If your club has fallen for this myth, they are in trouble

Reports of the death of the dedicated run-with player – the tagger – have been greatly exaggerated. And if your club’s list manager has fallen for this myth, your club is in trouble.

After years of AFL senior coaches dismissing the tactic – saying the use of a shadow player upsets midfield rotations and structures – the tagger is back.

Finn Maginness did a great job shadowing Nick Daicos in Hawthorn’s upset round 21 win over Collingwood.Credit: Getty

And the coach who challenged his rivals to use a tagger, Collingwood mentor Craig McRae, might just regret putting the run-with player back in vogue.

McRae teased Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley to tag Brownlow Medal favourite Nick Daicos in round two – and that became a mess for Hinkley.

But Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks put away his aversion to using a tagger and had Ben Keays follow Daicos at Adelaide Oval in round seven with some success.

And at the weekend Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell turned McRae’s dare into his nightmare. Hawthorn tagger Finn Maginness suffocated Daicos, restricting him to five touches to play a vital role in the stunning upset win against the league leader.

Hawthorn’s Finn Maginness, who often gets assigned a specific job by coach Sam Mitchell, comes to grips with North Melbourne’s Tarryn Thomas (main), Sydney’s Tom Papley (top right) and Izak Rankine (bottom right), when Rankine was at Gold Coast last season.Credit: Getty

It is astounding that clubs have taken until this late in the season to understand the importance of a defensively minded midfielder. But we live in an era when list managers have drafted skinny project players who will take years to develop and fourth-string ruckmen with little chance of playing a senior game. They have turned away from run-with players who immediately influence the results.

This is negligent list management.

And what do we say of the coaches who opted for defensive zones and have instructed players to guard space rather than an opponent, putting taggers on the endangered species list?

AFL football is renowned for copycats. Once a coach succeeds in using the 18-man zone, the others follow like sheep.

Mitchell is fearless in bucking the trend with his philosophies. It is one reason he has become the game’s most exciting young coaching prospect.

Mitchell is one of the only coaches who still believes in the tagger. His man is Maginness.

And clearly, Mitchell sees more positives than negatives – on structure and rotations – promoted by his rival coaches. But it requires a disciplined player in the role, and a switched-on team around him.

“There are other aspects that the rest of the players need to be involved in; for instance, you’ll hear coaches all the time, and I’m sure it frustrates some, talk about team defence and how it affects your structure,” Mitchell said.

“There was a classic example when Finn was tagging (Jack) Sinclair, and he was in a fantastic defensive position and vacated that position to run with Sinclair. One of our players didn’t recognise it was Finn and that he would do that, so he left a big gaping hole in the middle of the ground, which helped St Kilda transition the ball.”

As Mitchell and Hawthorn have shown, teams must be able to adjust their structures and zones on game day and week-to-week to deal with the opposition.

Richmond stand-in coach Andrew McQualter’s decision to ignore Western Bulldogs champion Marcus Bontempelli last Friday night’s loss might cost him the senior job.

Despite Greater Western Sydney veteran Callan Ward holding Bontempelli to 13 possessions after quarter-time in the Giants’ come-from-behind win against the Bulldogs a fortnight ago, McQualter backed his midfield by going head-to-head with the Bont.

Marcus Bontempelli was imperious against Richmond, but its unlikely Hawthorn will give him the same latitude.Credit: Getty

It was a disaster for the Tigers.

Bontempelli made his direct match-ups, Tim Taranto and Jack Graham, look foolish and helped himself to 32 possessions, 10 clearances, 10 inside-50s and three goals.

It will be a different story for Bontempelli on Sunday. Mitchell will have Maginness or Connor Nash take up the shutdown role on the Bulldogs captain. He certainly will not be as influential as he was against Richmond.

Brisbane Lions opponents have finally woken up and started targeting Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale. Without first-year sensation Will Ashcroft (knee), Neale has emerged as the opposition’s primary target.

In round 20, Gold Coast captain Touk Miller limited Neale to five kicks. The Suns won convincingly.

At the weekend, Fremantle defender-turned-midfielder Hayden Young kept Neale to 25 possessions while getting 29 and seven clearances himself. Miller and Young received coaches’ votes for their disciplined, defensive roles.

Carlton captain Patrick Cripps should expect the same treatment. He has struggled to influence games this year when players – including Adelaide’s Jordan Dawson (round five), St Kilda’s Jack Steele (round six), Brisbane’s Josh Dunkley (round eight) and Sydney’s Isaac Heeney (round 11)– have cast their shadow on him.

The Blues are the in-form team, winning their past seven games, mainly due to their midfield regaining dominance. Cripps’ power and contested ball-winning ability have been crucial.

With prime movers Sam Walsh, Adam Cerra and Matt Kennedy on the sidelines with injury, it would be unthinkable for the opposition to ignore assigning a complete lockdown player to Cripps.

Carlton faces Melbourne, Gold Coast, and the Giants to finish the home-and-away season – and should qualify for the finals for the first time since 2013.

Will Cripps’ opponents ignore McQualter’s error against Bontempelli, or did they see Mitchell’s triumph against Daicos?

Some copycat coaches still do not accept the importance of restricting the game’s best midfielders and quelling the opposition’s biggest strength.

It is costing them premiership points and, eventually, their jobs.

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