BROWNLOW medallist Patrick Dangerfield might be trying to keep his mind off football during the off-season, but his team's painful preliminary final exit still stings.

The Geelong superstar was partying in style at the recent Melbourne Cup carnival, having just come back from some interstate and international holidays.

"We've been in Italy for a few weeks, and then I've just come back from a week in Darwin fishing," he said on Saturday.

"It's been pretty good."

The midfielder was trying to continue the holiday celebrations at Flemington but admitted it was hard to keep his mind off next season, ever since Geelong was thrashed by the Sydney Swans.

"We were one game off the Grand Final, and watching that game that desire still burns really brightly to go one better next year," he said.

Nevertheless, Dangerfield knows the Cats must keep improving to earn another chance at making the Grand Final.

"The entire competition is going to get better," he said.

"So if we get better by five per cent and the rest of the competition improves by 10 per cent then we're going to be pedestrian."

Dangerfield will return to training on December 5.