Dangerfield to daring to dream

A MAIDEN premiership appears more in reach than ever before for Patrick Dangerfield, and the Brownlow Medallist is daring to dream.

An eight-time All-Australian and four-time best and fairest across both Geelong and Adelaide, Dangerfield is without a doubt one of the greatest players of his generation.

However, a premiership has eluded him during his time at the top level. In his 15 seasons in the AFL, Dangerfield’s side has only missed finals four times, all at the Crows earlier in his career.

But he’s only played one grand final, a 2020 loss to Richmond when he gathered 12 disposals.

But with the Cats on top of the ladder and on a 10-game winning streak, Dangerfield said his teammates have been encouraged to dream big.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with dreaming sometimes… it’s a special game and sometimes you do forget to enjoy the moment, enjoy the victory,” he said on Sportsday.

“It can be emotional, it can be an absolute rollercoaster. We’ve said to our guys, ‘don’t be afraid to dream big’.

“Now that doesn’t mean that you throw away the process… we’re professional enough to understand that, but why not picture yourself at that moment, and I’m sure there’s plenty of our players that do that.

“And there will be some [that say] ‘nope, put it on the back burner, don’t want to talk about it, don’t want to think about it, it’s just this week and that is all that matters’.

“I don’t think it’s a problem if your mind strays at times as long as you realign yourself when you need to.”

As Dangerfield said, a more aggressive brand of footy has seen the Cats capitalise in 2022.

They average 94 points per game in 2022, up from just shy of 84 last year all while conceding 69 points per game after 66 the year before.

What once was a boring team at times has become enjoyable to watch, with the Cats pulling off several last quarter comebacks this season with a free-flowing style.

Dangerfield said he believes it’s off the back of more “ballsy” decisions with ball in hand.

“It’s been a tweaking of what we’ve done. We’ve been a bit more aggressive with the way we’ve moved the ball at times,” Dangerfield added.

“There were probably a few games early on in the season when we were still learning and adjusting with that new style and didn’t quite get it right, there were some poor games there which was always going to happen.

“We always felt like our second half of the season was going to be better than our first as we adjusted to some slight tweaks, less marks, more aggressive, wanting to get the ball into the forward line quickly and put defenders under pressure.

“Most teams want to do that, but it’s the confidence at different stages during games and just being a bit more ballsy with the way we build the ball up into our forward line.”

– BY SEB MOTTRAM/ SEN