Marcus Bontempelli, Patrick Dangerfield, Clayton Oliver facing Matt De Boer KFC SuperCoach clamp early in 2020
They’re two of the favourites for this year’s Brownlow Medal. But when it comes to shaking a tag, the stats show Patrick Cripps and Marcus Bontempelli struggle. Will these numbers affect your KFC SuperCoach plans?
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First we had to worry about Kane Cornes, Cameron Ling, Stephen Baker and Brett Kirk.
The quartet had one thing in common – they were hard-nosed taggers.
They would clamp down on the opposition’s most damaging midfielder, and more
often than not would completely nullify them.
There weren’t many that got away and they built their reputation on defensive diligence.
The modern-day version of the aforementioned taggers have been James
Harmes, Matt de Boer, Dylan Clarke and Jack Steele.
They ruined plenty of KFC SuperCoach scores last season, ranking first to fourth respectively among taggers in terms of effectiveness – using AFL player rating points as the measure.
If we analyse midfielders who wilted under the close attention of a tagger, Patrick
Cripps was one of the big guns that succumbed to extra attention.
He scored less than 90 points in six games and was tagged on each occasion, with de Boer, Clarke, Jack Macrae, David Swallow and Elliot Yeo keeping him in check.
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Marcus Bontempelli was another player that struggled with a tag.
In fact, his four lowest scores of the season all came when he was closely manned up – de Boer (twice), Yeo and Jack Steele all enjoyed great success against him.
Clayton Oliver was also targeted, with two of his three lowest scores coming under
the attention of a tagger, with de Boer and Macrae keeping him quiet.
Even Tim Kelly wasn’t immune, even though the Cats had the prolific Patrick
Dangerfield in their side.
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Kelly’s lowest score of the season was against GWS Giants, while he was also quelled by Steele.
Two of his new teammates, Elliot Yeo and Mark Hutchings, worked him over when Geelong took on the Eagles.
Lachie Neale didn’t have many stinkers, but he was kept to a season-low 17 disposals
and 47 points by de Boer in the Lions’ semi-final loss.
Neale racked up 31 disposals and 149 points in the only other meeting between the sides, when de Boer missed through injury.
The common denominator in this analysis has been de Boer.
His ability to nullify the AFL’s premier on-ballers is unparalleled.
GWS faces the Cats, Tigers, Bulldogs, Swans and Bombers twice in 2020.
In terms of navigating the De Boer tag, I have taken the liberty of highlighting his potential opponents in the tables above and below.
This can be used as a guide when picking your captain, but take note, these opponents
are based on recent history and are obviously not set in stone.
If you have a starting midfield of Dangerfield, Oliver and Bontempelli, you may
labour through the opening month of the campaign.
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That trio is likely to be De Boer’s opponents over the first three rounds, with Dangerfield (66), Oliver (53) and Bontempelli (84) returning poor scores in their most recent match against the Giants.
You could opt to start with Tom Mitchell, Nat Fyfe and Lachie Neale instead, as they won’t face the Giants until Round 18.
In the case of Fyfe, he’ll likely have de Boer by his side in Round 22 — KFC SuperCoach preliminary final week.
In KFC SuperCoach, there is nothing worse than seeing a tagger go straight to one of your
players at the opening bounce.
The feeling is even worse if he’s your captain. All you can do is ride it out and move onto the next match.
Originally published as Marcus Bontempelli, Patrick Dangerfield, Clayton Oliver facing Matt De Boer KFC SuperCoach clamp early in 2020
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