{"id":348960,"date":"2023-11-24T05:56:37","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T06:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=348960"},"modified":"2023-11-24T08:01:20","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T08:01:20","slug":"why-cats-draftee-dodged-dangerfields-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=348960","title":{"rendered":"Why Cats draftee dodged Dangerfield's calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

It's not everyday that you get a phone call – let alone three – from a Geelong<\/a> premiership player, Brownlow<\/a> medallist and the club captain.<\/p>\n

\ufeffBut, for lucky Cats' draftee George Stevens, who was selected with Pick 58 on Tuesday night, Geelong superstar Patrick Dangerfield<\/a> was on the end of the line.<\/p>\n

The only issue was that Stevens didn't pick up … on three occasions.<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Aussie F1 stars set for final battle worth millions<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Maguire's path to Blues cleared after quitting Kiwis<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Cricket villain hits back at critics<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"Danger (Dangerfield) rang me about three times, and I didn't realise it was him," Stevens said on SEN on Friday.<\/p>\n

\"Cats<\/p>\n

"I went down to my local footy club, and he actually sent me a message and he said, 'I hope your communication is a bit better on the field than what it is off it'.<\/p>\n

"I honestly had no idea who it was, and I thought, 'Jeez, I better get back to this'. Turns out it was (Dangerfield)."<\/p>\n

Stevens revealed he did actually call the Cats' captain back after celebrations of being drafted had calmed down.<\/p>\n

"That was one of my first phone calls and I was like, 'This is unbelievable'," he said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/GeelongCats\/status\/1727900095478485421<\/a><\/p>\n

But before the elation of being drafted, that led to Stevens missing Dangerfield's calls\ufeff, he thought his hopes pf playing at AFL level were all but over.<\/p>\n

The Warnambool native, who hoped he would land at the Cattery, began to worry when the end of Tuesday night crept closer and his name hadn't been read out.<\/p>\n

"Everyone passed me and then Geelong used their two picks in the 30s and didn't take me," Stevens said.<\/p>\n

"Then the nerves started coming in and everyone started half crabbing their ducks. We were on the couch and the kitchen became a bit of a psychology session for every pick.<\/p>\n

"Then it ended up being (pick) 58 \u2026 when I saw Geelong at the bottom of the screen, I was just fingers crossed that it eventuated and when it did come, what was the worst night of my life for two and a half hours, became the best pretty quickly.<\/p>\n

\"Geelong<\/p>\n

"It was unbelievable."<\/p>\n

After the nerves settled, Stevens, a strong-bodied contested ball winner, was told that Geelong had wanted him all along.<\/p>\n

"I had no idea," he said.<\/p>\n

"I was speaking to a few of the recruiting team last night and they were like, 'Oh yeah, we always wanted you, we were always going to take you'. I'm like, 'Oh jeez, that would have been nice to know'.<\/p>\n

"They didn't give too much away the boys."<\/p>\n

Geelong also unveiled the name for their new northern stand at Kardinia Park, to be named the 'Joel Selwood Stand' after the club's only four-time premiership player and games record holder.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It's not everyday that you get a phone call – let alone three – from a Geelong premiership player, Brownlow medallist and the club captain. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":348764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=348960"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348964,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348960\/revisions\/348964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/348764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=348960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=348960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=348960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}