If you’re a football fan under the age of 35, chances are Dan Gorringe is everywhere when you pick up your phone.

Log on to Instagram, he’ll be there, over-celebrating a Carlton win or mourning a loss. You’ll find his mildly more serious football views on his Dan Does Footy YouTube channel. On TikTok, you’ll get his almost instant hot takes, delivered in his typically edgy style.

He’s labelled goalkicking great Matthew Lloyd a “dirty rat”, called prominent broadcaster Gerard Whateley a “muppet”, and told arguably the greatest player of all time Leigh Matthews to “f--- up”. He has had commercial partnerships with corporate bookies, sports drinks and alcohol brands.

It will come as a surprise, then, that Gorringe the footballer was the polar opposite in personality.

“He was as straight as six o’clock,” his first senior coach Guy McKenna said.

Former Carlton captain and one of Gorringe’s 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.

“He was fairly quiet, [but] still very funny,” Docherty said. “If you listen to him speak, he’s probably socially anxious and awkward through footy because he didn’t know where he stood or what he was doing. He always had that funny side to him.

“He 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’t speak very much.”

In many ways, Gorringe is the most unlikely of football personalities: polarising, unfiltered and contemptuous of traditional media.

But even the AFL wants him.

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.

As a player, his most memorable moment came in retirement when he clattered into comedian Dave Hughes 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.

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.

His average of more than 300,000 views and 20,000-plus engagements per content item across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube makes him “one of Australia’s highest-performing independent sports creator brands”, Nathan Powell, the chief product and strategy officer at AI-powered creator technology platform Fabulate, said.

“Dan has managed to build something that’s much harder than simply accumulating followers,” Powell said.

“He’s 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.

“That tells me people aren’t just following Dan because they know who he is – they’re following him because they genuinely value his perspective on sport and the content he creates.”

No wonder the AFL has Gorringe on its books as part of what its customer and commercial boss Bec Haagsma says is a “rapid transformation and evolution of our fan engagement and fan experience strategy”. They see Gorringe as pivotal to targeting the younger market – those under the age of 34.

In collaboration with the league’s broadcast partners, Gorringe appeared on The Ultimate Footy Watchalong for the Fremantle v Sydney and North Melbourne v Melbourne games, streamed live on the AFL’s YouTube channel, Kayo and 7plus.

“Watchalongs”, 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.

“It goes back to the idea that media is changing, and social media is a massive part of the media industry,” Michael Neill, the head of Fox Footy, said. “It won’t get any smaller. We’d be foolish if we didn’t look at these new ideas and different ways to broadcast.

“The immediacy of his posts and how he gets his opinion out there really quick, it’s out there and it’s different.

“It comes from an ex-player’s perspective as well, and from someone who’s very smart when it comes to communication and how to get his message out there.”

For Seven, it gives the network another way to reach the younger market.

“Working with creators who love the game allows us to connect with audiences in authentic new ways,” Seven’s head of sport digital Kirsty Bradmore said. “We are continually exploring more ways to innovate our broadcast offering for viewers across Australia.”

This collaboration drew 250,000 live viewers across the league’s YouTube channel, Kayo, Foxtel and 7plus to watch while Gorringe and co-hosts – Seven reporter Xander McGuire and Collingwood AFLW captain and Kayo personality Ruby Schleicher – casually discussed the game, as opposed to the serious analysis on the main coverage. Socceroos goalkeeper Patrick Beach, a GWS fan, featured at half-time.

‘People aren’t just following Dan because they know who he is – they’re following him because they genuinely value his perspective on sport and the content he creates.’Nathan Powell of creator technology platform Fabulate

“Dan has been with us for a year now doing some hardcore engagement stuff,” Haagsma said. “He’s 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.

“We knew we needed to engage a different strategy. We can’t put highlights on TikTok and go, ‘That will bring the kids in’. Dan has got a voice that we know speaks in a different way, and just resonates. He’s authentic in his point of view, and he loves the game.”

Gorringe’s channel markets itself as “unfiltered and unqualified”. 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 of his former club’s failings in their thumping by Sydney on the opening night of the season.

Gorringe did not check with Docherty if the message was to be aired, as is the practice in mainstream media, drawing condemnation from Whateley – who slammed him for “reprehensible behaviour”.

His feud with Whateley, a highly respected veteran broadcaster, personified the clash between what Gorringe derides as “old-man media” and new media. Lloyd and Matthews became entangled after their discussion of Docherty’s comments on 3AW, prompting Gorringe to label the former as a “dirty rat” and telling the latter to “f--- up”.

There’s an element of lost in translation for the “dirty rat” reference. Rat is a term of endearment in the Dan Does Footy community. The moderator on his channel addressed his audience as “RATS” in a post this week.

Gorringe is social media’s answer to Port Adelaide great-turned-analyst Kane Cornes (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.

“Dan set out to build something that reflected how most people actually experience sport,” Edward Deal, founder and head of talent at The Gifted Group, said.

“The vast majority of fans don’t 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.

“Dan’s credibility doesn’t come from claiming to know more than everyone else. It comes from representing the experience of the supporter.

“He’s 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’s always been his personality, and it’s what has made the platform resonate.”

That perhaps does not do full justice to Gorringe’s knowledge of the game. In the Dockers v Swans watchalong, the former ruckman observed the return of the leaping rucks – a subject discussed in football media this year – 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.

“There’s no secret to why he’s 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,” Docherty said with a laugh.

“I’ll be out for dinner with him and our partners, and he’ll have the game on in the background on his phone. He has to. This is his world. He lives it and breathes it.

“He’s found his niche in the market where he’s all over everything. He’s 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.

“I watch about seven of the nine games, occasionally miss one with the kids, I don’t think he misses one – ever. It’s pretty crazy.”

Docherty is often at Gorringe’s South Melbourne home watching a game. It’s not uncommon for Gorringe to duck out at half-time to film himself and have a video posted online minutes later.

“He’ll pop into the backyard, do a one-take video, and it’s straight out to the public,” Docherty said. “It’s as raw as it comes, with no script. It’s just off the top of his head. It’s pretty crazy to watch.”

One of the main talking points from Collingwood’s upset win over Adelaide was their unlikely resurgence to again become a contender. Gorringe captured this point but delivered it in his trademark uncensored style.

“Now we’ll be terrified of the Pies again? How?” an incredulous Gorringe, a Carlton fan, posted to TikTok. “How are they doing this? They’re old. Pendles is 40. How? What is going on?”

The media rights landscape is constantly changing. UK YouTuber Mark Goldbridge, who hosts his own Manchester United fan channel, struck a deal with the Bundesliga to broadcast 20 games on one of his channels. Gorringe has similar aspirations.

“Absolutely. We’re constantly looking at what’s happening internationally,” Deal said. “Mark Goldbridge in Europe and Pat McAfee in the US have shown what’s possible when creators and rights holders work together.

“Australia has the opportunity to become a leader in that space as well. We think creator-led broadcasts are still in their infancy, and we’re excited about continuing to innovate alongside leagues and broadcasters.

“Official match vision has been something we’ve been working towards for a long time. We’d been speaking with the AFL for quite some time about what creator-led broadcasts could look like, and to their credit they were open-minded enough to explore it with us.

“The success of the watchalongs wasn’t just about the numbers. It demonstrated that creator broadcasts can sit alongside traditional coverage, enhance the fan experience and help grow engagement without taking anything away from the broadcast itself.”

The AFL is not ruling out Gorringe becoming a rights holder.

“You can never say never,” Haagsma said. “The future landscape is interesting. There’s different models. The model we’re running with watchalongs is the first creator-led AFL live stream to feature official AFL match vision. It’s a pretty big deal.

“How different people watch different games will change in time, and who holds the rights to those games may change as well. Who knows?”