CUT AFL SEASON: DANGER

GEELONG superstar Patrick Dangerfield has thrown his considerable clout behind a push to shorten the AFL season and also the length of matches to lessen the injury toll.

The AFL Players Association president, who played through a corked hip in the Cats’ loss to Hawthorn last week, linked the spate of clubs with pre-finals injury woes to the league’s 22-match season and 120-minute clashes.

Dangerfield believes more stars would be fighting fit come finals time if the AFL scaled back the length of the season and individual matches.

“It’s something that needs to be reviewed,” the 28-yearold said yesterday.

“Twenty-two games I see as too many . . . but the length of the game is a conversation piece that (also) needs to be had.”

Dangerfield said a rethink would ultimately benefit fans as well as players.

“It’s not about robbing fans of the 120 minutes of footy that they get every week at the moment,” he said.

“What’s robbing the fans . . . is (they’re) not getting to see the best players because of injury.”

“And I think it is linked back into length of season, length of games and just the demands players are put under.”

Dangerfield believes a 17game fixture is the “ideal” format, but restructuring the “longest pre-season in world sport” and AFLX schedule could be the easiest way to lessen the load.

“I just don’t think we need as many (pre-season) games as what we currently have,” he said on SEN. “We had two (this) year, plus AFLX. I wouldn’t see there being an issue in playing one preseason game ... because most teams are playing a fair amount of match simulation in the lead-up to the season.”