The art of the tackle: Every club’s best and worst tackler revealed — and the stars who break them

Nothing frustrates a coach more than a broken tackle. Who are the stars doing the heavy lifting at your club? See the numbers which define the AFL’s best and worst tacklers here.

They were the meetings that made Jude Bolton shrink in his seat.

The Sydney great was a renowned tackler – his career tally of 1490 was a record when he retired – but it was the ones that he missed that would make him squirm.

In Bolton’s playing days the Swans coaches would mark down tackles and then subtract ones that were deemed ineffective.

The effective tackle has become a huge number in the current-day coach’s long list of stats, with the ability to stop the opposition attack in its tracks vital to modern football defence.

“We were doing it for years, in a sense the coaches would take their individual stats and you would see the raw numbers then they would go through and track the efficiency,” Bolton said.

“They would say ‘You’ve had eight tackles for the game but it was actually three and five – five missed’ and you would be flat as a tack.

“It actually makes so much sense for efficiency, if you are not executing that tackle well and they (opponents) do get their hands free, it quite often draws another teammate in and changes the game completely.

“I often see there are chances to lay that tackle and nullify the play right there and they miss it and the ball gets swept away.”

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge was in the rooms at GMHBA Stadium on Thursday at half-time when his team trailed Geelong by 25 points and went straight to the tackle numbers.

“Our tackle efficiency has been pretty good but they (Geelong) won that side of it for most of the first half, but we got better,” he said post-match.

According to official AFL statistical haven Champion Data, a tackle isn’t a tackle unless it genuinely impacts the play.

When a player lays a glove on an opponent, that is a tackle attempt.

If the tackler either stops play completely (drawing a ball up), secures a holding the ball free, or forces an ineffective disposal from their opponent, it is registered as a tackle.

If the player with the ball gets their hands free and handballs on to a teammate, for example, that is left as simply a tackle attempt.

Then there are the failed grapples, when an opponent takes on contact and gets through, slips the tackle and keeps going.

That is a broken tackle for the ball carrier, or a missed tackle for the defender.

Essendon star Zach Merrett does almost everything for his side, but his tackling numbers are poor, and he leads the league in missed tackles with 16 so far this season.

Sydney gun Chad Warner has broken more tackles than anybody, with 21, closely followed by the rugged Eagle Harley Reid (20).

Geelong hard nut Tom Atkins has laid the most tackles, with 109, but his teammate Tyson Stengle is actually the most effective tackler in the game, with 85 per cent of his attempts sticking.

Carlton has been sluggish offensively throughout the opening rounds of this season but their tackling effort cannot be questioned, with the Blues sitting with a league-leading 69.3 per cent efficiency.

Lowly West Coast is bottom with an efficiency of 60.1 per cent, with Bolton’s old side Sydney 17th on 62.2 per cent.

Too often, the 325 gamer Bolton sees players put their arms out to tackle instead of driving through the body.

“We spoke a lot about trying to put a hula hoop around the attacker’s legs and say you have to get your feet inside that hula hoop,” he said.

“There are too many arm tackles I see still at the moment. For me, 90 per cent of it is about getting your body as close as you can and driving with your legs.

“If you just reach in with your arms, you are likely to be fended off and there are so many good players who can fend and get away.

“You see teams not being able to control the opposition, it is massive for the game.

“Those are the video reviews that really stung. You go back and watch all the goals … and you think, we could have stopped five or six of those goals.”

With help from Champion Data, these are the best and worst tacklers at each team, the best at breaking tackles and those that have been shrugged too often.

Players had to have at least 40 tackle attempts to qualify.

Originally published as The art of the tackle: Every club’s best and worst tackler revealed — and the stars who break them