Danger’s praise for response

GEELONG star Patrick Dangerfield says a “dirty” playing group nailed its Easter Monday preparation to overcome a spirited Hawthorn outfit.

The Cats, coming off their first loss of the season to GWS nine days earlier, outpossessed the Hawks with limited rotations and held off a late charge to win 17.11 (113) to 13.12 (90).

Dangerfield said his team’s ability to respond from a loss impressed most.

“It’s a good sign, especially after last week,” Dangerfield said. “It was a close game but we were bitterly disappointed last week, especially on our home deck.

“To respond the way that we did and play the game that we know always has its ebbs and flows and is always close, regardless of the team that’s out there, is really promising. I thought we prepared for it really well.”

The Hawks looked the better of the two sides for most of the first quarter, but two late goals to Gary Rohan saw the Cats take an unlikely onepoint lead and a wave of momentum into quarter-time that ultimately was never overcome by the Hawks.

“We had a pretty poor first half and we were well beaten around the ball, I thought,” Dangerfield said.

“But we rectified that after halftime which we needed to do because our forward line and defence were working well. The pleasing element was we were able to rectify that.”

Dangerfield paid credit to the former Swan, who kicked four goals to top a tally of nine goalkickers for the Cats.

“It’s just frightening with how hard he goes at the ball and can turn on a dime,” Dangerfield said of Rohan.

“We’ve seen those players with broken legs that haven’t been able to regain their speed. For him it hasn’t been an issue at all and he’s a great finisher as well.

“Just to get those goals in red time you love to get and hate to concede was really important for us just to have a bit of momentum going into quarter-time.”

Gary Ablett kicked three goals and had 23 touches and eight marks, putting aside significant booing from the Hawthorn crowd to provide the cream to the cake.

“You can boo him as much as you like when he’s kicking goals from the outside of his foot from 50m, or taking screamers in the pocket and snapping goals,” Dangerfield quipped. “It’s hilarious, really. “What we’ve found with Andrew Gaff a few weeks ago, booing does not work.

“Players don’t care, they embrace it and the real good ones just feed off it and ‘Gaz’ did today.”