Mick McGuane column: Why Josh Kennedy is the man to stop Richmond superstar Dustin Martin

Mick McGuane has identified one of Sydney Swans’ star ball winners as the man to perform a Matt De Boer-like shutdown role on returning Richmond midfielder Dustin Martin.

Mick McGuane says Josh Kennedy can stop Dustin Martin’s influence when Sydney faces Richmond. Picture: AAP Image/Daniel Pockett.

Richmond superstar Dustin Martin is back from suspension and if I were the Sydney Swans I’d be putting Josh Kennedy straight on him.

Kennedy went to Adelaide’s Rory Sloane a couple of weeks back and made a positive impact.

If the Swans skipper goes to Martin on Saturday night, you say to yourself, ‘what’s Tigers coach Damien Hardwick going to do?’

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Richmond might put Dusty up forward straight away, and maybe that’s what Swans mastermind John Longmire would want him to do.

We all saw Dusty’s brain explosion against the Giants two weeks ago when Matt de Boer tagged him so relentlessly, but I would describe the role Kennedy should play on Martin as more ‘stoppage control.’

Kennedy won’t be running step by step with Martin in general play and living in his shadow like de Boer did.

But if he can control Dustin to the point he’s not impacting the ball as a midfielder, where will he go?

Mick McGuane says Josh Kennedy can stop Dustin Martin’s influence when Sydney faces Richmond. Picture: Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images.

He’ll go straight to the goalsquare and that’s when Kennedy would hand over to Dane Rampe and say, ‘Dane, he’s yours now.’

Martin is a good stoppage player and a very good centre bounce player, as is Kennedy.

The Swans veteran is excellent at getting under the ruckman’s hands, getting into the ruckman’s hit zone. He’s clean, he doesn’t fumble and he has a strong body when tackled. He knows when to release the ball or when to hold onto the ball, so he’s not going to cough it up when the ball spills free and give Martin to win that loose ball in an out of tackle situation.

Kennedy is very, very good in that facet of the game. As we witnessed, with de Boer, frustration can get the better of Dusty.

Longmire has to enforce on his players to be better around stoppage. This is the area of their game they must improve urgently, not only for scores for, but they’ve got to dilute the scores against that are happening at the moment.

Sydney’s domination at stoppage has generally been their strength but unless that returns their season is in grave danger of falling apart.

They have to give themselves a chance to win the territory game.

Josh Kennedy celebrates a goal during Sydney’s win over Carlton this year. Picture: Daniel Pockett.

There’s been a lot of talk about Lance Franklin this week, but the biggest challenge for Sydney is to get their midfield right — because at the moment they’re getting smashed.

They’re ranked 17th for contested possession and 17th at clearance differential.

Their stoppage work has completely fallen away. They’ve only averaged 26.5 points per game from stoppages and that’s ranked 18th in the competition.

Sydney are only averaging four goals, which was a major scoring source for them previously.

They’ve been outscored by nearly three goals per game from stoppages and are ranked 18th on that marker.

Is it personnel? Is it their structure? Is it individuals not playing their role? All questions that Longmire must have the answers for.

As a result of having a poor stoppage game the scoreboard is suffering either side of the ball. The game ends up being played in their back half and that’s not the modern game.

This is a crunch match for Sydney’s season, and it must start in and around stoppages.

Originally published as Mick McGuane column: Why Josh Kennedy is the man to stop Richmond superstar Dustin Martin