12 weeks to get our players ready’, but if you put it as mandatory — you’ve got six weeks, good luck, that’s what it is ... then you’d just have to adjust to it.”

The 2016 Brownlow medallist was also quizzed as to what advice he’d give Tigers star Dustin Martin after his historic 2017 season.

The Geelong star said he’d recently caught up with Martin, and didn’t believe Richmond’s own ball-winning champ wouldn’t fall into any potential pitfalls that might await the game’s best player.

“I think he’ll (Martin) handle it incredibly well,” Dangerfield said.

“You’ve got to enjoy the ride. When you are lucky enough to win it, and Dusty certainly wasn’t luck for Dusty because he had an incredible season, there’s other opportunities that then open up.

“The advice that I would probably give him is ‘pick the right ones’ and then let a few go through to the keeper.

“I’ve had a bit of an issue with it, just knowing when to say no to different opportunities that come along.

“I’ve probably said yes to too many things and you go. ‘well gee, the risk is overexposure’ and doing too much and you get sick of hearing your own voice, but I certainly don’t think it’s an issue for Dusty.

“He picks and chooses the things that he does really, really well.”

Danger says Dusty knows how to handle the hype. Pic: AAP