{"id":147578,"date":"2025-09-16T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/147578\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T14:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:27:12","slug":"patrick-dangerfield-defends-bailey-smith-photographer-abused-apology-issued-geelong-cats-open-training-blow-up-afl-360-hes-not-perfect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/147578\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Dangerfield defends Bailey Smith, photographer abused, apology issued, Geelong Cats open training blow-up, AFL 360, he\u2019s not perfect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cats skipper Patrick Dangerfield has defended star Bailey Smith after the midfielder was forced to apologise for verbally abusing a photographer at the club\u2019s open training session earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Smith has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/afl\/afl-2025-bailey-smith-given-wakeup-call-after-photographer-tirade-what-did-he-say-video-geelong-cats-preliminary-final\/news-story\/8a9ca6da5c56669944af7f5a2b8b6d3d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">been told to \u201cpull his head in\u201d<\/a> after he was photographed flipping the middle finger at the female snapper before he launched an expletive tirade at her \u2013 while she was doing her job in the stands.<\/p>\n<p>Watch every match of the 2025 Toyota AFL Finals Series before the Grand Final, LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? <a href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au?pg=afl&amp;extcamp=fsaeditoriallinkafl-edt-fsp-lnk-awr-grc-afl-kyo&amp;channel=fsa&amp;campaign=fsacontra&amp;voucher=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When questioned about Smith\u2019s actions on AFL360, Dangerfield said he didn\u2019t need to scold his star teammate.<\/p>\n<p>WHAT&#8217;S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWas it a moment to intervene?\u201d AFL360 co-host Gerard Whateley asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAhhh, no \u2013 I wasn\u2019t even aware it was happening. I don\u2019t think any of our guys did to be honest,\u201d Dangerfield replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a training session so yeah I think there\u2019s incidences that happen that you know, upon reflection yeah he\u2019d like his time back again.<\/p>\n<p>Bailey Smith yells at the photographer during training. Picture: 7NEWSSource: Supplied<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut there\u2019s always context to it \u2013 and sometimes it\u2019s relevant and sometimes it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd clearly he\u2019s remorseful and didn\u2019t get it totally right \u2013 but he\u2019s not perfect and no one is so we\u2019re not gonna court martial him to the town square for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whateley then asked: \u201cDo you have a conversation as a leadership group with him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dangerfield then said: \u201cNo \u2013 we don\u2019t really have a leadership group Gerard, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whateley followed that up with: \u201cWhat about just as a captain?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Cats skipper then said his first response was to reach out and check on Smith\u2019s welfare.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst and foremost it\u2019s a check in because the blow up, particularly around someone who is covered as extensively as what Bailey is, is significant. So it\u2019s check in first and foremost,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe doesn\u2019t need me to tell him he did the wrong thing \u2013 he knew that.<\/p>\n<p>Bailey Smith gets his lower back worked on at Geelong Cats training.Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo there\u2019s a fine balance between \u2018you\u2019ve got to be better\u2019 \u2013 the athlete knowing that, and then you know equipping them the right way to handle it next time, but also not drawing them across the coals for too long. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt some point you\u2019ve got to move on and focus on what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith is no stranger to controversy this season, having been fined twice already for his middle finger gestures.<\/p>\n<p>Smith has said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/afl\/afl-2025-bailey-smith-flips-the-bird-at-photographer-at-geelong-cats-training-confrontation-verbal-abuse-fines-latest-news\/news-story\/6c34ac4bcfd8bc3af9d749a44de2f100\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">he did not appreciate the photographer taking his photo<\/a> while receiving treatment on the boundary, before telling her she was \u201cdoing a f&#8212;ing s&#8211;t job\u201d.<\/p>\n<p> Cats CEO Steve Hocking called the photographer on behalf of the club, while Smith later sent an apology text.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cats skipper Patrick Dangerfield has defended star Bailey Smith after the midfielder was forced to apologise for verbally&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,99696,64,63,689,55,639,42255,3237,99693,99694,13659,61,2105,647,7198,677,99695,39209,99697,85,99691,99692,53149,660],"class_list":["post-147578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-apology-text","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-bailey-smith","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-cats-skipper","tag-finger-gestures","tag-geelong-cats","tag-gerard-whateley","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-willson","tag-oceania","tag-open-training-session","tag-patrick-dangerfield","tag-receiving-treatment","tag-sports","tag-steve-hocking","tag-training-blow-up","tag-training-session","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}