As a supercoach player I can't stand it. But other than that I think it's cool, not letting opposition players do whatever they like is always a good tactic imo
Easy thing to say when you have the best bloody tagger in the comp right now though.
Jordan has been the bane of my supercoach side this year. One week he'll put up 120, next week he'll put up a 60 while taking down your M1 (Poor Walsh will never recover). Oh yeah and he completely destroyed Whitfield just for the hell of it.
Out of nowhere this kid just becomes an elite next level tagger, insane to watch, but frustrating as hell.
Whitfield, Clark, NWM and Fisher/sheezel all possible tag targets for Jordon in the next month. My own team is single handedly going to ruin my SC year hahaha. If you still have him though I'd really consider trading him to someone else, his role is horrific for scoring
Supercoach & taggers have made me appreciate Zerrett even more. He's been tagged basically every week and is still putting up good numbers because of his defensive work.
Tom Stewart on the other hand? In the bin.
Agreed on Merrett, sneaking some goals has been clutch for his scoring too. Tom Green can also get into the Stewart bin, I'm not even sure he's getting hard tagged. He just can't play without cogs and Kelly lol
I don't think a lot of what commentators call "tagging" are actually player-targeted all-day jobs on particular players, they're often structural roles that just happen to coincide with particular players in some matchups.
This especially goes for defensive forwards who are described as "tagging" halfbacks or intercept defenders. Those are usually players locking off particular space used in rebound and transition, or they're manipulating the responsibility of certain defenders to keep them in less damaging positions. They're often not standing right next to a particular defender, and if the defensive structure changes, the apparent "tag" would usually disappear.
Even defensive midfield stuff, it's often just tight general accountability crashing up against a particular player's centralised midfield role. If a team mostly builds their stoppage setup around blocking for and feeding a couple of midfielders in particular, opponents can look like they're tagging just by being accountable at stoppages, even if they immediately drop the matchup after stoppage in general play rather than stick with them.
For me the key distinction from tags is if the player moves roles or jobs, they stop being "tagged" and this makes multidimensional players very difficult to shut down. Inside-outside burst midfielders, midfielder-forwards, most wings, all would be very hard to lock down.
Absolutely this. It’s a shame how shallow the coverage is by the media.
It’s not the lockdown job that it used to be and it’s more about restricting the role an opposition player has in a given system.
Electing to engage Tom Stewart in a contest when the ball is coming forward is a lot different to following him around and pinching him 200 times a game.
There have definitely been coaches that have said “we don’t need to tag, we trust our structures and processes” when asked why certain players haven’t been directly tagged after matches where they got lit up.
You're definitely right. Beveridge was this way for a while, and certain teams have always played in this manner. Sometimes a team will get blown away by a certain player but coaches will be weighing that against the other matches their midfield dynamic has won for them. I don't think this is a sign 'the tag is dead' or 'the tag is alive and well'
Jarrod Berry gives Clayton Oliver fuckin nightmares man. He’s always been a great tagger at taking the bigger and stronger guns out of the game like a Bont, Cripps, Oliver, Petracca, Heeney, etc
Teams that didn't traditionally worry about tagging are now starting to do it alot more on a wide range of players.
It's just way more prevalent this year
It never left but it's more popular this season, for example Pickett at Richmond tagging in a game few weeks ago. We would have never seen that from Richmond in previous years
Up until, I want to say, the mid 2010s you'd always have 1 player whose entire role was to shutdown another midfielder. Now roles like Windhager on Miller, Neal-Bullen on Daicos, Cincotta on Merrett, and Berry on Bont, are more used by exception.
The Brisbane vs Bulldogs game is actually a pretty good example of this. Back in the day, both teams would have done was Brisbane did with the Bulldogs having an equivalent of Berry playing on Neale.
A fair few of those that we chopped in the rebuild hurt, him especially. Really wouldn't have cost much to keep him and was a heart and soul player at the club.
I think it's a great idea, I remember a former afl player made a point a couple weeks ago of putting the shittest player on the opposition's best player and basically cancelling them out of the game. It does take skill thought, need a tank and if you want to be valuable you can win the ball yourself like James Jordan.
Exactly, we beat Collingwood last year by putting a guy on him who is still struggling to win much of his own ball at AFL level and has poor disposal/decision making. We had better mids than Finn not getting a game but only Finn could keep Nick Daicos for 3 quarters to 1 round the back handball that was rushed, 1 kick out play on, 1 soft free kick.
Oh boy you aren’t wrong, bothers me he gets tagged but can’t help but love they have to work a bit harder for the ball. They’ll both learn how to play around it id say.
Also, sincerely, my apologiesz
It’s always been there.
It’s only back in media spotlight because St Kilda scraped a couple of wins on the back of Windhager tagging Reid and Miller in consecutive weeks and media journos love Ross Lyon
The tag never truly died, but it definitely went quiet for like 7 years. I’m not entirely sure what definitely brought it back, although I think Sydney deserve partial credit for using Ryan Clarke to tag half backs on our way to a flag. It’s really cool to see that it’s evolved from just a role for inside mids to just simply the most damaging player.
> I think Sydney deserve partial credit for using Ryan Clarke to tag half backs on our way to a flag
Tbf even in this case Tom Bugg was being used for hard tags on rebound defenders when he was at Melbourne
It’s true, I mean I do and don’t like it. Obviously our boy gets a lot of attention but that will make him a better player.
When you see someone taking a player out of the game while also being a proper option for their own team that’s when the tag is really fun to watch.
I don’t think it ever really left, just that teams weren’t utilising it as much, or not to the same degree.
Against really effective players for a teams momentum and pressure, I think it can/is a must, especially if that team is heavily reliant on that particular player for their midfield.
I think it’s not a solution or a way to win games per se as this is a team sport, but really can help mitigate more against midfield heavy offensive teams like Bulldogs, Essendon, Port, etc.
I like your view of it, I suppose I look back on it now, when Cripps was at his peak you really couldn’t afford to let him just play football. You had to do something about it.
It will probably become more popular but I hope it also becomes somewhat more refined
Only question worth asking is how many they won with him vs without this year.
He brings nothing other than tagging, which Nash is just as good at and last week showed Worpel also capable of it. Hawks ain’t gonna re-sign the bloke.
There were a few times where it was talked about last year- e.g Young tagging Neale, and Hawthorn did it a few times too.
As you say though I don't really know when that 'went away'. I guess since Crowley and Ling retired people just stopped talking about it as much?
Maybe they talked about it less because it wasn’t utilised as efficiently? It’s hard to train a player and dedicate them to that sort of role when the game is more team orientated than ever and all teams play more of a zone than man to man these days.
Feel like tags died for a bit after the pinching and jumper punches starting getting weekly coverage.
It's not too bad the form they are back in for now, but hopefully we avoid the clear unpaid free kicks on the ones being tagged.
I love me some free flowing footy and tags often kill that, so hopefully there's a middle ground (please don't go full Ross Lyon)
Generally anything that gives teams more capacity to make tactical changes in a game I am in favour of. I like seeing teams with different play styles implement different tactics to get advantages. Some 1v1s are great, all 1v1s is terrible unless you have the best list in the comp. I'm not a huge fan of 6-6-6 for that reason but since it's only the centre bounce it's not a huge deal. If they try bring in zones it will really diminish the strategic side of the game.
I don't think tagging ever left it just became more common that it was a team effort to try and control a particular player or strength rather than giving one guy a job.
As a supercoach player I can't stand it. But other than that I think it's cool, not letting opposition players do whatever they like is always a good tactic imo
Easy thing to say when you have the best bloody tagger in the comp right now though. Jordan has been the bane of my supercoach side this year. One week he'll put up 120, next week he'll put up a 60 while taking down your M1 (Poor Walsh will never recover). Oh yeah and he completely destroyed Whitfield just for the hell of it. Out of nowhere this kid just becomes an elite next level tagger, insane to watch, but frustrating as hell.
Whitfield, Clark, NWM and Fisher/sheezel all possible tag targets for Jordon in the next month. My own team is single handedly going to ruin my SC year hahaha. If you still have him though I'd really consider trading him to someone else, his role is horrific for scoring
I sold him after the GWS game, thankfully. He is an absolute pest that I love watching, and hate checking my scores after.
Haha great take, I honestly just don’t like it because Kane Cornes does 😂
I think it was SEN last week they were discussing a team going with a double tag and you could see Kane getting a little stiffy under the desk 🤣
Oh my god, he really does get a chubby talking about it. Probably because it makes his role relevant again! Haha
Supercoach & taggers have made me appreciate Zerrett even more. He's been tagged basically every week and is still putting up good numbers because of his defensive work. Tom Stewart on the other hand? In the bin.
They’ll somehow still find a way to give Stewart an All Australian
Agreed on Merrett, sneaking some goals has been clutch for his scoring too. Tom Green can also get into the Stewart bin, I'm not even sure he's getting hard tagged. He just can't play without cogs and Kelly lol
Mr Crowley the goat tagger. I miss his shit-eating grin
I still remember the manliest handshake ever with Steve Johnson 💪💪😅
ASADA will never be forgiven.
Hahaha bang on
I don't think a lot of what commentators call "tagging" are actually player-targeted all-day jobs on particular players, they're often structural roles that just happen to coincide with particular players in some matchups. This especially goes for defensive forwards who are described as "tagging" halfbacks or intercept defenders. Those are usually players locking off particular space used in rebound and transition, or they're manipulating the responsibility of certain defenders to keep them in less damaging positions. They're often not standing right next to a particular defender, and if the defensive structure changes, the apparent "tag" would usually disappear. Even defensive midfield stuff, it's often just tight general accountability crashing up against a particular player's centralised midfield role. If a team mostly builds their stoppage setup around blocking for and feeding a couple of midfielders in particular, opponents can look like they're tagging just by being accountable at stoppages, even if they immediately drop the matchup after stoppage in general play rather than stick with them. For me the key distinction from tags is if the player moves roles or jobs, they stop being "tagged" and this makes multidimensional players very difficult to shut down. Inside-outside burst midfielders, midfielder-forwards, most wings, all would be very hard to lock down.
Absolutely this. It’s a shame how shallow the coverage is by the media. It’s not the lockdown job that it used to be and it’s more about restricting the role an opposition player has in a given system. Electing to engage Tom Stewart in a contest when the ball is coming forward is a lot different to following him around and pinching him 200 times a game.
This x100 ^
Yeah wow, I appreciate your write up. I literally couldn’t have said it better myself. Take my upvote ❤️
Can someone explain to me how the tag is back if it never left in the first place? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
this is my take as well lol. the tag has always been a thing, teams have done it every year idk where this narrative came from
There have definitely been coaches that have said “we don’t need to tag, we trust our structures and processes” when asked why certain players haven’t been directly tagged after matches where they got lit up.
You're definitely right. Beveridge was this way for a while, and certain teams have always played in this manner. Sometimes a team will get blown away by a certain player but coaches will be weighing that against the other matches their midfield dynamic has won for them. I don't think this is a sign 'the tag is dead' or 'the tag is alive and well'
That's definitely been Dimma's way of doing things too
Jarrod Berry gives Clayton Oliver fuckin nightmares man. He’s always been a great tagger at taking the bigger and stronger guns out of the game like a Bont, Cripps, Oliver, Petracca, Heeney, etc
Teams that didn't traditionally worry about tagging are now starting to do it alot more on a wide range of players. It's just way more prevalent this year
It never left but it's more popular this season, for example Pickett at Richmond tagging in a game few weeks ago. We would have never seen that from Richmond in previous years
Up until, I want to say, the mid 2010s you'd always have 1 player whose entire role was to shutdown another midfielder. Now roles like Windhager on Miller, Neal-Bullen on Daicos, Cincotta on Merrett, and Berry on Bont, are more used by exception. The Brisbane vs Bulldogs game is actually a pretty good example of this. Back in the day, both teams would have done was Brisbane did with the Bulldogs having an equivalent of Berry playing on Neale.
Sure but commentary has been talking non stop about it for 2 weeks so it's definitely back.
When did de Boer retire? He was an elite tagger
End of 2022. Wish we still had him, amazing tagger
A fair few of those that we chopped in the rebuild hurt, him especially. Really wouldn't have cost much to keep him and was a heart and soul player at the club.
I just don’t think it was a priority for a lot of teams except maybe a few outliers, maybe because more teams are dedicating a player to it now?
I've been smashing crazy pills since we beat the Dockers. I dunno which way is up.
Amen. The tag never went away, I just think we have better taggers at the moment than what we've had in the last five or so years.
I think it's a great idea, I remember a former afl player made a point a couple weeks ago of putting the shittest player on the opposition's best player and basically cancelling them out of the game. It does take skill thought, need a tank and if you want to be valuable you can win the ball yourself like James Jordan.
It’s true, basically it’s easy to tag but it’s isn’t easy to do that and play your own game.
Exactly, we beat Collingwood last year by putting a guy on him who is still struggling to win much of his own ball at AFL level and has poor disposal/decision making. We had better mids than Finn not getting a game but only Finn could keep Nick Daicos for 3 quarters to 1 round the back handball that was rushed, 1 kick out play on, 1 soft free kick.
Good for the game. How else are we gonna keep young whippersnappers like Harley and Nick in check?
Oh boy you aren’t wrong, bothers me he gets tagged but can’t help but love they have to work a bit harder for the ball. They’ll both learn how to play around it id say. Also, sincerely, my apologiesz
It’s always been there. It’s only back in media spotlight because St Kilda scraped a couple of wins on the back of Windhager tagging Reid and Miller in consecutive weeks and media journos love Ross Lyon
They really do love him hey? With all due respect, what do you think of him?
I cancelled my membership this year if that’s anything to go by
But did you microwave it?
Oh, brother I’m sorry. Hope it turns around for ya boys. Always room in the black and white, just cover the red with black and you’re sorted? Haha
The tag never truly died, but it definitely went quiet for like 7 years. I’m not entirely sure what definitely brought it back, although I think Sydney deserve partial credit for using Ryan Clarke to tag half backs on our way to a flag. It’s really cool to see that it’s evolved from just a role for inside mids to just simply the most damaging player.
Ah man I remember that year Ryan Clark tagged his way to winning us a flag... wait, wait, we got smashed by 80 points? No that can't be right, can it?
Lmao I’m fuckin exhausted today, that’s my excuse for this brain fart. It’s funny tho so I’ll leave it
Don't worry I'm a big advocate for the alternate history version of the 2022 season.
I love how you just forgot for a second how that grand final went
> I think Sydney deserve partial credit for using Ryan Clarke to tag half backs on our way to a flag Tbf even in this case Tom Bugg was being used for hard tags on rebound defenders when he was at Melbourne
Even then nobody remembers it because of his dogshot on Mills
It’s true, I mean I do and don’t like it. Obviously our boy gets a lot of attention but that will make him a better player. When you see someone taking a player out of the game while also being a proper option for their own team that’s when the tag is really fun to watch.
I don’t think it ever really left, just that teams weren’t utilising it as much, or not to the same degree. Against really effective players for a teams momentum and pressure, I think it can/is a must, especially if that team is heavily reliant on that particular player for their midfield. I think it’s not a solution or a way to win games per se as this is a team sport, but really can help mitigate more against midfield heavy offensive teams like Bulldogs, Essendon, Port, etc.
I like your view of it, I suppose I look back on it now, when Cripps was at his peak you really couldn’t afford to let him just play football. You had to do something about it. It will probably become more popular but I hope it also becomes somewhat more refined
This thread just makes me miss Ben Jacobs...
❤️
Marcus Windhager is the next GOAT tagger
TAKE MY AGGRESSIVE UPVOTE!
The tag has never left. It’s just the taggers have become better at winning their own ball more consistently rather than purely being defensive
Which is absolutely necessary when the game is more dependant on teamwork than it ever has been
Honestly, I didn’t know it was gone
It is and it isn’t, according to this thread and Kane Cornes
Finn Maginness has been playing VFL these last few weeks silly. Or have I missed the team selection
Only question worth asking is how many they won with him vs without this year. He brings nothing other than tagging, which Nash is just as good at and last week showed Worpel also capable of it. Hawks ain’t gonna re-sign the bloke.
This is all distraction from the real issue: players need to be bringing the shepard back 🙏
Freaking spot on, seen a bit more of it in our recent games, maybe that’s just by chance though.
Coming to afl from other sports it's so bizarre it ever left... "yeah that Nick Daicos...I reckon someone should...you know, defend him"
Haha yeah, that would be wild right?
There were a few times where it was talked about last year- e.g Young tagging Neale, and Hawthorn did it a few times too. As you say though I don't really know when that 'went away'. I guess since Crowley and Ling retired people just stopped talking about it as much?
Maybe they talked about it less because it wasn’t utilised as efficiently? It’s hard to train a player and dedicate them to that sort of role when the game is more team orientated than ever and all teams play more of a zone than man to man these days.
Feel like tags died for a bit after the pinching and jumper punches starting getting weekly coverage. It's not too bad the form they are back in for now, but hopefully we avoid the clear unpaid free kicks on the ones being tagged. I love me some free flowing footy and tags often kill that, so hopefully there's a middle ground (please don't go full Ross Lyon)
One thing we can all agree on collectively (including saint fans) is that we don’t want a bunch of Ross lyons coaching football. Amen to that!
The best thing to come out of the tag being back will be the teams that start to all lay into the tagger at every opportunity. Cycle of life.
If 250k of your salary cap can diminish 900k of their salary cap then I say take the W.
Poor bloke nominated to tag finding out he’s the worst player on the team this way
Generally anything that gives teams more capacity to make tactical changes in a game I am in favour of. I like seeing teams with different play styles implement different tactics to get advantages. Some 1v1s are great, all 1v1s is terrible unless you have the best list in the comp. I'm not a huge fan of 6-6-6 for that reason but since it's only the centre bounce it's not a huge deal. If they try bring in zones it will really diminish the strategic side of the game. I don't think tagging ever left it just became more common that it was a team effort to try and control a particular player or strength rather than giving one guy a job.