Latest news with #PatrickDangerfield
Daily Mail
18 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Footy great Patrick Dangerfield opens up about the drink-driving tragedy that killed a beloved member of his family
Geelong captain Patrick Dangerfield has opened up about the profound impact of losing his uncle in a drink-driving tragedy 29 years ago, as the footy star spearheads a road safety campaign. Dangerfield, who is an ambassador for AFL Victoria's Road Safety Round, lost his uncle Tim in the mid-1990s after he was involved in a car accident while drink-driving. The 35-year-old Cats skipper knows all too well how lives are changed forever by road trauma. 'My uncle died when he was 20 and it reshaped our entire family,' he told News Corp. 'I was only six at the time but it shaped me because it shaped Mum. It was something she never got over. 'He was drink-driving and he shouldn't have been on the road. He didn't cause the accident but he was driving through some traffic lights and someone sped through a red light. It hit him and he died. 'He shouldn't have been on the road to begin with and then through a set of circumstances and poor road management he ended up passing away. 'Talking to dad, he says mum took five or 10 years to get over it and has always been very cautious on the roads. 'His organs were donated and funnily enough it had a positive consequence to other families. So I have a family connection, but you can see it yourself now with kids and their limited attention spans.' Dangerfield wants people to understand the impact that their behaviour can have on others, including children. 'People drive past an accident and you can be angry or stressed about it because you are late to work but it has affected an entire community or family,' he said. 'When that happens to someone you know, your world is changed forever. The road safety message starts with yourself. You can only talk about it if you exhibit good behaviour and live by it. 'It's about having honest conversations with those around you and doing it in a positive way. If you are a terrible driver, pull your head in. 'Be a good role model to your kids. They see everything. The amount of people I see on their phones or texting and driving is amazing.' 'So with road safety round it's about honouring the people impacted by it and spreading that message at community clubs and also honouring the hundreds of Victorians who die on regional roads every year.' This weekend, community clubs and the 10 AFL teams in Victoria will don blue armbands to honour lives lost on the roads. Dangerfield's Cats, who are sitting in the top four, will take on North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.
Herald Sun
a day ago
- Herald Sun
Patrick Dangerfield leads road safety campaign after uncle Tim Utber's death
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News. Patrick Dangerfield's uncle Tim was drink-driving when a car ploughed through a red light to end his life and change his own family forever. These days as his nephew drives home to Moggs Creek, it is the stream of drivers texting while behind the wheel that shocks and frustrates the Geelong captain. Dangerfield has long been an advocate for responsible drinking given uncle Tim Utber's death 29 years ago, but this week adds a role as an ambassador for AFL Victoria's Road Safety Round. This coming weekend Victorian AFL teams and hundreds of community clubs will wear bold blue armbands to honour lives lost or changed by road trauma. Dangerfield doesn't need a reminder of the road safety message given the events of the mid-1990s as his mother Jeanette's brother took to the road. 'My uncle died when he was 20 and it reshaped our entire family. I was only six at the time but it shaped me because it shaped mum. It was something she never got over,' he told the Herald Sun. 'He was drink-driving and he shouldn't have been on the road. He didn't cause the accident but he was driving through some traffic lights and someone sped through a red light. It hit him and he died. 'He shouldn't have been on the road to begin with and then through a set of circumstances and poor road management he ended up passing away. Talking to dad, he says mum took five or 10 years to get over it and has always been very cautious on the roads. 'His organs were donated and funnily enough it had a positive consequence to other families. So I have a family connection, but you can see it yourself now with kids and their limited attention spans.' Dangerfield and Collingwood captain Darcy Moore will spearhead the campaign, and for the Cats skipper it is a true passion project. 'People drive past an accident and you can be angry or stressed about it because you are late to work but it has affected an entire community or family,' he said. 'When that happens to someone you know, your world is changed forever. The road safety message starts with yourself. You can only talk about it if you exhibit good behaviour and live by it. 'It's about having honest conversations with those around you and doing it in a positive way. If you are a terrible driver, pull your head in. 'Be a good role model to your kids. They see everything. The amount of people I see on their phones or texting and driving is amazing.' 'So with road safety round it's about honouring the people impacted by it and spreading that message at community clubs and also honouring the hundreds of Victorians who die on regional roads every year.'
Sydney Morning Herald
11-07-2025
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
The centre bounce has become a relic. It's time for the AFL to bring back the chaos or scrap it
'What can you tell me about the centre bounce of the ball? It goes anywhere, so it's really, really hard for the players ... if the ball bounces sideways, they're going to move,' Suns coach Damien Hardwick said. Geelong skipper Patrick Dangerfield described it as not a 'valuable enough part of the game to protect', while Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan said, 'I'm not a fan of the bounce ... it contributes to umpire contact. It bounces, goes all over the place.' Removing the bounce is a decision the AFL Commission can make as it was not enshrined in the 2014 Laws of the Game Charter. Under the fundamental element category of the game, it says : 'At the start of each quarter and after each goal, play is resumed by a ruck contest at a centre bounce or ball-up.' Removing the bounce to help reduce umpire-player contact (a counter-argument is that the certainty a ball-up provides crowds players around the umpire, making them more vulnerable) is not the only reason it has been in the gun. Those arguing for its elimination want to keep good decision makers in the game, even if they were ordinary bouncers. Let's face it, in what other sport – apart from perhaps skating in ice hockey – are umpires required to execute a physical skill? The ball is now thrown up at all centre bounces in the AFLW. In the AFL, it has been thrown up around the ground since 2013 and umpires can be exempted from bouncing the ball due to the risk of injury. The bounce must go up within a circle 10 metres in diameter and only the rucks can contest it. If the ball goes too far from the mark, it is called back, as the game attempts to balance unpredictability with fairness. It means umpires have to execute the skill even more perfectly than in the past when no recalls were required, ruckmen weren't nominated and any player could contest the ball where it landed. Just look below at some of the bounces from the past, from the 1975 and 1986 grand finals. Tradition? What tradition? Apart from all the rule changes, it's also worth noting that the tradition so fiercely protected to start a grand final has not occurred in two of the past 38 deciders. In 1987, a free kick was paid to Carlton's Wayne Johnston before umpire Ian Robinson even had a chance to bounce the ball as five Hawthorn players stood in the square. It's not clear why Johnston, rather than the Carlton ruckman, was awarded the kick, but no one blinked an eye. In 2023, an errant bounce was recalled, taking two seconds off the clock in the Collingwood v Brisbane Lions decider before umpire Simon Meredith threw it up for Mason Cox and Oscar McInerney. When a bounce is recalled, the clock does not reset, losing the time taken. That famous grand final that Collingwood won by four points was defined by a centre clearance goal in which Magpies star Jordan De Goey kicked to regain the lead with less than six minutes remaining. The ball was thrown up because of a 6-6-6 position warning. That moment of uncertainty was removed in a climactic end to a great grand final and could be again if a bounce was recalled. Yet, the sky didn't fall remaining. The ball was thrown up because of a 6-6-6 position warning. Three of the final four centre bounce situations were ball-ups in the final six minutes, two due to 6-6-6 warnings and one due to a recall (which took two seconds off in the final five minutes). The AFL changed the rule at the start of this season so that umpires bounce the ball after issuing a 6-6-6 warning (as happened just before three-quarter-time time on Thursday night). It's time for a decision on the bounce The rule changes around the centre bounces make you wonder what is being protected. In 2025, it has degenerated into a wrestling match between ruckmen, since the AFL last year enabled straight-arm blocks providing the ruck involved was contesting the ball. It is no longer exciting to watch. Lawmakers were trying to avoid such wrestling when they introduced the centre circle across the line in 1980, following the ugly rucking spectacle that marred the 1979 preliminary final when Collingwood's Peter Moore and North Melbourne's Gary Dempsey wrestled like two pythons throughout the match. For half a century the game achieved that objective until a 2024 rule change was introduced for reasons unknown. 'It's gone back to Dempsey-Moore,' Madden said, adding he would remove the line across the centre, and debate the size of the circle, to reconfigure the contest. 'Everyone would have to move to the ball.' He doesn't think anyone would notice if the bounce was scrapped. Although the reason for the next major change was sound, the rot set in when the AFL limited the ruckman's run-up to 10m in 2005 to protect them against posterior cruciate ligament injuries which occurred when knee hit knee. Four years later, the chaotic element was minimised again when umpires were empowered to recall an errant bounce at a stoppage and replace it with a throw-up. It followed controversy when North Melbourne midfielder Adam Simpson was gifted a centre clearance in 2008 that led to a vital goal against Collingwood in round seven that season. That decision started the decline of the centre bounce into the relic it is now. A senior club official argued that the game should be wary of yielding to coaches' need for certainty in an era when fans crave the uncertainty sport provides. The bounce, he argued, should be retained on that basis. Loading But what we have is a facade of the centre bounce. Another real debate is needed. Scrap it forever in the interests of fairness, protecting umpires' backs and Hardwick and his ilk, or return it to the wonderful random tradition it once was by removing the recall. Incoming football operations boss Greg Swann needs to convince the AFL Commission to back the bounce or sack it. If they sacked what we have now, in less than a season, no one would miss it.
The Age
11-07-2025
- Sport
- The Age
The centre bounce has become a relic. It's time for the AFL to bring back the chaos or scrap it
'What can you tell me about the centre bounce of the ball? It goes anywhere, so it's really, really hard for the players ... if the ball bounces sideways, they're going to move,' Suns coach Damien Hardwick said. Geelong skipper Patrick Dangerfield described it as not a 'valuable enough part of the game to protect', while Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan said, 'I'm not a fan of the bounce ... it contributes to umpire contact. It bounces, goes all over the place.' Removing the bounce is a decision the AFL Commission can make as it was not enshrined in the 2014 Laws of the Game Charter. Under the fundamental element category of the game, it says : 'At the start of each quarter and after each goal, play is resumed by a ruck contest at a centre bounce or ball-up.' Removing the bounce to help reduce umpire-player contact (a counter-argument is that the certainty a ball-up provides crowds players around the umpire, making them more vulnerable) is not the only reason it has been in the gun. Those arguing for its elimination want to keep good decision makers in the game, even if they were ordinary bouncers. Let's face it, in what other sport – apart from perhaps skating in ice hockey – are umpires required to execute a physical skill? The ball is now thrown up at all centre bounces in the AFLW. In the AFL, it has been thrown up around the ground since 2013 and umpires can be exempted from bouncing the ball due to the risk of injury. The bounce must go up within a circle 10 metres in diameter and only the rucks can contest it. If the ball goes too far from the mark, it is called back, as the game attempts to balance unpredictability with fairness. It means umpires have to execute the skill even more perfectly than in the past when no recalls were required, ruckmen weren't nominated and any player could contest the ball where it landed. Just look below at some of the bounces from the past, from the 1975 and 1986 grand finals. Tradition? What tradition? Apart from all the rule changes, it's also worth noting that the tradition so fiercely protected to start a grand final has not occurred in two of the past 38 deciders. In 1987, a free kick was paid to Carlton's Wayne Johnston before umpire Ian Robinson even had a chance to bounce the ball as five Hawthorn players stood in the square. It's not clear why Johnston, rather than the Carlton ruckman, was awarded the kick, but no one blinked an eye. In 2023, an errant bounce was recalled, taking two seconds off the clock in the Collingwood v Brisbane Lions decider before umpire Simon Meredith threw it up for Mason Cox and Oscar McInerney. When a bounce is recalled, the clock does not reset, losing the time taken. That famous grand final that Collingwood won by four points was defined by a centre clearance goal in which Magpies star Jordan De Goey kicked to regain the lead with less than six minutes remaining. The ball was thrown up because of a 6-6-6 position warning. That moment of uncertainty was removed in a climactic end to a great grand final and could be again if a bounce was recalled. Yet, the sky didn't fall remaining. The ball was thrown up because of a 6-6-6 position warning. Three of the final four centre bounce situations were ball-ups in the final six minutes, two due to 6-6-6 warnings and one due to a recall (which took two seconds off in the final five minutes). The AFL changed the rule at the start of this season so that umpires bounce the ball after issuing a 6-6-6 warning (as happened just before three-quarter-time time on Thursday night). It's time for a decision on the bounce The rule changes around the centre bounces make you wonder what is being protected. In 2025, it has degenerated into a wrestling match between ruckmen, since the AFL last year enabled straight-arm blocks providing the ruck involved was contesting the ball. It is no longer exciting to watch. Lawmakers were trying to avoid such wrestling when they introduced the centre circle across the line in 1980, following the ugly rucking spectacle that marred the 1979 preliminary final when Collingwood's Peter Moore and North Melbourne's Gary Dempsey wrestled like two pythons throughout the match. For half a century the game achieved that objective until a 2024 rule change was introduced for reasons unknown. 'It's gone back to Dempsey-Moore,' Madden said, adding he would remove the line across the centre, and debate the size of the circle, to reconfigure the contest. 'Everyone would have to move to the ball.' He doesn't think anyone would notice if the bounce was scrapped. Although the reason for the next major change was sound, the rot set in when the AFL limited the ruckman's run-up to 10m in 2005 to protect them against posterior cruciate ligament injuries which occurred when knee hit knee. Four years later, the chaotic element was minimised again when umpires were empowered to recall an errant bounce at a stoppage and replace it with a throw-up. It followed controversy when North Melbourne midfielder Adam Simpson was gifted a centre clearance in 2008 that led to a vital goal against Collingwood in round seven that season. That decision started the decline of the centre bounce into the relic it is now. A senior club official argued that the game should be wary of yielding to coaches' need for certainty in an era when fans crave the uncertainty sport provides. The bounce, he argued, should be retained on that basis. Loading But what we have is a facade of the centre bounce. Another real debate is needed. Scrap it forever in the interests of fairness, protecting umpires' backs and Hardwick and his ilk, or return it to the wonderful random tradition it once was by removing the recall. Incoming football operations boss Greg Swann needs to convince the AFL Commission to back the bounce or sack it. If they sacked what we have now, in less than a season, no one would miss it.
News.com.au
10-07-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
AFL's bold bid to recruit sprinting sensation Gout Gout
The AFL has made a bold bid to lure Gout Gout to take part in footy's biggest day. The 17-year-old is the hottest prospect in Australian sport, already the country's fastest man ever over 200m and on the cusp of officially breaking 10 seconds in the 100m sprint. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer. In his European debut last month in the Czech Republic, Gout ran down a high quality field at the Golden Spike event to win a 200m race and improve his national record to 20.02 seconds. Gout is next scheduled to race in a Diamond League event in Monaco on Saturday morning (AEST) as he continues to introduce himself to the athletics world. Watch Gout Gout's European debut in the video player above CODE Sports reports the AFL is now keen on tempting the Queenslander to take part in this year's Grand Final Sprint. First held way back in 1979, a 100m race is held by AFL players not competing in the grand final, typically during the halftime entertainment. One player is usually nominated from each club, with former Hawthorn winger Geoff Ablett (four wins) and Patrick Dangerfield (three) the most successful sprinters in the event's history. Geelong star Max Holmes and Collingwood's Beau McCreery took out the 2023 and 2024 events respectively. CODE says an approach has been made to Gout's management over taking part, which would bring enormous interest to the colourful event. This year's grand final is scheduled for Saturday September 27, just days after Gout will be hoping to run in the Athletics World Championships in Tokyo, so the timing could work well. AFL spokesperson Jay Allen wouldn't comment directly on Gout, but did say the league is always keen on drumming up interest in the event. 'The Grand Final Sprint is a favourite tradition of the day and we are always looking at ways to amplify the race and the public interest in it,' he said. 'We will make any announcements closer to the Toyota AFL Grand Final.' While the AFL has plenty of handy athletes, it is likely a handicap system similar to what is used at the Stawell Gift would be needed to give any footy players hope against Gout. Gout's effort in the Czech Republic was just the latest step in an already remarkable career from a prodigious talent that has experts reaching for the record books every time he dons his spikes. His feat was celebrated in a number of sporting circles, with many marvelling at his undeniable progress and others becoming aware of his extraordinary ability for the first time. Gout's family migrated to Australia in 2005 and settled in Queensland, where he was born two years later. Commencing high school at Ipswich Grammar School, he attended his school formal earlier this year and is in year 12. Blessed with raw talent, Gout emerged as a sprinting prodigy at a meet in 2020 and has been shattering Australia's junior records ever since. He took that a step further at the Australian All Schools Championships in December last year when he ran 20.04 seconds. That broke the great Peter Norman's 200m record of 20.06s that had stood since the 1968 Olympics.
