LEIGH Matthews did it with great success. So too Malcolm Blight and Gary Ablett snr.
And in 2025 another midfield great, Patrick Dangerfield, will be given the opportunity to play the latter stages of a Hall of Fame-worthy career as a full-forward.
Geelong coach Chris Scott revealed the plans for a positional switch to AFL.com.au in a wide-ranging interview on the eve of the 2025 season.
“Like most others, he hasn’t had a material interruption (in the pre-season), the only thing with Pat is the experience of the last couple of years, where he has missed early parts of the season – we’d prefer to have him available in those first couple of months, and I think he will play forward early in the season,” Scott said.
Asked if the specific role would be “out of the goalsquare, like an old-fashioned full-forward”, Scott said: “I think so. Yeah, that’s what we’re thinking at the moment.”
AFL.com.au:Â “Like the Gary Ablett snr and Malcolm Blight days?”
Scott:Â “Yeah, and even go back to Leigh Matthews. I still remember the first time I spoke to Pat when he was a potential free agent for us, it surprised me that as one of the premier midfielders in the comp that he regarded himself even back then as a 50-50 forward-mid. It hasn’t worked out that way for us, but there is still a chance it might.”
Matthews and Blight closed grand VFL careers as permanent full-forwards, respectively in 1985 and 1982 (Blight kicked 103 goals that season), and Ablett confirmed his greatness when he booted a century of goals in the 1993, 1994 and 1995 seasons.
Dangerfield has kicked 335 goals from 337 matches at Adelaide and Geelong, with 45 in the 2017 season, his second year as a Cat, his highest return.
In a match against Hawthorn that season, he had 11 shots at goal for 5.6.
“With the great players, when there is a structural situation where you have a deep forward, that’s one thing, but when that deep forward is Dustin Martin, it changes everything,” Scott said.
“Paddy is in that category. So it’s nice that he embraces it. He never was, but he is not thinking he has to be around the ball the whole time.”
Asked to speculate on how many goals Dangerfield would kick in 2025, Scott said: “Fifty is a pretty good number these days for a Charlie Curnow-type so once you’re above 30 goals you are a pretty influential forward these days.”
