Danger man’s ready to go again … but has one eye on lethal Lachie
The AFL's two most successful clubs of the 21st century meet at the MCG, where Geelong's Patrick Dangerfield holds the key to premiership glory.
Patrick Dangerfield produced a masterpiece to get Geelong into the AFL grand final.
He probably needs another piece de resistance for the Cats to win the flag.
The task is difficult and yet eminently doable. Cold Chisel released Saturday Night and Flame Trees in the same season.
What a day is dawning. One of the finest on the Australian sporting calendar. All Victorian roads, from the sticks to the CBD, lead to the MCG, this famous, cavernous, colossal stadium attracting folks to the premiership decider like moths to the giant sporting flame.
Everyone loves a granny, in life and in sport, and the AFL’s willingness to give the people what they want – an old-fashioned and wonderful 2.30pm kick-off – makes this the best granny of the lot.
Cats versus Lions. The game the 21st century had to have.
No blockbuster has busted so much block. They’ve both won four premierships since 2000; they’ve both made six grand finals; the winner on Saturday arvo becomes the winningest club of recent times.
Who’s favourite? Who’s the underdog? “Equal-dogs,” said Lions coach Chris Fagan.
Which is what he said before last year’s thrashing of Sydney. “We’ve had some battles,” he said. “Probably pretty equal.”
Grand finals are the best or worst days of your career. Nothing beats winning. Losing is insufferable. Dangerfield has experienced both.
“Feeling great,” he said. “We’re ready. We’ve had a really enjoyable week. We’re well prepared. We had a really good training session on Wednesday.
This is why you play the game … there’s nothing like it. It’s a wonderful feeling that you’re in the biggest game of the year and you’re a live chance.
It’s about the possibilities of, what if? Because as wonderful a day as it can be, it can be equally devastating. That’s the incredible part about sport. That’s why it means so much.
“Because the highs are high and the lows are equally low. For us, it’s been about embracing the week, enjoy every second of it, try not to play the game in your head before the siren sounds on Saturday … I feel like our guys have done that. It’s all ahead of us now.”
Dangerfield glowed with optimism at Friday’s grand final parade. If he was being paraded before the Melbourne Cup, you’d throw a tenner on him.
The Lions are buoyed by the return of legendary co-captain Lachie Neale from a calf injury but the Cats are uplifted to the heavens by their veteran skipper being in the form of his life last week against Hawthorn.
He just needs to do it again.
“The ebbs and flows of the season,” Dangerfield said when asked what made him proudest of the Cats’ season. “It’s a long year and being able to break it down into blocks of time, and executing when you get into that groundhog period of the season where you don’t feel like you’re getting a lot out of games, but it’s critical that you keep winning and building as the season progresses.
“Then over the final six weeks of the season, controlling what we could, which is how we played regardless of who we played against and getting better each game.”
He added: “That’s the focus of ours each season. It’s hard to execute at times. And then it’s about executing in the biggest games under the most amount of pressure. There is no bigger game than tomorrow and it’s a great challenge for both sides. I’m really proud of our guys for the way they’ve attacked the season.”
There will be 46 players in tight shorts and singlets at the MCG, and 100,000 flag-waving, full-throated spectators, and two mastermind coaches in Fagan and the Cats’ Chris Scott, watching proceedings like a couple of chessmasters moving their pawns and rooks, but somehow it’s the mercurial Dangerfield who holds the game in the palms of his strong and silky hands.
Or does he? What if it’s Neale? “He’s a pretty good player,” Dangerfield understated. “He’s won two Brownlows and multiple all-Australians and best-and-fairests – the guy has done it all. He’s an absolute star.
“We’re mindful of just how good he can be. It’s not just Lachie, it’s others as well, but looking at the vision, he looked pretty good the other day.
“Our guys are going to have to be at their best. We’re really respectful of just how bloody good he is.”
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