Geelong champion Patrick Dangerfield has spoken of his excitement of having two-time Brownlow Medallist, Gary Ablett, as a teammate.
Ablett returns to the Cats after seven seasons at Gold Coast and is set to form a formidable midfield trio alongside Dangerfield and skipper Joel Selwood.
Dangerfield told SEN Breakfast that have Ablett in the locker room has been a huge buzz and expects him to spend time alternating between midfield and attack.
“I’m a bit like a little schoolboy that’s excited to play with a childhood hero and I think majority of our list is in the same boat,” Dangerfield said.
“I think he will spent some time in the forward line, but I think we will have the great man around the ball.”
Essendon great Tim Watson says he cannot wait to see how the Cats' midfield fares this season given the level of talent that the club has assembled through the middle of the ground.
"It is going to be one of the more extraordinary things to see this year in AFL football – the combination of Selwood, Ablett and Dangerfield," he said.
"I would trade my AFL free pass in, and I'll actually pay to go to the game."
Dangerfield said that Ablett – who turns 34 in May – is “going really well” so far over summer and he doesn’t look to have lost a step, despite entering his 17th season.
“He has been pretty good if he has lost something, because from what we have seen so far, he has been phenomenal,” the 2016 Brownlow Medallist said.
“I’m too scared to say he has lost anything because he has been better than anyone else on the track at the moment.”
Ablett’s agility and balance have been hallmarks of his game throughout his 302-game career – traits that even Dangerfield has marveled at.
“We had a training session last Friday and it was a bit wet down at Deakin University where we were training. Guys were slipping and sliding everywhere, and there’s Gaz training in runners, he didn’t slip over once and no one could tackle him,” he said.
“He is just a freak of nature.”
Meanwhile, although he concedes it probably wouldn’t be a popular move amongst most AFL players due to a potential pay cut, Dangerfield says that he is a fan of shortening the season from 22 matches.
“I don’t mind it, but I think if you said to the vast majority of players ‘it’s going to be a 17-week season, so if you’re going to cut the season by 20 per cent, well we’re going to cut your pay by 20 per cent’, then I don’t think too many would put their hand up and say yes to it,” he said
“I think 17 games makes sense purely because of the fact that it’s fair — you play everyone once.
The other option thrown up by the 27-year-old was playing more games, but shortening the match length.
“If you played everyone twice, so you played 34 games? But instead of playing 120 minutes of footy, you cut it to 18-minute fixed quarters, so you’re playing less than 80 minutes of footy?" Dangerfield said.
“I’ve worked it out, it’s bit over five games extra that you’d play a season ... obviously in terms of the revenue that that would create, it would jump significantly because there’d be more games played.”
“Rather than (clubs) say you can come back in November, you would only give clubs a six-week window of preparation
“You talk to most staff and they say ‘we need 10 weeks to get our players or we need 12 weeks to get our players ready’, but if you put it as mandatory — you’ve got six weeks, good luck, that’s what it is ... then you’d just have to adjust to it.”
Did you miss Patrick Dangerfield’s chat with Garry Lyon and Tim Watson on SEN Breakfast? Take a listen in the player below!