Former Crows star turned Geelong Cat Patrick Dangerfield has admitted he knew very early on that he was leaving Adelaide.

“It would have been well before the (2015) season even started that I decided to come back, knowing within myself that that’s what I wanted to do,” Dangerfield has told Mike Sheahan at a football lunch in Melbourne.

“The thing that I had up my sleeve was that I had, and still have, such a close relationship with  David Noble, now head of footy at Brisbane Lions.

“He came to my wedding, we were close friends.

“I told him half way through the season but it was never an issue because (we put) that footy and friendship aside.

“We went about doing the best we could for the club at the time when we obviously had a huge array of different circumstances which affected the season we had with Phil Walsh passing.”

Dangerfield said he never felt any backlash from the club for leaving.

“Not at all. Perhaps that’s because I had played at the club for eight years.

“I was a more senior player by the time I had finished at Adelaide, so maybe that makes it slightly easier.”