FOR A player that has compiled some of the most explosive, thrilling and powerful games that modern football has seen, matched by rare edge-of-your-seat moments of bravery and skill, perhaps it's to Patrick Dangerfield's credit that his biggest strength has been his ability to compartmentalise a career that has featured almost everything.

Dangerfield has become adept at recognising the emotional, physical and mental toll a life in football brings, distilling each pivotal part into a moment in time. It's a large reason why he will become just the 25th V/AFL footballer to hit the 350-game landmark this Friday night. It's just as large a reason for why his resume is as stacked as any in the game's history.

There have been mornings during Dangerfield's extraordinary 18-year career where he has woken up and felt unstoppable, keenly aware that later that day no opposition player on any football field will be able to contain him. There have been just as many mornings, though, where he's awoken with that familiar heavy feeling of nerves and anxiety.

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Acknowledging those moments before games, putting them to the side during games, and forgetting about them after games, has been critical to Dangerfield's elite performance and longevity.

"I definitely get nervous," Dangerfield said during an extended chat earlier this week. "But there are some games where you just have the full flow. Two hours before a game, you're not nervous. You're like, 'I'm just going to play well today'. It's weird. You can't even explain it. It's not about a particular team, it's just this feeling of confidence.

"But there are other times where it is debilitating, the anxiety of performance. It's like, where the hell has this come from? I haven't felt this for six weeks. I'm 35. I shouldn't feel like this. I've played 300 games, why the hell am I so nervous about a game at 2pm on a Sunday? It's the psyche of sports sometimes that's really funny to digest.

"For me, I've never worried about making mistakes, because I've made so many throughout my career. I just move on. I think that's an important character trait to have if you want to be good and if you want to play for a long period of time.

"The best players will have the ball in their hands more than others. If you are down every time you miss a kick or you miss a handball or a goal, it's going to be a tough old existence. It's the same thing when it comes to winning and losing. If you're only ever up when you're winning and you're in the doldrums when you're losing … bloody hell, you're going to be this rollercoaster of emotion.

GEELONG, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 19: Patrick Dangerfield of the Cats poses with his children Winifred aged 2 and Felicity aged 5 during a Geelong Cats AFL media opportunity at GMHBA Stadium on June 19, 2025 in Geelong, Australia. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images via AFL Photos)

"That's not a good thing for your teammates, it's not a good thing for the building. You want that level playing field, there's a consistency to it. I want to win every game, but I get that you're not going to. Sometimes, you've just got to move on and stop sulking. I feel like that's been a strong part of my view on the game."

Dangerfield has seen, been and won just about everything in footy. There's the elite 350-game club, which he will join on Friday night. There's the premiership, the Brownlow Medal, the AFLPA MVP, the AFLCA Player of the Year. There's the four club best and fairests, the Gary Ayres Medal, the eight All-Australian blazers.

But he is also the father, the husband, the AFLPA president, the media member. It makes the organisational aspect of Dangerfield's life just as impressive as anything he does on the field. "The iPhone didn't exist when I first started," he laughed. "But everything is synced in calendars now."

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 14: Patrick Dangerfield of the Cats leads Geelong out onto the ground before the round 14 AFL match between Essendon Bombers and Geelong Cats at Melbourne Cricket Ground, on June 14, 2025, in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images via AFL Photos)

Over the last three years, he has also become the captain. Speak to anyone at Geelong and they'll tell you it's this aspect of Dangerfield's persona that has arguably been the most impressive facet of his time in the game, with the 35-year-old seamlessly able to navigate leadership issues big or small both on and off the field.

"It definitely balances you," Dangerfield said. "You're trying to be less emotional, because you know that from a leadership sense the buck stops with you. You learn that over time. But you also learn not to react to certain things and to take your time with things, whether it's with players or decisions that are made that you agree or don't agree with.

"It's been a great learning experience to me and it continues to be. The moment you say you've nailed leadership or anything like that is the moment that you need to hang it up. You can always improve and always learn and that's been a great experience for me."

Dangerfield had won almost all of his individual accolades by year 15. He had enjoyed the Brownlow Medal experience in a season where he averaged 32 disposals and a goal per game in 2016. He had almost bettered it one year later, when he booted 45 goals from midfield in a campaign where he went toe-to-toe with Richmond champion Dustin Martin.

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However, going into the 2022 season – his 15th in the League – one crowning glory still evaded him. He had played in 303 games, in 25 finals, made seven preliminary finals and two Grand Finals by the time he eventually achieved football immortality by helping Geelong claim premiership success.

"It's the crowning moment," Dangerfield said.

"It's the whole reason that you play, but it's actually not the whole reason that you play when you start. It's the goal, but it's not really. The goal was actually to be drafted. You're just living your best life and you've achieved your boyhood dreams of being drafted to an AFL club. Then it's wanting to play a game.

"The premiership is not something I was thinking about, because I was just trying to make my way in this incredible sport. But, as your career progresses, and it starts to get closer to the end and you realise you're running out of time … it's earlier than that when you realise the importance of what a premiership would mean and how it would connect you with teammates in a way that you wouldn't otherwise be connected.

GEELONG, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 19: Patrick Dangerfield of the Cats poses ahead of playing his 350th game, during a Geelong Cats AFL media opportunity at GMHBA Stadium on June 19, 2025 in Geelong, Australia. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images via AFL Photos)

"But the journey reinforces just how special a premiership is and how hard it is to get there. It would be different having won it in year one versus year 15. It took a while to get there, but you truly appreciate what goes into winning one and how much luck you need. Having the joy of that one season where there are no ifs, buts or maybes. You just got there and you were successful.

"It was a really special moment, but there are still so many incredible parts of footy. It's not just a premiership that makes it so special. It's the environment you're in, it's the people you get to be connected to, it's the fans you get to play in front of. There's nothing like running out in front of a packed house at the MCG, or GMHBA Stadium, or the Adelaide Oval. It's just incredible. It's such a special thing.

"It would be nice to reflect more in the moment, but of course you never do that. You're just trying to win, right? You're just trying to focus on what's next. But the older you get, the more it does reinforce to you – and you have people message you about this sort of stuff – just staying in the moment and enjoying it. Because you can only enjoy it in the moment. The reflection is never quite as good as just being there and being present."

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Dangerfield's game is built on brute force. It was an attitude taught to him by his father, John, and reinforced on the grounds of Anglesea Football Netball Club. Back then, he played among an eclectic junior side that also featured King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard lead singer Stu Mackenzie and a future Mr Universe winner Calum von Moger.

But the toughness, bravery and explosion that has typified Dangerfield's game crystallised via a lesson from his first AFL senior coach, Neil Craig, in an early teaching moment that still sticks with him to this day.

"It's literally always been my attitude. That was from dad. The harder you go, the less likely you are to get hurt," Dangerfield said.

"From a physical perspective, when you bodyline the ball and you decide to go absolutely all-in, it's almost like every part of your body – all of your muscles within it – are preparing themselves for contact. They're all ready. You're going as hard as you can.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 14: Patrick Dangerfield of the Cats celebrates with fans during the 2025 AFL Round 14 match between the Essendon Bombers and the Geelong Cats at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on June 14, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos)

"I reckon the times when you get hurt are when you pull out of it, or you took that half step. I remember taking a half-step with Justin Koschitzke coming out of centre-half forward. He was probably the wrong one, because he didn't have the greatest awareness at the best of times. I got poleaxed and Neil Craig told me I needed to go harder. He was spot on. I absolutely did.

"I remember short stepping it, looking and thinking, 'Oh now I have to go'. I got caught in the middle and got smacked. I remember that really clearly. I think that's pretty much the last time I remember a contest where I actually didn't commit myself. Every other time, it's always been going as physically hard as I possibly can."

That attitude has been a central force in Dangerfield's longevity, the type that has helped the Geelong spearhead to 350 games across 18 years in the League. But while he will become the 25th footballer to make it that far this weekend, only six – Brent Harvey (432), Michael Tuck (426), Scott Pendlebury (414*), Shaun Burgoyne (407), Kevin Bartlett (403) and Dustin Fletcher (400) – have made it to 400.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MAY 03: Patrick Dangerfield of the Cats celebrates a goal with teammates during the 2025 AFL Round 08 match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Geelong Cats at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on May 3, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos)

However, contracted through to the end of next season and still playing elite football – he's played more forward this year, kicking 19 goals, and is on track for just his third campaign where he will hit the 30-goal mark – there's plenty still left in the tank. So, is there a chance this isn't his last significant milestone match? Unsurprisingly, given that remarkable ability to focus on the present, the thought has barely entered Dangerfield's mind.

"I don't know," he laughed. "I just love the game. I only want to play for as long as I feel like I can be bloody good at it and impact and be better than most around me. I love that challenge. I love the contest in that sense. It's bloody fun.

"The younger the players you play against, the more fun it becomes because you're just trying to stick it to them. The connection you have with older players that you played with or against, you have a chuckle with them after games. That part is just so much fun.

"But 400 is a lot of games. It's a long way away. A strength of mine has been living in the moment and not worrying too much about what tomorrow brings. If you can handle today the right way, then tomorrow will be taken care of. If you extrapolate that for a season, or for a career or whatever, then good things will come."