Patrick Dangerfield’s return home to Moggs Creek is about more than family
PATRICK Dangerfield has found it difficult to explain why he left Adelaide to play for Geelong. Numerous times he said it was because of family, yet it is more than family, writes Mark Robinson.
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PATRICK Dangerfield didn’t want to use the word “cult”, but that’s exactly what it is in Moggs Creek.
There are 13 Dangerfields living in the Great Ocean Rd hamlet, which makes them pretty conspicuous when you consider 80-odd people live here permanently and 400 tops in the school holidays and weekends.
At those times, there are 30 Dangerfields buzzing around.
“It’s a good cult,” Dangerfield laughed. “A happy cult.”
Dangerfield has found it difficult to explain why he left Adelaide to play for Geelong. Numerous times he said it was because of family, yet it is more than family.
It’s history, as he talks about his Nan and Pa settling here in Moggs Creek in 1960.
It’s the future, as he beams about plans to start a family with his partner Mardi in a home he bought six years ago and will live in.
It’s the environment, as he waves an arm on the second floor of the family home, with trees growing above the decking so it feels like you’re secluded in a rain forest, and which is just 150m away from the deep blue of the Southern Ocean.
It’s family, as he tells stories about uncle Wal and auntie Fiona, uncle Greg and auntie Deb, uncle Paul and auntie Sue, uncle Pete and auntie Marilyn, and another auntie Sue, and all their kids, from Sam to Ruby to Rachel to Jack and Emma, some of whom live here and all of whom come home when they can.
And it’s happiness, as Dangerfield smiles a contented smile at being home after eight years in South Australia.
His mum and dad, Janette and John, know he’s happy.
“You can just tell, I knew his heart was here,” Janette said.
“It’s a relief, we can see it. I was looking at his interview at Geelong on the website and he couldn’t stop smiling. This is his home. He’s so happy.”
It clearly wasn’t about the money for Dangerfield.
“I’m getting paid incredibly well anyway, but when is enough enough?”
No, there’s a force or nature and bonding and love that lured him home.
“Come on,” he said, “you’ll have to come for a walk with me.”
The walk started out the front of Dangerfield’s home, went right, up a hill, then left along a road, through a track between houses, around the designated Easter Egg hunt area, up a hill, a sweep to the right, a left, then another left and finished back at Dangerfield’s house.
The walk would take eight minutes.
This day, it took half an hour because Dangerfield stopped and told stories and even took us to visiting the family.
“Right, just next door, Wal and Fi used to live there, but they now live in Torquay,” he said.
Keep walking. “This used to be our cricket pitch, me and Sam would bowl from here but it wasn’t so overgrown then and we’d bat up there in front of the garage door.’’
Keep walking. “Nan and Pa were one of the first people to live here. The Glen, which is a farm further inland, was sub-divided. I don’t think Pa paid much for it, I don’t think it was very much. But their place was totally burnt down in the fires of ’83.”
Keep walking. “This is uncle Paulo’s house and Sue’s and their three kids. Paulo claims to be the best surfer in the family ... he probably is.”
Keep walking. “This was my uncle Pete’s house, but they sold five or six years ago. They’re in Torquay now.”
Keep walking. “This is Debbie and Greggo’s house ... we’ll see if they’re home.”
Uncle Greg coached Dangerfield in the under-14s and under-16s at Anglesea and, with typical Dangerfield humour, Greg says he doesn’t get any credit for his nephew’s success.
Anglesea, which is three minutes drive from Moggs Creek, is Dangerfield’s footy club.
Dad played there, the uncles and the nephews, while most of the daughters and nieces played for the netball club.
Greg’s son Sam and Dangerfield are close in age and are best mates.
“I used to run to Deb and Greggo’s house when I was four,” Dangerfield said.
“Mum used to freak out, but Deb used to call mum and say, he’s with me. That’s how it was.”
Greg chimes in.
“At one stage, all of my brothers and sisters were living down here. We all get on very well, we’ve all been best mates. We do everything together, we live near each other, we drove to work together.’’
Dangerfield was part of that road trip. Every day for six years, Dangerfield would get a ride into high school with the his dad and two uncles, who worked in Geelong.
“Forty minutes in, 40 minutes back and we had to listen to Paulo talk crap,” Dangerfield joked.
“It’s really hard to describe but we did everything together; Surf, fish, BBQs, to school. Because the uncles and dad did everything together, Sam and I did everything together. To not have that for eight years and to have it back again, those are things I can’t wait for.”
Greg: “It’s a pretty special area and people won’t understand that. But if someone said to me, if I had anywhere in the world to live, I’d choose here.’’
Dangerfield: “It would be here, no doubt. For us, it’s the family connection. Family to me is not four people, it’s 20 people. And I don’t care if people don’t understand it. Here is special.”
Dangerfield kept quiet the news he was returning to Moggs Creek. He told his family about four weeks before the end of the home and away season, but not the expanded family. He joked again that the rest of them weren’t good at keeping secrets.
Dangerfield: “I changed my mind so often, then Phil (Walsh) died, and that really threw me out. I just had a gut feel this was the right thing to do. It was a tough one ... it really was two pulling emotions.’’
Keep walking: “This was where Nan and Pa lived. Pa has passed away, but Pa did not care about football. But my nan, since Pa passed away, nan is the football guru of the Abervale retirement village in Geelong. She loves it. Football is her life now. Looking at the house now, it doesn’t make me sad, it’s the people who make the memories.’’
Keep walking: “My aunty Jennifer owned that block for a while.’’
Keep walking: “This where we have the Easter egg hunt, right here near aunty Sue’s house. There’s Sue’s house over there. I’ve only been to one hunt in eight years. I’m looking forward to the next one.’’
Back at the house, it’s time for another cup of tea. The Dangerfields are big on cups of tea.
Sister Bethany is 22 and is rapt to have her brother home. She was 14 when he left for Adelaide and remembers crying at the airport.
“It’s great to have him back. I’m so happy, I didn’t get to spend that much time with him over the past eight years. He’s missed a lot of things the family has done,’’ she said.
Clearly, growing up in Moggs Creek, surrounded by a huge and loving family, helps explain why Dangerfield is acknowledged as a terrific young man and a natural in front of the TV cameras.
“That’s what you get when you have a close family,’’ he said.
“If you get too ahead of yourself they’re happy to bring you down. In the Dangerfield family, you have to have a thick skin because the banter flows openly and often.’’
Ever get ahead of yourself with all the acclaim?
“Don’t think so ... what’s the point?’’
Beth: “No, he never got a big head.’’
Janette: “If you saw the family in its entirety, it’s no problemo. He’s just Pat.’’
Beth, who is an accomplished netballer and who recently suffered an ACL injury, says she’s never been jealous of her famous older brother.
“Not jealous. Mum and dad obviously gave me so much love anyway. But I can be envious. I love sport and I’m as competitive as him, and I’m envious of what he’s got, but at the end of the day I’m proud and love outweighs everything.’’
Janette Dangerfield is the talker of the family. She’s funny, sharp and a little mischievous because she says he doesn’t like some people in the media but won’t name them.
“It’s great to have him back, but I would’ve accepted it either way,’’ Janette said.
Did you have a mother’s intuition he was coming home?
“Not until late in the season. I can have intuition and hope, but I learnt a long time ago that once they get to a certain age, it doesn’t matter what I think.’’
Dangerfield: “I didn’t really speak to mum and dad about it because I wanted mum and dad’s job to be mum and dad, if that makes sense.’’
John: “Pat made up his mind, not us.’’
In the kitchen, the discussion dances in all directions and at one stage, with cups of teas in their hands, all four Dangerfields were clamouring to be heard.
They talk about which number Dangerfield should wear (mum wants No.9), about dad playing at Newcomb and Anglesea, how Mardi is returning from Adelaide this week, about catching 10-foot sharks and snapper out the front, about holidaying in far northern Queensland, building the family home after the fires of ’83, how John and Janette met at Naughton’s pub in Carlton, about Beth’s paintings which don the walls, about a Balinese seat mum bought Dangerfield for his house house but he didn’t want, about the head-to-head between Dangerfield and Fyfe, about how Sam Mitchell didn’t win the Hawks B&F, about how much the family loves Nic Nat, about Daniel Chick, about playing alongside Joel Selwood, about Gazza and when dad taught him in Geelong, about Steve Johnson, Tom Hawkins and Josh Jenkins ... about everything a normal, excitable, robust family would talk about it.
And Dangerfield’s impersonation of Dermott Brereton’s commentary was priceless.
What they didn’t talk about is how wonderful a footballer Patrick Dangerfield is.
On Tuesday, the Geelong Advertiser ran six pages on Dangerfield. John said he read some of the articles when was getting morning coffees in Anglesea, but not all of it. Janette says she reads everything about her boy just to see who she “likes and dislikes’’, depending on what is written.
The family hated how fans on footy forums called Dangerfield a traitor and disloyal for leaving Adelaide.
Beth: “It’s just not true. When he played for Adelaide he gave 100 per cent.’’
Janette: “I don’t like it, but the easy way to fix that is just not read it. It hurts because I know it’s not true. I saw him after so many games and that body couldn’t give any more.’’
John: “What you see on those forums is not reflective of the greater community. The people in Adelaide last week were fantastic.’’
If you didn’t know where Moggs Creek was, you’d probably drive past it without blinking because it’s a sniff of a place on the Great Ocean Rd.
Google Maps show there are two communities divided by the creek, which runs at the bottom of the Dangerfield residence.
All the Dangerfields live on the right side, although Dangerfield and Mardi, who met in high school, have made the bold move of living on the left side.
“This is the good side, my house is on the evil side,’’ Dangerfield said.
“Yeah, that’s a sore point,’’ John joked again.
“We felt Mardi had to have some separation from us, more for her sake I think.’’
That’s traitor enough in this neck of the woods, but no one’s really complaining.
The boy is home and he and the rest of the clan couldn’t be happier.
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