GEELONG coach Chris Scott has been voted by his peers as the hardest coach to go up against, making moves from the box that force opponents to be reactive and making sure the game is played on his terms.  

On Friday night he made the bold decision to send his superstar midfielder Patrick Dangerfield forward and he was rewarded, with the move giving Geelong the platform for an emphatic win. 

Dangerfield ran to the goalsquare at the opening bounce and was met by All Australian defender Dane Rampe. He kicked two goals in the next seven minutes and the tone for the match was set.

By taking their best player out of the centre square, the Cats needed an even performance from the rest of their midfielders. They got that and more, but Dangerfield was the star of the show. 

He finished with 4.3 and eight marks, spending periods in the midfield during the third quarter and finishing with 26 possessions. It was a plan hatched mid-week and Scott wouldn't take sole credit, but post-match his players spoke about the coach's impact from the box. 

What the numbers tell us

By playing forward for such long periods, Dangerfield was able to spend a season-high 111 minutes on the ground – that's an automatic win. His metres gained were down from a season average of 462.7m to 349m, but his possessions were in the most damaging area of the ground. Geelong converted 13 of its 28 first-half inside 50s into scoring shots (46 per cent). Sydney went at 39 per cent for the match.    

The supporting cast

The heroes that made Dangerfield's move possible were Mark Blicavs and Scott Selwood. Between them they took away the Swans' usual stoppage strengths and covered for the absence of the Cats' leading clearance player. Blicavs kept September specialist Josh Kennedy to 20 possessions and three clearances, while Selwood won a game-high seven clearances. The midfield games of Sam Menegola (26 and two goals) and Mitch Duncan (36 and two) were excellent, but Blicavs and Selwood went above and beyond. The Cats won the contested ball battle 156-131.

Nervous moment

For the first nine minutes of the third quarter Sydney dominated play, controlling the midfield and trapping the ball in their forward line. Dangerfield was drawn up the ground to try and counter the work of the Swans' ball-winners, who pumped the ball inside 50 eight times. Sydney kicked just 0.4 from their one period on top, however, and the Cats kicked two goals from three inside 50s in the same period.

How the Swans reacted

Rather than having Rampe press up the ground when the Swans had the ball, he stayed by Dangerfield's side. The Swans also moved a spare behind the ball, using Jake Lloyd and Gary Rohan in that role initially. The biggest move was made at the start of the third quarter, with Nick Smith moved onto Dangerfield and Sam Reid stationed as a spare defender sitting in front of the Cat.   

Dangerfield led Rampe a merry dance for most of Friday night. Picture: AFL Photos

What they said

"We're always pretty fluid with game plans, so it wasn't like this is what's going to be locked in … it's always a collaboration. The coaches have a game plan they want to implement and I thought they coached really well tonight. The key for us is to execute it on field and that's what we did." – Patrick Dangerfield

"It's a collective decision that the coaches worked through. I think it's one of those where when you've got a really good player, if we had put to him that we wanted him to start forward and he was desperate to start in the middle, I reckon he would have started in the middle. (But) he was on board, he thought it could work." – Chris Scott 

"It went to plan. He's so dangerous, we'd like to have a few of him we can put all over the ground. But he was outstanding early and the guys around the ball did a good job. We knew we had to be really good around the ball to give him a chance down there." – Joel Selwood

"Dane was on him and Dane's normally one of our best players in those situations. We didn't play, we just didn't play well. We were prepared for it, we spoke about it … It was one of those nights which doesn't happen too often for our players, to be fair." – John Longmire     

Have we seen this before?

Yes, out of necessity. In round 17 Dangerfield suffered a foot injury in the opening quarter against Hawthorn and was moved forward, where he played out of the goalsquare and kicked 5.6 in an astonishing performance. That was a move dictated by circumstances, but Friday night's was not. It was something the Cats knew they had up their sleeve and they executed it perfectly. Asked where he expected to play next week against his former club, Dangerfield said: "I think it'll be horses for courses really, it'll be a mixture of both depending on how I'm going."