Patrick Dangerfield - potential GOAT?

[Mr Meow]

‘Mission accomplished’ on the eve of finals in 2014 was an excuse that transcends the entire excuse plain. It elevated Scott into a category that renders any demesne of his excuse making to be patently absurd. He is simply the excuse master, able to render any loss to be irrelevant.

Totally. Everyone here takes you very seriously so I'm happy to declare all of the above as certified fact.

 

[Chronz]

We have a “thicky off”, is that more serious than a “champ off”?

Must be some new main bored terminology AD ya thicky.

I've also discovered Mr Meow's list of users he's currently arguing with. This includes every supporter of Richmond, Collingwood, Hawthorn and more recently, Brisbane.

 

[Partridge]

He had the flu grand final day. Which player plays well with the flu? Let alone a 35 year old.

Did he? Based on what evidence? He was fine all week before the game, and he was perfectly fine making a speech immediately afterwards. And was well enough to attend Geelong's post-season shindig. Was it one of those ghastly "four quarter" flus?

It's become a really annoying and regular pattern. Every single finals loss and/or poor performance of Dangerfield is like clockwork followed by claims of gastro / flu / injury / heavy training load. There's actually no shame in admitting he played a bad game. It wasn't the first time and it's happened to better players than him.

 

[Mr Meow]

Must be some new main bored terminology AD ya thicky.

I've also discovered Mr Meow's list of users he's currently arguing with. This includes every supporter of Richmond, Collingwood, Hawthorn and more recently, Brisbane.

View attachment 2529247

This comes across worryingly like you're following me around huffing my farts. I don't judge a man's hobbies but there must be more interesting things for you to track.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Ah yes, the old classic that if a healthy player has been poor in a final before, it proves that their health is 100% in every future final. It was pretty clear that Dangerfield was broken from almost singlehandedly saving our skin against the Hawks aged 45 the previous week. We, and he, heavily paid the tax on that game.

Yeah, I think he ran himself ragged. Thought he'd be able to refuel and go again the next week like normal. I also think the concussion kerfuffle with Tom Stewart took a bit of wind out of our sails. He IS our backline General!

 

[theprospector]

Yeah, I think he ran himself ragged. Thought he'd be able to refuel and go again the next week like normal. I also think the concussion kerfuffle with Tom Stewart took a bit of wind out of our sails. He IS our backline General!

Dusty tore up prelim after prelim and backed it up GF Day. That’s what separates the great from the mediocre on the big stage

 

[Lunchtime]

To be fair to Dangerfield, he did say this after the 2025 Grand Final:

"No, it's a ruthless game. So there's no excuses from me or anyone," Dangerfield said.

"We just couldn't quite get it done."

Reference: https://www.afl.com.au/news/1431064

In other words, he and Geelong weren't good enough in the Grand Final, they were beaten by a better opponent. But the thing is, Dangerfield aknowledged this (see above), he didn't try and be in denial about it.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Dusty tore up prelim after prelim and backed it up GF Day. That’s what separates the great from the mediocre on the big stage

Yeah he definitely was an awesome big-game player.

 

[PhatBoy]

There's a Herald Sun article behind a paywall, so that's the largest national newspaper reporting on it.

You can literally access the post-match press conference for every match played for like a decade from the AFL app.

 

[PhatBoy]

‘Mission accomplished’ on the eve of finals in 2014 was an excuse that transcends the entire excuse plain. It elevated Scott into a category that renders any demesne of his excuse making to be patently absurd. He is simply the excuse master, able to render any loss to be irrelevant.

lol, this old chestnut.

‘We will learn some things from tonight. In that respect it’s kind of ‘mission accomplished’ a little bit but the competitor in you and in our boys would clearly like to have performed better after half-time.’

‘I’m certainly not sitting here saying at half time we said ‘boys we’ve done the job let’s let them walk all over us in the second half.’

Yeah it sounds like he really used those two words in the context you’ve spent a decade pretending he used them in

 

[peetoo]

Where is danger in order just goat in Geelong?

 

[Partridge]

To be fair to Dangerfield, he did say this after the 2025 Grand Final:

"No, it's a ruthless game. So there's no excuses from me or anyone," Dangerfield said.

"We just couldn't quite get it done."

Reference: https://www.afl.com.au/news/1431064

In other words, he and Geelong weren't good enough in the Grand Final, they were beaten by a better opponent. But the thing is, Dangerfield aknowledged this (see above), he didn't try and be in denial about it.

Good post.

That's actually a really impressive statement from him. Hate to break it to the more insecure fans, but losing happens. It isn't the end of the world.

 

[Mr Meow]

Dusty tore up prelim after prelim and backed it up GF Day. That’s what separates the great from the mediocre on the big stage

Danger did miss his chance to back then in his prime - although our bottom 5 or 10 players being poor didn't help. 2022 as an old man he did it, but he also had more support.

Nobody does it at 35 years old. In fact nobody should even be a clear BOG match winner in a huge final at that age. In that respect our other players dropped the ball a bit that prelim and paid the price a week later.

 

[Mr Meow]

To be fair to Dangerfield, he did say this after the 2025 Grand Final:

"No, it's a ruthless game. So there's no excuses from me or anyone," Dangerfield said.

"We just couldn't quite get it done."

Reference: https://www.afl.com.au/news/1431064

In other words, he and Geelong weren't good enough in the Grand Final, they were beaten by a better opponent. But the thing is, Dangerfield aknowledged this (see above), he didn't try and be in denial about it.

And that should be the line even if you played with your head decapitated right before the match. Once you're out there, and no matter what happens when you're out there, football doesn't care what shape you're in.

A bunch of nobodies chatting about it behind screens has no bearing on any of this. We have zero responsibility to avoid speculation and it's fine for either position: "he was fine! He just sucked! Stop sooking!" or "he looked cooked/sick/injured to me!" - neither is actually wrong or delusional.

We'll never know the truth and tbh that's the way it should be. But players do carry injury and illness into matches all the time - especially old ones and in particular after huge exertion the week before. That's basic biology.

 

[TiggyTig]

Why would he make an excuse for 27 touches, 16 contested, a goal, 5 tackles? I mean it might not have been his best ever game but this sounds to me like you are trying to rewrite history about someone’s performance rather than a coach trying to excuse why that performance may have happened.

What are we coming up with excuses for really good solid games in preliminary finals now that are above players’ regular output?

‘We thought we were fresher than them and I think we were.’ That was a pretty good excuse I heard from that press conference.
‘We gave them too many chances.’
‘They have clearly been the best team over the last 3 years.’
‘They got the game on their terms.’
‘We thought our forward line functioned well’ [the interviewers brought up Hawkins’ absence, not Scott, and asked him how he thought they went without him]. ‘Ratugolea is going to be a good player.’ (He got that one wrong)

Yeah he really dived deep into the excuse basket in 2019

Oh, then he joked about how he wouldn’t be letting Tim Kelly go anywhere and admitted he has no control over that (worked out well)

I was at the game and Danger went missing after half time when the heat turned up. His goal was from taking an embarrassing dive. He put it into the crowd 3 or 4 times in the second half. Stats aren't everything, Paddy was a liability

 

[TiggyTig]

Oh right, I thought you were sure. "I reckon" is in the same field as "he probably".

I know he said it i just CBF looking back through every presser he's had. I didn't document it but it was around the 17-20 Tigers run when we towelled the Cats up every year and Salty Scott took a few year to admit we were a good team. Poor loser, rarely used to give the winning team credit preferring to find his excuse so much he doubles up often. TBF he has changed a bit now by watching other coaches obviously.

 

[Seeds]

To be fair to Dangerfield, he did say this after the 2025 Grand Final:

"No, it's a ruthless game. So there's no excuses from me or anyone," Dangerfield said.

"We just couldn't quite get it done."

Reference: https://www.afl.com.au/news/1431064

In other words, he and Geelong weren't good enough in the Grand Final, they were beaten by a better opponent. But the thing is, Dangerfield aknowledged this (see above), he didn't try and be in denial about it.

In other words its our culture not to be bad sports.

Gees imagine how much he would be ridiculed as a bad sport if he actually said he was sick.

 

[PhatBoy]

I was at the game and Danger went missing after half time when the heat turned up. His goal was from taking an embarrassing dive. He put it into the crowd 3 or 4 times in the second half. Stats aren't everything, Paddy was a liability

He had 3 turnovers for the entire game so if he had ‘3 or 4 out on the full’ kicks - an out on the full kick being a turnover - the rest of his disposals can’t have been that bad, can they.

He spent half of the third quarter in the forward 50 where we barely went in that quarter - quick look at AFL.com’s live feed will tell you that - and he had 1 disposal before having 7 more touches in the last quarter, unless 27 minus 19 doesn’t equal 8.

So it seems to me like you’ve basically just tried to claim someone was a liability for their team or the reason they lost their game, because they had a quiet quarter, when for the rest of it they kicked 8.11 to 7.11 and he was very good.

Doesn’t exactly look like the case, does it.

The reality is he had a typically good game, without being able to do it the whole way through and play a great game, isn’t it, and ‘I was there’ won’t change that, much as you might like it to.

 

[TiggyTig]

He had 3 turnovers for the entire game so if he had ‘3 or 4 out on the full’ kicks - an out on the full kick being a turnover - the rest of his disposals can’t have been that bad, can they.

He spent half of the third quarter in the forward 50 where we barely went in that quarter - quick look at AFL.com’s live feed will tell you that - and he had 1 disposal before having 7 more touches in the last quarter, unless 27 minus 19 doesn’t equal 8.

So it seems to me like you’ve basically just tried to claim someone was a liability for their team or the reason they lost their game, because they had a quiet quarter, when for the rest of it they kicked 8.11 to 7.11 and he was very good.

Doesn’t exactly look like the case, does it.

The reality is he had a typically good game, without being able to do it the whole way through and play a great game, isn’t it, and ‘I was there’ won’t change that, much as you might like it to.

So when the heat was on Scott or Danger himself hid in the fwd 50 where it wasn't going? Being at the game means i witnessed him having no influence. Possibly 3 of 7 last quarter touches being turnovers using your numbers. Not great ey

 

[Seeds]

Did he? Based on what evidence? He was fine all week before the game, and he was perfectly fine making a speech immediately afterwards. And was well enough to attend Geelong's post-season shindig. Was it one of those ghastly "four quarter" flus?

It's become a really annoying and regular pattern. Every single finals loss and/or poor performance of Dangerfield is like clockwork followed by claims of gastro / flu / injury / heavy training load. There's actually no shame in admitting he played a bad game. It wasn't the first time and it's happened to better players than him.

He was just shit in the 2020 grand final and the 2021 prelim.

And occams razor doesnt require the hard evidence you are looking. This aint a court of law. A number of family members didnt go to the game cos they were down sick after a family gathering that danger attended. Dangerfield was seen coughing up a lung numerous different times on the friday. Occams razor suggest he was likely ill. Numerous people were mentioning this before the game. Not in hindsight. Sure it probably wasnt a bad illness as he was out there. But even minor illness stuff is enough to significantly impact ones peformance in elite sport. Especially at 35 and with a heavy tag.

 

[Orfullrules]

Danger on a par with dusty. Animals in the contest. Franklin Ablett danger dusty. Best 4 since Essendon won a final.

 

[PhatBoy]

So when the heat was on Scott or Danger himself hid in the fwd 50 where it wasn't going? Being at the game means i witnessed him having no influence. Possibly 3 of 7 last quarter touches being turnovers using your numbers. Not great ey

When the heat was on against Hawthorn in the preliminary final the year just gone, he ‘hid’ a lot up forward too and it won us the game. He’s ‘hidden’ a lot up forward throughout his career and made specialist defenders look stupid.

Our key forwards the night we played you were Lachie Henderson and Esava Ratugolea and ultimately our best avenue to goal was, wait for it, Tim Kelly. We were winning but had still only kicked 6 goals for a half of football. I suspect they were trying to score.

You don’t HAVE to make yourself look stupid by equating ‘not being the best on ground’ with ‘having a poor game.’ It’s not a legal requirement or something.
But, I guess you WERE there so that changes everything

 

[Mr Meow]

I know he said it i just CBF looking back through every presser he's had. I didn't document it but it was around the 17-20 Tigers run when we towelled the Cats up every year and Salty Scott took a few year to admit we were a good team. Poor loser, rarely used to give the winning team credit preferring to find his excuse so much he doubles up often. TBF he has changed a bit now by watching other coaches obviously.

So no actual proof you aren't making shit up then. We're at the same standstill then.

 

[Mr Meow]

So when the heat was on Scott or Danger himself hid in the fwd 50 where it wasn't going? Being at the game means i witnessed him having no influence. Possibly 3 of 7 last quarter touches being turnovers using your numbers. Not great ey

A fair bit of it is on Scott, who often panicked when we weren't scoring by throwing Danger forward as a hail Mary. It pretty much always failed. It had higher but still mixed success when he started games forward (2017 SF vs Sydney, 2020 SF vs Collingwood, 2024 QF vs Port, 2025 PF vs Hawthorn).

When things are going wrong in finals a fair criticism of Scott is that he struggles to turn it around.

 

[Partridge]

He was just shit in the 2020 grand final and the 2021 prelim.

And occams razor doesnt require the hard evidence you are looking. This aint a court of law. A number of family members didnt go to the game cos they were down sick after a family gathering that danger attended. Dangerfield was seen coughing up a lung numerous different times on the friday. Occams razor suggest he was likely ill. Numerous people were mentioning this before the game. Not in hindsight. Sure it probably wasnt a bad illness as he was out there. But even minor illness stuff is enough to significantly impact ones peformance in elite sport. Especially at 35 and with a heavy tag.

Not on the Geelong board in the preview thread. There was mention that he coughed - shock, horror - once. There were plenty of remarks afterwards that he was fine and laughing before the match. Where was this mysterious cough during his speech?

Occam's razor provides a much simpler answer. A 35 year old player, whose output has been declining for years already, and who had 3 average to solid games against Brisbane this year, had an even quieter game in the Grand final. Even more likely after following up his best game in years the previous week.

It's been curious to see how some Geelong fans have become so insecure and protective that they simply cannot ever admit star players play bad games. And sometimes fail completely. It's an excuse that is absolutely never extended to opposition players either.