Cats stars dress-up special
THE Cats channelled their inner actors at yesterday’s Wacky Wednesday celebrations, taking on the colourful, and sometimes controversial, personas of politicians, movie stars and even fellow teammates.
Players began arriving at Newtown’s Lord of the Isles about 9.30am for a traditional day of relaxation and revelry.
Motorists travelling through the busy West Fyans St intersection tooted at the who’s who representation of news-makers and popular culture stars as they made their way to the venue by foot, taxi and limousine.
The most glamorous arrival was that of recently crowned Brownlow medallist Patrick Dangerfield who suited up as Osher Gunsberg, host of popular reality television show The Bachelor.
The red carpet was literally rolled out for Dangerfield, Bachelor Richie (Scott Selwood) and his final three girls Alex (Ryan Gardner), Nikki (Matthew Hayball) and Olena (Wylie Buzza).
The group remained committed to their characters throughout the day, posting a series of Instagram videos depicting a remake of the show’s recently aired finale.
Dangerfield, who said he was well aware of Geelong’s Wacky Wednesday reputation before his debut season with the Cats, didn’t break from character when asked how he was feeling about the day ahead.
“I’m a fan of love and anything that has love in it I’m a fan of and I’m hoping Richie makes the right decision today,” he said.
Selwood, roses in hand, said the idea was born from the social media outrage that followed the show’s recent finale.
“I threw it up to Patty a couple of weeks ago and he just laughed about it and went with it,” he said. “And you’ve got to stitch up the first-year boys in some way so we thought we’d make them dress up as girls.”
Selwood said he was aware of a few closet Bachelor fans among the playing group.
“It’s one of those things people don’t like to admit,” he said.
Captain Joel Selwood, dressed as 2015 Melbourne Cup winner Michelle Payne, opted for an unique costume reveal, arriving early so he could surprise teammates by sitting atop a life-size plastic steed in the venue’s beer garden. “It was about a month ago the thought came to my head ... It was going to be a real horse but then I scaled it back a bit for safety,” he said.
“The costume is custom made, it’s what she would wear if she was to go out but obviously a little bit bigger size.”
Even teammates weren’t off-limits with Daniel Menzel and Cam Delaney both opting for the suit and surfboard combination Dangerfield sported during a Fox Footy promo earlier this year.
And he wasn’t the only player to have fun poked at him, with Mark Blicavs and Cameron Guthrie mocking the Selwood brothers’ cheesy performance as the “captain” and “pilot” in recent Geelong Travel advertisements.
Corey Enright admitted his decision to dress as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury was a last-minute one.
“I got it (the outfit) yesterday afternoon,” he laughed.
“I went to Kmart and shopped in the women’s section so I would have got a few weird looks but it’s nice and comfy.”
Enright said his stylist wife Renee was surprisingly onboard with the look, giving him advice about what size women’s jeans to buy and helping to temporarily dye his hair black in the hours before arriving.
There’s no word yet on whether this Wacky Wednesday will be his last but Jimmy Bartel made the most of his final few days with a beard, using it to enhance his portrayal of the caddie in Happy Gilmore, with teammate Darcy Lang dressed as the lead character.
“I decided on this probably about two weeks ago and I was getting lots of photos from friends of what I should go as but I thought this one would be good to do,” he said.
“I thought about Forrest Gump but one of the other guys got that first.
“There’s a lot of pressure for the Geelong Wacky Wednesday but the good thing is all the new guys have really embraced it as well so hopefully the tradition continues.”
Former Cats great and long running king-of-the-costume Matthew Scarlett was there to cast an eye over the festivities, crowning Selwood best-onground for his Michelle Payne impersonation.
Lord of the Isles has played host to the Cats’ end-of-season celebrations for 36 years and owner Peter Burnett said it was a highly-anticipated date on the venue’s calendar.
The players moved on to the Sporting Globe in the afternoon.