AAA<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a football fan under the age of 35, chances are Dan Gorringe is everywhere when you pick up your phone.<\/p>\n
Log on to Instagram, he\u2019ll be there, over-celebrating a Carlton win or mourning a loss. You\u2019ll find his mildly more serious football views on his Dan Does Footy YouTube channel. On TikTok, you\u2019ll get his almost instant hot takes, delivered in his typically edgy style.<\/p>\n
![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/986bb10e0aed36522339ef2d7dbb950ab3704601.jpeg\")
Dan Does Footy podcast host and social media identity Daniel Gorringe has become a key player in the AFL\u2019s targeting of the youth market.Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n
He\u2019s labelled goalkicking great Matthew Lloyd a \u201cdirty rat\u201d, called prominent broadcaster Gerard Whateley a \u201cmuppet\u201d, and told arguably the greatest player of all time Leigh Matthews to \u201cf— up\u201d. He has had commercial partnerships with corporate bookies, sports drinks and alcohol brands.<\/p>\n
It will come as a surprise, then, that Gorringe the footballer was the polar opposite in personality.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was as straight as six o\u2019clock,\u201d his first senior coach Guy McKenna said.<\/p>\n
Former Carlton captain and one of Gorringe\u2019s closest friends Sam Docherty, who was unwittingly embroiled in his stoush with Whateley, said his former teammate was rarely the centre of attention in the Blues locker room.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was fairly quiet, [but] still very funny,\u201d Docherty said. \u201cIf you listen to him speak, he\u2019s probably socially anxious and awkward through footy because he didn\u2019t know where he stood or what he was doing. He always had that funny side to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe joked around with a small group of mates as opposed to the whole locker room. Most people who played with him would have thought he was fairly reserved and didn\u2019t speak very much.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/47c88b6da555d0293b7078a8fe38815a7069b84a.jpeg\")
Dan Gorringe takes on North Melbourne\u2019s Todd Goldstein in a ruck contest in 2016.Getty Images<\/p>\n
In many ways, Gorringe is the most unlikely of football personalities: polarising, unfiltered and contemptuous of traditional media.<\/p>\n
But even the AFL wants him.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, it has taken a long and distinguished on-field career for a retired player to make it in the media. Though a No.10 pick in 2010, his 26 games for Gold Coast and Carlton fall well short of the mark.<\/p>\n
As a player, his most memorable moment came in retirement when he clattered into comedian Dave Hughes<\/a> in a legends charity match. But the world of social media does not follow the same rules, and there are few in Australian sport better at playing this game than Gorringe, who has a team of more than 10 full-timers and additional casual and part-time staff behind the scenes managing content and his commercial partnerships. His success is no accident.<\/p>\n The former ruckman has a greater digital presence than some clubs. His 378,000 followers on Instagram is well over double that of Gold Coast, the club that drafted him. His 43,200 subscribers on YouTube is close to 50 per cent higher than another of his former teams, Carlton, and his TikTok following of 298,000 is more than the Blues and Suns combined.<\/p>\n His average of more than 300,000 views and 20,000-plus engagements per content item across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube makes him \u201cone of Australia\u2019s highest-performing independent sports creator brands\u201d, Nathan Powell, the chief product and strategy officer at AI-powered creator technology platform Fabulate, said.<\/p>\n \u201cDan has managed to build something that\u2019s much harder than simply accumulating followers,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s built a highly concentrated Australian sporting audience that consistently chooses to engage with his content. The audience is also predominantly male and heavily concentrated in the 18-to-34 demographic, which is one of the most valuable audiences for sporting organisations and advertisers.<\/p>\n \u201cThat tells me people aren\u2019t just following Dan because they know who he is \u2013 they\u2019re following him because they genuinely value his perspective on sport and the content he creates.\u201d<\/p>\n No wonder the AFL has Gorringe on its books as part of what its customer and commercial boss Bec Haagsma says is a \u201crapid transformation and evolution of our fan engagement and fan experience strategy\u201d. They see Gorringe as pivotal to targeting the younger market \u2013 those under the age of 34.<\/p>\n In collaboration with the league\u2019s broadcast partners, Gorringe appeared on The Ultimate Footy Watchalong\u00a0for the Fremantle v Sydney<\/a> and North Melbourne v Melbourne games, streamed live on the AFL\u2019s YouTube channel, Kayo and 7plus.<\/p>\n \u201cWatchalongs\u201d, where fans stream themselves watching a game live and connect online in real time, are a new concept in Australia and, if experience overseas is any indication, here to stay.<\/p>\n \u201cIt goes back to the idea that media is changing, and social media is a massive part of the media industry,\u201d Michael Neill, the head of Fox Footy, said. \u201cIt won\u2019t get any smaller. We\u2019d be foolish if we didn\u2019t look at these new ideas and different ways to broadcast.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe immediacy of his posts and how he gets his opinion out there really quick, it\u2019s out there and it\u2019s different.<\/p>\n \u201cIt comes from an ex-player\u2019s perspective as well, and from someone who\u2019s very smart when it comes to communication and how to get his message out there.\u201d<\/p>\n For Seven, it gives the network another way to reach the younger market.<\/p>\n \u201cWorking with creators who love the game allows us to connect with audiences in authentic new ways,\u201d Seven\u2019s head of sport digital Kirsty Bradmore said. \u201cWe are continually exploring more ways to innovate our broadcast offering for viewers across Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n This collaboration drew 250,000 live viewers across the league\u2019s YouTube channel, Kayo, Foxtel and 7plus to watch while Gorringe and co-hosts \u2013 Seven reporter Xander McGuire and Collingwood AFLW captain and Kayo personality Ruby Schleicher \u2013 casually discussed the game, as opposed to the serious analysis on the main coverage. Socceroos goalkeeper Patrick Beach<\/a>, a GWS fan, featured at half-time.<\/p>\n \u2018People aren\u2019t just following Dan because they know who he is \u2013 they\u2019re following him because they genuinely value his perspective on sport and the content he creates.\u2019<\/p>\n Nathan Powell of creator technology platform Fabulate<\/p>\n \u201cDan has been with us for a year now doing some hardcore engagement stuff,\u201d Haagsma said. \u201cHe\u2019s part of that strategy. For us, looking at how we attract, retain and engage with our avid fans is a different proposition to our younger fans.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew we needed to engage a different strategy. We can\u2019t put highlights on TikTok and go, \u2018That will bring the kids in\u2019. Dan has got a voice that we know speaks in a different way, and just resonates. He\u2019s authentic in his point of view, and he loves the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Gorringe\u2019s channel markets itself as \u201cunfiltered and unqualified\u201d. The wider football community saw this side in March after he aired a voice memo left by Docherty of a candid and expletive-laden analysis<\/a> of his former club\u2019s failings in their thumping by Sydney on the opening night of the season.<\/p>\n Gorringe did not check with Docherty if the message was to be aired, as is the practice in mainstream media, drawing condemnation from Whateley \u2013 who slammed him for \u201creprehensible behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n His feud with Whateley, a highly respected veteran broadcaster, personified the clash between what Gorringe derides as \u201cold-man media\u201d and new media. Lloyd and Matthews became entangled after their discussion of Docherty\u2019s comments on 3AW, prompting Gorringe to label the former as a \u201cdirty rat\u201d and telling the latter to \u201cf— up\u201d.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an element of lost in translation for the \u201cdirty rat\u201d reference. Rat is a term of endearment in the Dan Does Footy community. The moderator on his channel addressed his audience as \u201cRATS\u201d in a post this week.<\/p>\n Gorringe is social media\u2019s answer to Port Adelaide great-turned-analyst Kane Cornes<\/a> (a former columnist for this masthead) on traditional media. Both have found a gap in the market and filled it. Gorringe did not respond to interview requests, but his manager responded in writing to questions sent by this masthead, and happily shared a nude image of his client wearing only a strategically placed Sherrin.<\/p>\n \u201cDan set out to build something that reflected how most people actually experience sport,\u201d Edward Deal, founder and head of talent at The Gifted Group, said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe vast majority of fans don\u2019t sit around analysing defensive structures or selection strategy; they watch with their mates, they celebrate, they argue, they laugh and they overreact. Dan understood there was room for a platform that captured that experience authentically.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cDan\u2019s credibility doesn\u2019t come from claiming to know more than everyone else. It comes from representing the experience of the supporter.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s never pretended to be the smartest football mind in the room. His audience relates to him because he reacts to the game the same way they do. That\u2019s always been his personality, and it\u2019s what has made the platform resonate.\u201d<\/p>\n That perhaps does not do full justice to Gorringe\u2019s knowledge of the game. In the Dockers v Swans watchalong, the former ruckman observed the return of the leaping rucks \u2013 a subject discussed in football media this year \u2013 and seconds later foreshadowed Charlie Curnow playing on and kicking a trademark long goal from a mark outside 50. Dan Does Footy works, not least because Dan does the work.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no secret to why he\u2019s successful in this space. If he put half as much effort into his footy he might have been a bloody good footballer in the end,\u201d Docherty said with a laugh.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be out for dinner with him and our partners, and he\u2019ll have the game on in the background on his phone. He has to. This is his world. He lives it and breathes it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s found his niche in the market where he\u2019s all over everything. He\u2019s the first one to react and always got a video. With that comes a lot of pressure to be all over it and on top of everything.<\/p>\n \u201cI watch about seven of the nine games, occasionally miss one with the kids, I don\u2019t think he misses one \u2013 ever. It\u2019s pretty crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n Docherty is often at Gorringe\u2019s South Melbourne home watching a game. It\u2019s not uncommon for Gorringe to duck out at half-time to film himself and have a video posted online minutes later.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019ll pop into the backyard, do a one-take video, and it\u2019s straight out to the public,\u201d Docherty said. \u201cIt\u2019s as raw as it comes, with no script. It\u2019s just off the top of his head. It\u2019s pretty crazy to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"AFL](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/35a0adc9e3da75642834b7f60a616f7c812e4941c7835574b257ab81ff5de647.jpeg\")
AFL CEO Andrew Dillon with influencer Dan Gorringe, announcing the league\u2019s first official watchalong.AFL<\/p>\n![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2965cfa276defded5e476561837f957ec6a19a96.jpeg\")
Dan Does Footy – the podcast by former AFL player Dan Gorringe – has built a big following, with moderators affectionately calling their audience \u201cRATS\u201d.Dan Does Footy\/YouTube<\/p>\n![\"Gorringe\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6158f8ced0becedb9d7d015537e23f299a15273f.jpeg\")
Gorringe\u2019s team supplied this startling image of him.<\/p>\n![\"Kane](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d81a03bbdc1d8d9e9928e4c1a02589e4a25ccdfa.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3f68f3da344fb8ac80ac0fd7b3b2080e442bfa86.jpeg\")
Dan Gorringe is a polarising figure who is happy to take on traditional footy media.Getty Images<\/p>\n