{"id":369895,"date":"2024-02-22T18:44:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T19:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=369895"},"modified":"2024-02-22T21:03:22","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T21:03:22","slug":"ominous-dangerfield-warning-weeks-out-from-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=369895","title":{"rendered":"Ominous Dangerfield warning weeks out from season"},"content":{"rendered":"

They may have missed the finals in 2023 after winning the 2022 premiership by a whopping 81 points, but Geelong<\/a>'s veterans are looking as primed as ever.<\/p>\n

After a neat 17-point victory in their practice match against Carlton at IKON Park on Thursday<\/a>, it was a mix of young and old players, headlined by Brownlow Medallist Patrick Dangerfield, who stamped early authority.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Cats are out to "prove a few doubters wrong" after a being accused of a premiership hangover last season.<\/p>\n

IN PICTURES:<\/strong> Swipe through the top 50 players in the NRL\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Roos sack troubled star after AFL's guilty verdict<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Demons star retires in his prime after brain scan<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dangerfield was strong against the preliminary finalists of last year, mixing his time between the midfield and forward line.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"He's an interesting one, Paddy (Dangerfield), because \ufeffhe doesn't seem to look much older," Cats assistant coach James Rahilly said post match.<\/p>\n

\"Patrick<\/p>\n

"I think you'd have to ask him, but I've heard it's his best pre-season he's had for a long time."<\/p>\n

Rahilly declared that the veterans of the club, including power forward duo Jeremy Cameron<\/a> and Tom Hawkins<\/a>\ufeff are fitter than ever, with Thursday's match a true test of their pre-season gains.<\/p>\n

"Our older guys were really fit and healthy\ufeff. We wanted to expose them and try and get as much game time into our younger crew," Rahilly said.<\/p>\n

"We want to play at that standard and keep pushing up.<\/p>\n

"(We want to) prove a few doubters wrong, I reckon."<\/p>\n

\ufeffBut it wasn't all smooth sailing for the Cats.<\/p>\n

Star premiership midfielder Cam Guthrie suffered a quad injury in the opening seconds of Thursday's match<\/a>, in a heartbreaking twist of fate for the 31-year-old on his road to recovery.<\/p>\n

Guthrie\ufeff has not played a senior match since round six of 2023, struggling to overcome a toe injury.<\/p>\n

\"Cam<\/p>\n

Rahilly played down the severity of the injury\ufeff.<\/p>\n

"We'll see what comes of it. But he's had a ripping pre-season and hasn't missed a trick," Rahilly said.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Cats 10.13 (73) defeated Carlton 8.8 (56) on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Geelong will host St Kilda in round one on Saturday, March 16 as they unveil their new Selwood Stand, named after four-time premiership star Joel Selwood<\/a>, increasing the capacity of GMHBA stadium to just over 40,000.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They may have missed the finals in 2023 after winning the 2022 premiership by a whopping 81 points, but Geelong's veterans are looking as primed […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":369897,"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\/369895"}],"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=369895"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369900,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369895\/revisions\/369900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/369897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=369895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=369895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=369895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}