Jeremy Cameron believes Patrick Dangerfield can add more than goals to Geelong’s forward line

Geelong fans should get comfortable seeing Patrick Dangerfield spend more time up forward this season, with one teammate welcoming the skipper’s weapons inside 50.

Patrick Dangerfield spent most of the Cats’ practice match against Essendon up forward. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Jeremy Cameron won’t put a number on how many goals Patrick Dangerfield can kick this season ahead of a likely early season forward move.

Instead, the Cats’ leading goalkicker turned to his captain’s array of skills as potential weapons for the Cats’ forward mix.

“What he had five, six goal assists in the grand final in 2022?,” Cameron said, ahead of the Cats’ opening round game against Brisbane on Thursday night.

“We’ll take that as well, it’s not just goals, it’s more so the team and if the team can kick goals.

“I think Gryan Miers sets up more goals than he kicks; it’s definitely a balance.”

The Cats have flagged plans for a positional switch for the 2016 Brownlow medallist as he enters the latter stages of his career, with Dangerfield expected to spend more time than he ever has inside 50.

Patrick Dangerfield (right) works with new recruit Bailey Smith during Geelong’s light session on Friday. Picture: Michael Klein

At his best a bollocking midfielder, Dangerfield has kicked 335 goals across 337 games, with his best season return 45 goals for Geelong in 2017, while he’s kicked more than 30 goals twice – the other in 2013 at Adelaide.

With Dangerfield spending the majority of his time forward with stints in the midfield in their two practice matches against Hawthorn and Geelong, Cameron was confident the 34-year-old would impact wherever he lined up this season.

“It’s getting back to the flexibility we have, we saw him in the centre bounces again (on Tuesday) … we know how damaging he is down there and he’s going to play a variety of different roles and when he is forward, it’s going to be great to have him down there and we know he can impact as a forward,” Cameron said.

“He’s shown us in the past, even when he was pretty much just a stand-alone mid, he’s kicked goals over his career and he’s very damaging when he gets forward.

“He’s going to be a good target for us when we need him, with myself and Shannon (Neale) and Ollie Henry and the other guys.

“It’s going to be something (where) we see how it goes and work away at it over the season.

“See how it goes early days and adjust when we need to.”

Jeremy Cameron during the Cats’ light training session on Friday.Picture: Michael Klein

Meanwhile, Cameron, who finished second in last year’s Coleman medal with 58 goals, is confident he can still take his game to new heights as he approaches 32.

Finishing the year with 63 goals after finals, he described himself as inaccurate – kicking 41 behinds – and “floating in and out of games” at time.

“It’s never going to be perfect,” he said.

“It’s a bit like golf, I play a lot of golf and you never play a perfect round, it’s always frustrating, there is always a missed putt or something you can improve on, I look at it that way.”

Missing just one day of training after his late January wedding to long-term partner Indiana Putra, Cameron said his role – whether it was playing closer to goal or further up the field – would depend on the Cats’ opposition week-to-week.

“I like to think I’m pretty flexible anyway and we’ll change that up a fair bit throughout the season,” he said.

Building upon his chemistry with fellow tall Shannon Neale following Tom Hawkins’ retirement, as well as any of the number of teammates who will come through the forward line, also remains a priority for Cameron.

“We know how big he (Shannon) is, and powerful and strong and fast as well, we saw that in the game on Tuesday night (last week), there was a couple times he really exploded away,” Cameron said.

Originally published as Jeremy Cameron believes Patrick Dangerfield can add more than goals to Geelong’s forward line