Geelong Captain Patrick Dangerfield stares down the barrel of a suspension handed to him by AFL match review officer (MRO) after dumping Carlton midfielder Sam Walsh in a dangerous tackle.
Dangerfield drove Walsh’s head into the MCG turf in a tackle in the opening minute of Friday night’s top-eight blockbuster between the two sides.
WATCH ABOVE: Patrick Dangerfield in hot water for dangerous fight.
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Walsh’s momentum was already moving forward, but the second move of Dangerfield’s drilling tool could have hurt him in the MRO’s eyes, as Mitch Cleary explained.
“It’s a nervous wait for him and it’s clearly going to be looked at by the MRO,” Cleary said on Channel 7’s coverage.
“This is the exact act the AFL is trying to remove from the game; this is the driving motion, both hands are clenched and Walsh’s head is in contact with the ground.
“Dangerfield is lucky he (Walsh) didn’t get concussed or have to fall (to the ground).
“If they think it’s a dangerous approach, I would expect (it to be classified as) careless, hard contact and medium impact, which would be a week.
“The Cats play Essendon next week so obviously we’ll be nervously waiting for Patrick Dangerfield before tomorrow.”
Fears about Walsh’s health were quickly allayed when he got up and played without a concussion.
Dangerfield had just returned to the team after battling an injury similar to the many that have dogged him since 2020.
The Cats captain had not played since injuring his hamstring in Round 7 during Geelong’s last clash with Carlton.
“He’s ready to go,” Geelong coach Chris Scott said of Dangerfield on Thursday.
“We wanted to get him back so he could just play his normal role. The shackles are off.
Geelong believed Dangerfield had fully recovered from his latest hamstring setback “pretty quickly”, but held back the explosive midfielder with a conservative approach.
“The last half of his playing time has been built around his conditioning program and making sure that when he comes back he’s ready to perform really well,” Scott said.
“The question mark is when a player has been out for a while, what is his fitness for the match.
“That’s obviously hard to get when you’re not playing and touch and things like that.
“But in terms of his physical condition, he’s in really good shape and he’s done a lot of work.”
– With AAP
