Already, there are few seasons better in VFL/AFL history than Patrick Dangerfield’s first at Geelong.

The explosive midfielder was on Tuesday night voted by his peers as the game’s Most Valuable Player, securing the AFL Players Association’s Leigh Matthews Trophy for 2016.

There is of course much unfinished business ahead for the Cats and their star on-baller – and naturally the individual’s focus lies firmly on the team. There is, after all, a preliminary final awaiting them.

But while Dangerfield won’t, allow us to sing the praises of the no.35 in highlighting just how good he has been in 2016.

The 26-year-old is currently the no.1 ranked player in the game according to the AFL Ratings (724.2 points) and is ranked first in total centre clearances (80).

Going forward, Dangerfield is first in total inside 50’s (185) and average inside 50’s (8 per game) and had already broken the total in-season record by round 22.

The following week, he registered 16 inside 50’s against Melbourne at Simonds Stadium to move past Jason Akermanis for the most inside 50’s in a season including finals.

He is also ranked first for kicks inside 50 retained (86) and most kicks inside 50 marked (35 in total), which proves he has both quality and quantity.

Dangerfield’s most dominant area, however, is metres gained. Put simply, he is a metres gained machine – ranked first in the AFL with 14,186 metres in total.

With each Dangerfield disposal, the ball is advanced for Geelong some 19.6 metres on average and is retained 67.8% of the time, while he has gained 3.4 kilometres more distance than the next best player in Andrew Gaff.

Playing predominantly as a midfielder, Dangerfield has kicked 23 goals in 2016 and in doing so has proven his worth and potential if deployed up forward.

He has at times been used in the attacking half and demonstrated his contested marking ability to the point where he is ranked first in the AFL for contested marks as a midfielder (28).

For all his dominance, Dangerfield is still good enough for second in a number of other key statistical areas. He trails only Fremantle’s Lachie Neale for total disposals in 2016 (723) and average disposals (31.4 per game), while is only bettered by Sydney’s Josh Kennedy for total contested possessions (367).

But the year is far from over.

There is a preliminary final at worst awaiting the Cats and one night in particular a week later which could move Patrick Dangerfield’s 2016 season into rare company – as one of the greatest of all time.