Gazza the final piece in Cats puzzle
IT’S time to escalate Operation ‘Get Gary’.
Geelong coach Chris Scott might consider locking list managers Stephen Wells (Cats), Scott Clayton (Gold Coast Suns) and Liam Pickering (Ablett’s manager) in a room together until a trade is agreed.
Brownlow medallist Patrick Dangerfield last night showed just how devastating this team would be should the Little Master come home.
Dangerfield played out of the goalsquare last night and was the match winner. In Round 17 against Hawthorn he played out of the goalsquare and was the match winner.
In those two games, he slotted 9.7 and sent the opposition defender — including Hawthorn general Luke Hodge — to bed with nightmares.
Danger went berserk against the Hawks with five goals in 35 minutes. Against the Swans he had 4.3 by halftime.
Imagine Dangerfield, Ablett and captain Joel Selwood joining forces, with the third wheel spinning to full-forward full-time? Suddenly these blokes could be vying for Coleman Medals, not just Brownlows.
The old-school tactic is now Scott’s September wildcard — and one that might have had Adelaide coach Don Pyke reaching for the Panadol last night.
Next season it could be Scott’s Plan A. The expression on Sydney coach John Longmire’s face last night, somewhere between shock and disgust, would sum up the apprehension across the league.
Playing against the league’s No.1 defence, Dangerfield disabled Sydney’s system like a computer virus. Stationing him at full-forward was a move out of the handbook used in decades gone.
Opposed primarily to Dane Rampe, and sometimes to Callum Mills, his superstar reputation invoked a level of fear few players — excluding Ablett — can.
Rampe’s nightmare night helped keep Geelong’s premiership dream alive. When the game was hot, so was Dangerfield.
He kicked Geelong’s first two goals after grasping a contested mark on Rampe and then drawing a free kick when Mills grasped his jumper.
His third goal came when Rampe infringed and his fourth, to end the second quarter, gave Dangerfield his equal-biggest halftime haul.
“I’m not prepared to call it ‘The Legend (of Dangerfield)’ just yet, but it’s getting there,” Scott said after that game.
His move to put Dangerfield up forward from the first bounce worked, and it might have Crows defender Jake Kelly struggling for sleep this week.
Meanwhile Ablett will be sleeping peacefully when this trade is done.