Socks up, cup of tea, talking garbage: Behind the scenes with Patrick Dangerfield

1 week ago 4

Patrick Dangerfield starts our conversation with a friendly warning: “You are speaking to the wrong bloke”.

He knows the plan is to unpack the preparation of a modern-day great as he enters his 12th finals series. At 35, he is just as critical to his team’s fortunes as he was in his prime.

The potential questions are endless: What is on his mind? What schedule does he map out? Does he create a theme for the series? What does he lock in? What remains loose? How does he slip into a mindset to perform? What work does he do on his body? How does he prepare for the opposition? What has experience taught him?

With that semi-serious Dangerfield expression that could become a symbol for relaxed professionalism when his remarkable career finally ends, he explains why another player might have more to offer: “I don’t think about anything.”

Mardi and Patrick Dangerfield celebrate her flag with Geelong Amateurs last weekend.

OK, so he might not let unnecessary thoughts clutter his mind, but he knows by now this time of the year is what counts.

“The feeling of heading into September when I feel like the team is in a really good spot… It honestly feels like everything up to this point just doesn’t mean anything. It’s just not important in any way whatsoever. It’s just not,” he said.

“You realise no one gives a f--k and all that matters is winning finals. As great as the individual stuff is and as much as you want it when you’re younger, it just doesn’t f--king matter.”

The father-of-three, who has made many within his club rethink their views on what constitutes an ideal preparation for games, starts talking amid the bustle of the Cats’ café on Friday morning before the competition heads into the pre-finals bye which was introduced in 2016, his first season at Geelong.

“Time has reinforced for me that the week leading into the weekend off is the most critical part of the preparation. You shouldn’t be on, except when you are,” Dangerfield said.

Dangerfield and Joel Selwood soak up the 2022 premiership.

“That’s like two [training] blocks. Two hours and two hours. Beyond that, I should be isolated from footy.”

Following their final round win over Richmond, the Cats’ players took a short break then had an optional day for recovery on Tuesday, which Dangerfield often does at Torquay’s RACV resort, saving him from driving into the big smoke from his Moggs Creek home on the surf coast where he has lived since joining the Cats.

The premiership midfielder, Brownlow medallist, eight time All-Australian, four-time club best and fairest, lives in the picturesque coastal hideaway on the Great Ocean Road with his wife, Mardi, and their three young children George, Felicity and Winnifred. It is where he grew up, close to family and lifelong friends and the place he was always heading as soon as he decided to return from Adelaide after giving the Crows eight outstanding years.

On Wednesday and Friday, Dangerfield kept his body ticking over in those two hour blocks. He was in, then out.

“The week is totally detox for me. The breaks throughout the season for me personally have been great because from the moment you know you’re not going to play a game the level of switch off is extraordinary,” Dangerfield said.

“I can’t tell you how we’re gonna play because I just don’t care because this week is about mentally refreshing.”

It’s the ninth time a pre-finals bye has been part of his preparation having played 28 finals (seven at Adelaide, 21 at Geelong), a tally second only to Collingwood’s Scott Pendlebury among current players.

Dangerfield became a premiership player in his 303rd match (and 26th final), aged 32, in 2022.

This time he heads into the finals with the chance to become a premiership captain and join his great mate Joel Selwood and two equally respected Cats skippers Cameron Ling and Tom Harley, who earned that title this century.

He says he didn’t need to say anything to this group to ensure training was sharp. His Cats’ teammates know what is required at this time of the season.

Premiership teammate Zach Guthrie says Dangerfield understands not everyone is as relaxed as him, so the skipper lets people go about their own business.

“He always keeps things pretty light and breezy and individual because everyone is different in their prep,” Guthrie said.

Dangerfield is known for his explosive bursts. The Cats play Brisbane in Friday night’s qualifying final.

That laissez-faire approach initially shocked teammates such as Selwood.

Selwood’s approach had been forged amid the hard units who drove Geelong to three flags in five seasons from 2007-11. Dangerfield was a nerdy disruptor who surfed the day before games, smiled running up the race and didn’t feel the need to reveal his disappointment to show he was hurting. Selwood was a diligent adherent to his own method.

Gradually, they took lessons from each other and both admit they became better because of the other’s presence. Dangerfield is no fool. He took on as much as he gave off.

“In a captaincy sense you’ve got to be far more aware of your surroundings. The most important conversation that any player ever has, I think, is a hallway conversation. They’re pots of gold because it’s sort of a comfortable environment,” Dangerfield said.

“A knockabout conversation gets into the weeds of random things.

“It can lead you just to so many different areas and the players’ personality and how they’re feeling because it’s a comfortable environment. You’re not looking at them face-to-face. [You are] just sort of walking with them.”

The Cats’ football department redevelopment allows such conversations because players constantly walk along a narrow path stretching from the dining room past the football department to the gym.

“I’m way better as an older player at not being too reactive to those guys who are short, or you can see are anxious because everyone every day has got some shit going on,” Dangerfield said.

“You can never just judge someone on that one interaction that you’ve had, on that one day because what’s the night before being like, what’s the week before being like?”

He’s an admirer of his coach Chris Scott’s pragmatic and considered decision-making, a characteristic that flows through the football department.

Physically, the explosive midfielder who could spring from ground to feet in congestion and put a metre on opponents better than anyone the game has seen, is less fatigued than in previous years.

That’s due to his role inside the forward 50, where he has kicked 27 goals in 20 matches as a perfect sidekick to Jeremy Cameron. He doesn’t have vice-like hands or Dunstall-like accuracy but when he hits the ball at pace he can be frightening as he barges his way through tackles more easily than SWAT teams knock down doors.

“It’s just not as demanding in a fatigue sense compared to playing midfield and not always knowing where the contact’s coming from and then just probably doing an extra two-plus Ks as a midfielder, so you don’t empty yourself into that level of fatigue,” Dangerfield said.

“There’s a lot more high speed and stop-start acceleration/deceleration efforts as a forward, but they’re not as long and you’re more rested in between those efforts compared to setting up structures. You’re ahead of the ball. You’re not in the next play all the time. That has been good for me physically as a 35-year-old there is no doubt about that.”

The change requires management. His relationship with respected physio Steven Saunders is integral to his performance. He sees him regularly to guard against soft tissue injuries.

“Consistency is such an important part as you get older because if you don’t have it, then it does bleed into the next injury and the next injury,” he admits. “[I might see Steve] for 20 minutes to half an hour to an hour and 20 minutes, and then an extra half an hour. It just depends.”

Keiser squats, resisted sprints and sled pushes have always been a part of Dangerfield’s routine and he follows a pre-training and playing routine to activate key muscle groups before hitting the turf.

Dangerfield missed two games mid-season with as much, he says, a sore as a strained hamstring but has not played every match in a season since COVID interrupted 2020.

Surfing, a dip in the ocean, fishing, the odd job around the house, as well as whatever any dad with young children is required to do remains on Dangerfield’s agenda.

Last Thursday he held a chainsaw at his father-in-law’s property when branches needed culling. He describes his eating patterns as “nothing special”, a lasagne from local caterers Steampacket saving him from cooking the night before games.

“I’m better at not eating the kids’ meals now than I was a couple of years ago,” he jokes.

Dangerfield’s maturing has occurred in the public eye, the captaincy and fatherhood rounding out what was, a decade ago, a well-rounded, albeit occasionally self-absorbed, outlook.

Mardi has played a key role in supporting his preparation and maintaining perspective.

“Mardi is amazing, a genuine superstar and [she] allows me to be selfish when it comes to the playing piece,” Dangerfield said.

His wife also understands footy and finals. Mardi won a premiership with Geelong Amateurs on Sunday with Dangerfield a proud supporter as she battled the decider out in Lara. He had spent Saturday afternoon making a guest appearance at Melbourne Marine Centre, a venue far removed from football but at the heart of his passion for the ocean.

A short appearance to kick a couple of goals and then Tuesday’s main session before the day off on Wednesday filled his start to this week ahead of Thursday’s captain’s run.

The captain’s run a day before a game is unstructured with a former teammate joking that Dangerfield and now retired Norm Smith medallist Isaac Smith used to “take the piss”, viewing the session more as a chance to get out of the house than to train. Often Dangerfield would not even touch the football.

“There might be a bit of truth in that,” Dangerfield laughs when told of that observation.

“My view on a captain’s run is you do what you feel you need to do in order to play. If that means you don’t come out. Don’t go out.

“The great thing is that we have got a coach who thinks that as well. It’s not ‘you weren’t doing anything on the captain’s run and you’ve played poorly. What’s going on?’ It’s never that with Chris [Scott]. He’s so pragmatic, reassuring, and footy’s hard. He’s never forgotten what it’s like to play.”

Smith won the 2022 Norm Smith Medal with 14 votes, just edging out Dangerfield who received 10 votes in a performance that stamped him as an all-time great of the game. It also made the pair’s “do what is best for you” preparation a benchmark.

Danger and former premiership teammate Isaac Smith have a similar approach.

Dangerfield didn’t always have the ability to switch off so easily.

“I was really highly wound up when I first got to the Crows. That was probably environmental. ‘Craigy’ [former coach Neil Craig] was on before a game and ‘Goody’ [former Crows captain Simon Goodwin] was on before a game and that was like three hours before. Scott Thompson was never on and he was so goddamn consistent and always good,” he said.

The youngster realised quickly that being highly strung before the match didn’t work for him. It might for others. That’s not for him to judge. Being dogmatic when it comes to football is just not his, or Geelong’s, style.

Dangerfield has also geared his preparation with one eye on timing his run so he gives himself the best chance to perform well when September arrives. Observing how the Hawks’ premiership skipper and two-time Norm Smith medallist Luke Hodge excelled in finals helped him develop that approach.

“I loved that about ‘Hodgey’. In a regular season, he was All-Australian a few times, but he never set the world on fire. But what I just loved about him was when the big games came he was just like this gladiator in the arena,” Dangerfield said.

“It’s not about rising to the occasion. It’s about doing the things that you do really well consistently. That’s probably the bit that’s lost.”

Stability at home - their youngest Winni is shipped off to the in-laws the night before the game - keeps his mind occupied with thoughts other than football in the 24 hours ahead of the game, his love of movies also filling time when there is any to be filled.

On game day he has been known to shock former players’ association colleagues with a call about an industry matter as he drives to the match.

Once inside the rooms he relaxes. At Geelong, he has become renowned for wandering around pre-game with his socks pulled up, a cup of tea in hand and talking garbage to whoever pretends to listen.

“[There is a] healthy balance of serious, organisational and rascalishness [pre-game] and that rascalishness is just as important as the serious stuff. It’s just finding that right balance,” Dangerfield said.

“You can’t be on the whole time, or you would be cooked. Some are. That’s how they wired, but it catches you eventually and the older you get, you’ve got to spend your tickets wisely.”

Those who have bought tickets to watch him have spent their money wisely for 18 years now as close to 100,000 head to watch the Cats in a qualifying final against the Brisbane Lions.

He knows nothing is guaranteed, except that he will revel in the contest win or lose.

“He always touches on what a privilege it is to be part of big games and not everyone gets to do it. That’s something he certainly adds,” Guthrie said.

Dangerfield lets teammates do what works for them.

The champion has found what works for him so when he hits the grass he is ready. His transformation from tea-sipping, dad joke-telling colleague to football warrior is akin in football terms to Clark Kent entering a phone box and leaving as Superman.

Dangerfield is about to step on the grass for the 358th time. He is every chance to perform.

Whatever happens, he won’t forget he is playing a game, a game he is great at, but a game nonetheless. Once the battle is over life will go on.

“It doesn’t matter if you get it wrong,” he said.

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