'I think it will be a late call': Dangerfield could miss North clash
Geelong could head into their clash with North Melbourne on Sunday without two of their best players after Brownlow medallist Patrick Dangerfield admitted he had a battle on his hands to prove his fitness in time after hurting his knee on Sunday.
Dangerfield injured himself during the Cats’ win against Essendon at the MCG and Gary Ablett has been slapped with a one-match ban for striking Dylan Shiel, though the Cats are expected to challenge Ablett’s ban at the tribunal on Tuesday evening.
Dangerfield had little impact against the Bombers but wasn’t ruling himself out of facing the Kangaroos entirely.
“I think it will be a late call this week,” Dangerfield said of his availability on SEN radio on Tuesday.
“We’ll assess it this afternoon once we have our reviews and rehab, but it’s a little bit sore at the moment which is to be expected.
“I had scans this morning so we’ll get those results in another few hours and then the docs will look through that and [devise a] plan of attack for the next few days.
“Generally with these sort of things it’s more recovery early on in the week and then at some stage you’ve got to start get moving again and get the blood flow going because if you leave it too late, you’re leaving yourself too much to do in order to prove your own fitness to be ready to go.
“It’s a real balance of resting it but also getting up and running as quickly as you can within reason.”
Dangerfield said it would be too risky to rest his knee up until a day before the game and then attempt to declare himself fit to play.
“Whether the decision is made early in the week or late in the week, if it’s made late in the week you still need to get moving early,” he said.
“The thing I’ve learnt, I suppose early in my career I’d just leave it late without really getting mobile and then you just haven’t really tested yourself.
“An ex-coach of mine had a great saying, and I still think about it now, [former Adelaide coach] Neil Craig. You ask a player whether they can play and most players will always say, ‘Yeah, I can play’. But his philosophy was, ‘I know you can play, but can you perform?’”
However, even if he fails to make it out onto the ground against the Kangaroos, Dangerfield is confident that Ablett will.
“In terms of the severity of the contact, I’m not sure it was really there in my opinion,” Dangerfield said of Ablett’s hit on Shiel.
“I think under the heat of the game, the contest, you’re going in to try and block the ball and spoil and restrict your opponent.
“I didn’t think there was a huge amount in it and if you look at Gary’s record in itself, that speaks for itself ... ‘Gaz’ is a ball player – always has been. He’s hard but fair.”