Talking to Gun Midfielder Patrick Dangerfield About Adaption, Innovation and One-Upping the Competition

This article is presented in partnership with NIKEiD. In this series we explore the ways in which athletes have customised their performance to achieve greatness.

Australian Rules Football is a game of variables. There are the changing conditions, the sheer number of bodies hurling themselves at the contest, the countless bumps forever throwing you off balance, and not to mention the chaotic bounce of the ball itself.

But there's at least one constant: if the ball is up for grabs, Geelong's Patrick Dangerfield will be hard at it. After eight seasons at the game's highest level, Dangerfield is a two-time league leader in contested possessions, club champion for Adelaide, and a three-time all-Australian.

But all this success has come through not only natural ability and experience, but a responsive approach to training, skill-building, and technique. We talked to the gun midfielder at Simonds Stadium, his new homeground, about the hard work he's put into evolving his game.

VICE Sports: Hey Patrick, when you were starting out, was there a player you tried to model your game on?
Patrick Dangerfield: Growing up, I never had one particular player that I loved. I just took bit of different players that I enjoyed watching. So I loved watching Nathan Buckley as most people in the '90s and early 2000s did. Wayne Carey—just for his impact on games. And then most recently Chris Judd; the way he would burst away from stoppages. Someone you'd just look at and go, "Wow!" and just want to emulate what he does.

I guess if you can emulate other players and their style, you can take the best of everything.
I mean, you're never going to be exactly the same as whoever it is you're trying to emulate. It's not about that; it's about trying to be as good you can be and using those little triggers they were good at to try and build your own game. You model yourself on the best players in the game, because they're the best players in the game. That's what you want to be.

How has your playing changed over the years and what's driven that change?
I think the longer you play, the greater awareness you have on field and that's just through experience I think. And the only way to gain the experience is to experience it. So you've got to make mistakes and errors and learn from that. I think as you play longer and longer, you'll understand what you're capable of, and what contests are not worth really putting in 200% to try and and win because it's going to be detrimental in the long term.

In terms of the actual game itself?
Totally; just making sure you're picking and choosing contests. Not when you should go all out or when you shouldn't, but just being smarter around contesting situations.

I'm all about that. What has shaped your approach to the sport?
I think it's shaped by the environment and people around you. For me it started early on with my parents and dad whose philosophy was, "If you want to win the contest, boy you've got to go in there and win it yourself. You can't rely on someone else to do it." I've really taken that approach to basically all parts of my game. You can't rely on others to do it for you, to make you a good player.

What other advice has stuck for you? I feel like you'd be getting advice throughout.
Yeah, that's one thing you always get plenty of. Probably the best advice was from Mark Bickley, who was one of my former coaches. He had a philosophy if you were playing a poor game. It went something like, "It might not be your game, but it might be a moment." I think it's good to play with that philosophy in mind, because it's not about being the best on the ground every game; it's about playing your role for the side. That might be making a tackle in an otherwise dog of a game, but it might have contributed to winning the game.

If you could instantly add something to your game, what would it be?
Probably just composure. I think the best players in the game are able to make time stand still. I think Gaz [Gary Albett] in his prime years just looked to be going so much slower than everyone else, yet so much quicker because no one could catch him. But he had so much time to execute whatever it is he was he was doing. The really good ones have so much time. You more often hit the target. I think with the way the game's played it's so important to retain possession. You can't be coughing the ball up.

What about match day prep. What factors are involved in being at your best come game time?
I've always tried to stay clear of routine because my thought is something might go wrong at some point in some game, and it may just be the most important game of your career. And if you're so embedded in routine, does that mean you're not going to perform because you've been used to a certain meal or putting your left sock on first or whatever it might be? So I've really tried to stay clear of routine.

That being said, victory loves preparation, I think. And to achieve it often and over a longer period of time you need to have that preparation of really high level consistently. That starts on Monday. It doesn't start two hours before the game. It's your training habits: punctuality around training and weights; injury prevention. There are so many different facets. It goes into preparing your body as well as you can.

On top of that performance, it seem like so much of it is like a numbers game. Do you find that a data-approach helps you?
You've got to be really wary nowadays. As you said, games are often judged on numbers and statistics and I think we focus on that far too often. Impact for me is always so much more important than raw numbers. I'd rather have 15 possessions and have a massive impact on the game than 30 and have very little influence. It's easy to be trapped by the numbers—they're so often in your face. Footage is reviewed from every angle you can ever imagine. The game is growing in a rapid rate. You have to bring it back to impact, and the best way to do that is to take your ups from your coaches and from the people behind firewalls rather than in the newspaper. Because as many ups a paper would give you, there'll be twice as many downs.

Last question: what does human performance mean to you?
I think it's ever-changing; I think it's saying it can always improve. It's what every sportsman and woman and every sports brand is getting at. Nike are constantly trying to achieve the edge on the competition. Where is it, where does it start?

And where does it end?
Does it ever end? I don't think it does. We will always hunt that extra percent because that extra percent can be the difference between winning and losing, success and failure. You don't want to die wondering, "Maybe if we had just tried that or prepared slightly differently…" Innovation certainly helps contribute to success. The competition around you is always improving. You might improve 10 percent, but if your competition's improved 20 percent, you're going backwards. You have to constantly look for ways to improve and challenge yourself.

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