Geelong Cats star back Patrick Dangerfield to peak at the right time, Fremantle Dockers ‘flat’ after defeat

GEELONG coach Chris Scott says there’s no reason captain Patrick Dangerfield can’t peak at the right time of the season after a winning quarter-final against Fremantle catapulted the Cats into the top four on Saturday night.

Dangerfield was immense with the line play at Optus Stadium, winning six contested possessions and two vital center clearances while also pushing forward late on when the Cats came from behind.

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The 34-year-old Brownlow medalist finished with 11 clearances and was spent at the final siren, with Scott confident a patient program to recover from two hamstring injuries will help him produce at a level raised in the coming weeks.

“As much as anybody, I thought he was the one that took the game away from them,” Scott said after the big road win.

“You never want them to get injured, but when they do at that age, we’ve made a concerted effort to prioritize later in the season and hold it back a little bit and we think that’s worked for us up front.

“We don’t see any reason why he can’t be in very good form in the last two months of this year and that was a good example.

“I tend not to worry about age. I’ll just go back to what the run data tells us and more importantly what our eyes tell us, and he hasn’t lost any speed or power to my eye.”

Saturday’s win moved the Cats up to third on the ladder ahead of clashes with St Kilda (Marvel Stadium) and West Coast (GMHBA Stadium), with Scott keenly aware of the potential significance of beating Fremantle on the road.

He said the Cats were “confident but not too confident” they could produce their best football at the right time of the year after winning their sixth game in seven weeks.

Asked if he reflected on the magnitude of the win and its implications on the ladder, the City coach said: “Yeah, a little bit. I think that’s a coach’s job and those who say they’re just taking it one week at a time are either” not saying the truth or they are not doing their job properly.

“But what you’re trying to do is take the players away from thinking that way. We have to be on top of all that, but our players just have to understand the next step.”

Scott said midfielder Tanner Bruhn was substituted with “symptoms of dizziness” while the club took the cautious decision to retain striker Gary Rohan after aiming for him to return from concussion.

Fremantle also made a late change, with ruckman Sean Darcy withdrawn 10 minutes before Saturday’s kick-off after battling knee pain and being managed through a six-day layoff.

Coach Justin Longmuir said he has some concerns about the big man’s ability to get through games in the short term and that he will be sore for the rest of the season.

The coach was also concerned about a trend that has emerged this season, losing a fifth game of the year after leading through three quarters.

“Obviously it’s disappointing. We didn’t finish the game the way we wanted, but the start comes back to bite you,” Longmuir said.

“In a team in a game like this, you give away a four-goal lead and you’re on the back foot from the start, so we have to be better than that.

“They came out on top in clearance as the game went on and our contest work just didn’t hold up after a few markers after the break and our method didn’t hold up the way we wanted it to in certain areas.”

Longmuir said ruckman Luke Jackson had acquitted himself well in the ruck after Darcy was out of the team, but the loss of the forward/ruck as a scoring target in attack hurt the team with Josh Treacy already released.

Without two of their best scoring targets, he said the Dockers struggled later in the game to deal with the Cats’ loose man in defense and went sideways and backwards with ball movement instead of driving forward.

The defeat left the team fighting for a place in the last eight, when they could have taken a significant step towards securing a top-four finish.

“We’re anxious at the moment, but as I said to the players after the game … this is a tough game and it’s going to take some hits at times, but we’re not done,” Longmuir said.

“And I’m confident it won’t take much to get them back up to next week’s challenge.”

The Dockers face Greater Western Sydney (Engie Stadium) and Port Adelaide (Optus Stadium) in a challenging final fortnight, with Treacy, Darcy and Michael Walters (hamstring) expected to return to take on the Giants.