‘Everyone get back, everyone get back!’: Inside the Dangerfield Match Winner

Feature

There was no one more fitting to kick the winning goal on this special night, than Patrick Dangerfield

It couldn’t have been more fitting.

On the night of the official opening of the Joel Selwood Stand at GMHBA Stadium, it was the current Cats captain who would step up and kick the match-winning goal against a surging Saints team that looked set to spoil the Cats’ special night.

But it was how he did it that was even more fitting.

One point the difference, one minute and 20 seconds on the clock and St.Kilda had kicked the last three; the stage was set.

Into the void, at full speed flies Patrick Dangerfield, absorbing all the momentum of an oncoming Saint for a game-saving intercept mark. 

Without expression, he went back and launched from 55, and after a (very) late swing the game was won. Then came the noise.

And even as he was swamped by his teammates, the business-like skipper remained steely in his gaze. 

Four points. Job done. 

Max Holmes, speaking to Fox Footy alongside Dangerfield post game said he and the Geelong bench rode the kick the whole way home. 

“It was incredible,” he told Cameron Ling. “I had the perfect view of it sitting on the bench and we thought ‘oh, he’s missed it, everyone get back, everyone get back!’, but it came back perfectly.”

It was a fitting tribute to Selwood on a night of celebration for not only the club and its fans but for the city of Geelong, the significance of the night not lost on Dangerfield. 

“Scotty mentioned pregame that this is probably the biggest crowd that’s been at Kardinia Park,” he said.

“And when you think about the history of the club, the city, the town, how long it’s been around for, it’s pretty spectacular.”