Geelong vice captain and AFLPA President, Patrick Dangerfield continues to be the public voice of the AFL playing group during the COVID-19 crisis.

Cats and football fans alike will have heard Dangerfield discussing regularly the issues and challenges of the game, but there has been no greater challenge for the 30-year old than the current industry shutdown.

The AFL Players Association (AFLPA) is a representative body for all current and past professional AFL players. When handed the Presidency baton at the beginning of 2018, Dangerfield could not have foreseen the challenging times ahead.

After leading the players through an extensive Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiation in 2019, Dangerfield is facing another huge task in guiding over 850 AFL players through this pandemic.

Dangerfield has been stoic in his leadership, understanding the importance of managing the different opinions and circumstances of the leagues players.

“850 players with different personal circumstances that we need to cater for. But we’re totally committed to doing it and doing our part in the resumption, hopefully that’s as soon as possible,” Dangerfield told Triple M’S Dead Set Legends over the weekend.

Keeping everyone on the same page is one of Dangerfield’s priorities, which is done through regular communication and virtual meetings with club AFLPA delegates and club captains.

“Everyone’s going to have a difference of opinions. Most of the time when we are talking around big ticket items, there’s always toing and froing in these meetings, it’s never everyone on the same page and that’s just natural.

“That’s why we have the meetings, to discuss different points of view and to discuss different situations players are in.

“No matter what we do, whether there’s hubs or fly-in fly-out, it’s not going to suit absolutely everyone but we will do the best we possibly can to accommodate as many as we can.

“If we do go to a hubs situation, that’s not going to suit everyone. There’s going to be players who aren’t able to go because of wives giving birth or different family situations so we are really respectful of that and we hope the general public can be respectful of that as well.”