Patrick Dangerfield - a rounded individual, who's in it for the long haul.
Why is it that when we try to measure the relevance of an elite sports performer, in this case, Patrick Dangerfield, we nearly always miss the purpose of the question?
There hasn't been an AFL player more prepared to transition to media street than Patrick Dangerfield.
Podcasts, fishing shows, endorsements, a comedian-in-disguise, and more seriously, in his role as President of the AFL players association. He seems to have all the bases covered. Or does he?
Significantly, when asked prior to last weekend’s 300th game if a premiership would be his career's “finishing piece”, he responded, “I think it's the finishing piece, if you will, but I don't think it necessarily defines players."
He added, "Clearly that would be a wonderful thing to achieve, and we've given ourselves a shot this year. We're in a good position.”
And the sinker, "But there's so much enjoyment externally to just that."
“So much enjoyment externally to just that.” How should you unpack that comment? It's a question I think about constantly, both in the specific context presented here, and more broadly in sports, and beyond.
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Personally, I have taken a shallow view of Dangerfield’s extracurricular activities, the same narrow-minded perspective taken by many of his critics. He is unjustly maligned for this, and the real question is why.
Why are we conditioned to question people’s motives for existing or functioning outside the established cultural, social, or sporting sphere? In this case, the incredibly parochial sphere of AFL football.
Answering that question leads you to another question.
When we try to measure the relevance of an elite performer, in this case a sportsperson, namely Patrick Dangerfield, we nearly always miss the purpose of the question. Why is this?
Because, the tendency is to overemphasise peak performance, and underemphasise longevity. Meaning …
Peak performance is confined to one magical game, or a single stellar season, or even narrower—a performance in a final that changes the course of a game and places the perpetrator in a place of folklore eternally. Does this resonate?
So, is this belief more important than a career that spans a significant period, a decade, or close to two, where the level of performance is both consistent and elite?
It seems the majority of sports fans are dismissive of long periods of elite performance, instead infatuated with absurdly brief periods of extraordinary performance. The sporting landscape is littered with this.
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An example would be golf’s, Tiger Woods. It is hard to comprehend that any critic could argue a case against his achievements. But they did, and even before his accident, fans and the media were busy writing his epitaph. He might, “never win another major.” “He cannot compete any longer with the younger generation.” Oh, he won The Masters, that’s right!
To list all of Woods' achievements would be folly, firstly because it would take too long. Secondly, he was playing on a different playing field to Dangerfield. A global sport against one confined to the boundaries of a continent.
If you were to sift through Woods' CV it would be as clear as day that his legacy is a combination of eliteness and consistency. His longevity is legendary.
It is prudent, though, to look at Dangerfield’s CV.
He is an eight-time All-Australian and was named captain in 2020 and vice-captain in 2018.
Dangerfield has won his club's best and fairest four times (once with the Adelaide and three times with Geelong), along with claiming the 2016 Brownlow medal.
Incidentally, he has lobbied 230 Brownlow medal votes in his career—only Gary Ablett Jnr and Gary Dempsey have polled more. Of course I choose to use the Dangerfield humour in replacing ‘polled’, with ‘lobbied’. He has polled 230 Brownlow votes.
In 300 games he has missed just 29 games since his debut and never more than six in a row. For all the perceived showmanship, there is a considerable degree of resilience in his DNA—and longevity in his career.
Of course, the last stat is the sinker. He has missed just 29 games, and never more than six in a row. Longevity over the briefness of brilliance.
There have been two significant coaches in Dangerfield’s life. Firstly, Neil Craig (Adelaide Crows) and latterly, Chris Scott (Geelong Cats).
Craig was heavily criticised when the Crows drafted Dangerfield over top SA prospects in 2007—this against a one-eyed tide of South Australian (SA) opinion. Well, guess what? The good parochial folk of SA might have been wrong.
To Scott. Chris Scott knew he was getting a blue-chip, and the good folk of Geelong got one of their own back. Often it is a player’s peers that speak most openly in these instances.
Captain Joel Selwood said of Dangerfield: “He’s a bit of a cheetah, crossed with a lion, and he’s got a bit of bear in him as well.’’
Teammate Mitch Duncan said: “He’s a group one horse.’’
And Irishman Zac Tuohy: “In terms of crash and bash and competitiveness, I’ve never seen a player do what he does. When the ball is there to be won, he turns into a beast.’’
Tuohy added: “Danger, for how ruthless he is on field, he’s probably the biggest child off the field. He carries on like a pork chop around the club.’’
And, so that differentiation between Dangerfield’s on-field and off-field personas probably tells the whole story.
"But there's so much enjoyment externally to just that." was his own quote.
Dangerfield has endured on the field, excelling at two very different football clubs. And it would be foolish to not draw inferences to his off-field activity in helping to maintain this level of performance. He is telling us that in the quote above.
This is Patrick Dangerfield, a person ready for most things that will come his way. Someone who flies in the face of the troubling want for immediacy in today’s society.
As always, thank you for being here.
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