Geelong coach Chris Scott has opened up on the club’s decision to have Patrick Dangerfield sidelined for a number of weeks, saying the call is aimed at having the Brownlow Medallist at his best come finals time.
A calf issue saw Dangerfield substituted out of Geelong’s win over Port Adelaide in the second half, with the club opting to have him sit out a number of matches for a mid-season training block.
Scott opened up on the 32-year-old’s troubled season, revealing that he’d been unable to train for the majority of the year after an injury-interrupted pre-season.
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The Cats coach admitted that the team could suffer some “short-term pain” with Dangerfield sidelined, but said the benefits would become apparent later in the year.
“When I reflect over the last couple of years, we just haven’t had him firing towards the end of the season,” Scott said.
“And so… taking a bit of short-term pain to have him in the best shape possible at the end of the year, that may well cost us along the way.
“But in my opinion that is a better approach for us to take with him.
“Given there’s two games before the bye, we can use that extra (bye) week which is probably more than he needs in reality.
“We think that is going to have him in the best shape to have a really good run at the last couple of months of the season.”
Dangerfield has become renowned for his unique blend of power and agility, and while Scott said he could be “the most explosive player of his generation”, he conceded that the eight-time All-Australian’s explosiveness had been sapped this year.
“That lack of explosiveness that we’re seeing is down to a series of really significant corks that probably should have kept him out for a couple of games where he convinced us he can get through,” he said.
“So now we have put a line in the sand and said ‘we’re not going to accept that you can just get through, we want you to play when you can get back to your best’.”
Geelong’s decision to sit Dangerfield for the time being comes after Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes suggested he’d benefit from shedding some weight as he enters the post-prime portion of his career.
It was a suggestion that both Dangerfield and his coach saw merit in.
“There is some relevance to it, absolutely, but not at the cost of the way you play and that explosive element of it,” Dangerfield told SEN.
“It’s what benefits the team and how you play and fit within that. For me, it’s being as explosive as humanly possible.”
Scott suggested NFL star Tom Brady was a good example of Cornes’ theory.
“Some really smart people I know in the industry, particularly in the sports science and physical conditioning area do have a theory that going lighter as you get older helps a little bit,” he said. “I suspect Tom Brady thought that as well.”