How Dusty v De Boer could decide the Grand Final
He smashed Dustin Martin in Round 3 and claimed the scalps of Marcus Bontempelli, Lachie Neale and Scott Pendlebury in consecutive finals. Now GWS tagging king Matt De Boer has another date with Dusty on the biggest stage.
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Dusty versus de Boer.
Blue chip superstar against blue-collar scrapper.
It’s the hyped-up duel between Dustin Martin and Greater Western Sydney tagger Matt de Boer that could decide who wins the Grand Final.
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De Boer earns about a fifth of Martin’s monster $1.25 million salary, but has the psychological edge after the Tigers’ champ went into meltdown during their Round 3 encounter at Giants Stadium.
Those who have tagged or been tagged in big games say Martin’s mindset will be critical if the match-up is repeated.
“The first thing is acceptance,” triple premiership champion Michael Voss said.
“It’s coming, it’ll be constant all day, so, if anything, embrace it.
“Your teammates will be on for you. The tendency is to try to change your game, but you don’t need to change anything.
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“Stay switched on … if you’re a good player you’ll find plenty of the ball.”
Former Richmond and Brisbane Lions midfielder Craig Lambert said he spent years struggling against taggers until he learned to adopt the mentality of one.
“The great run-with players are always looking at body language,” Lambert said.
“They feed off anything that says that you don’t want to play on them.
“Even complaining to the umpires is enough for them to believe that they have an advantage. “You don’t do that. If you’re getting held, let your teammates point it out.
“Everything has got to be about you being in control of the contest. And you have to genuinely want to play on them, because until the white-collar player sees himself as a blue-collar in a tagging situation, he’s doomed.”
Martin lost the plot against de Boer in Round 3. He was suspended for striking, fined for flipping the bird, fined again for a second striking offence and captured on camera making snorting gestures towards Shane Mumford.
Lambert said an old trick to turn the screws on a run-with opponent was to seek him out and initiate the battle at the opening bounce.
“Walk straight to him — never allow him to walk to you,” he said.
Coach Leon Cameron might be tempted to send his man to the in-form Dion Prestia, but Norm Smith medallist Simon Black said the Giants “would be mad not to play de Boer on Martin”.
“It’s going to be hard for him (Martin) with a bit of history there now,” Black said.
“De Boer has probably got one over him knowing that he really got to him.”
The triple-premiership star said the secret to conquering a tag was an “aggressive mindset”.
“Try to get your timing right with a bit of separation and put your fist through their chest at the right time,” Black said.
“You’re easy to play on if you’re flat-footed, so it’s the ability to change angles in a confined area, to find a loose ball, get a handball receive or lay a tackle.”
De Boer’s September scalps read like a roll call of the AFL’s elite: Marcus Bontempelli, Lachie Neale and Scott Pendlebury.
He can win the ball on the inside and outside and is a key reason why the Giants have transformed their season.
Kane Cornes made a 300-game career out of tagging for Port Adelaide and has a premiership medal to show for it.
“Everything I thought about during the game was, ‘How do I stop this bloke from getting the ball?’, which is strange because you play footy to get the ball yourself, but if that happened it was a bonus to me,” Cornes said.
“The advantage Dusty has got — and I hated this — is that he can go forward.
“He’ll keep testing him out, forward of centre.
“And if Dusty gets it 30 times the Giants probably can’t win.”
Asked about Martin’s Round 3 blow up, Voss said: “I think that can actually work for him. He’s had the exposure, so he’d be clear now on what to expect. There will be no surprises there.”
Cameron Ling, who won an All-Australian jumper playing a lock down midfield role for Geelong in 2007, said Martin’s teammates had a role to play in laying constant blocks and bumps on de Boer.
“Nothing silly, you don’t have to lay the bloke out, it’s not the 1970s, but they all accumulate,” Ling said.
“If you’re chasing the player and you end up five meters behind him because you just got checked a little bit, well that’s five metres you make up in effort that doesn’t tell straight away but does over the course of the game.
“Your legs start going in the third quarter or the last quarter and that can make the difference.
“Your opponent is going to make some brilliant, quick decisions and if your mind slips to somewhere else, even for a couple of seconds, he’ll be gone and probably impacting the play in a big way.”
Ling said Prestia was an option for Cameron but Martin could “just own a game”.
“Dusty is built for Grand Finals, we’ve seen it. He has multiple ways of finding the footy and they’re the ones who are the hardest to play on,” he said.
Cornes said he was stunned more clubs did not invest in players like de Boer, delisted by the Dockers at the end of 2016.
“To me he is the player of the finals series,” he said.
“There are 45 spots on an AFL list and if you don’t have a dedicated tagger, you’re a negligent footy club.
“Think about some of the clubs that carry project players for three years and don’t have one tagger. It staggers me that other clubs don’t have one.
“Without him would the Giants be in the Grand Final? No way. They don’t beat Brisbane without him and if Scott Pendlebury touches the ball 10 more times on the weekend that’s going to equate to the three points that they won by.
“But mentally it’s draining, and at some point (players like Martin) are that good that they are going to get a hold of you.”
All eyes will be on de Boer as the two teams head for their positions at 2.30pm.
And if goes to Martin, the football world will be watching how he handles the dark art of the tag.
Originally published as How Dusty v De Boer could decide the Grand Final
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