Our Big weakness-Tagger

[jerry springer]

this is one glaring weakness we have at our club that seems to go missed with the spotlight always seems to be on our ruck and inside midfielders woes

2 years ago Brodie would of been our best run-with player but no there is no definate #1 tagger at our club.

From memory Lonie did a great job on wells this in round one then got injured,then the mantle seemed to go to toovey who did a servicble job as tagger for a couple of games before going to shit.Licca got a couple jobs but was too slow.On Goodes we tried O'Brien,O'bree and pendlebury none of which worked and the scary thing was he nearly beat us by himself

Too many times last year we were smashed by one midfieder having a field day against us,off the top of my head Foley for Richmond,Black for brisbane,Goodes,Haselby had 24 possies on us before halftime,Bruce has killed us in the past.at the moment we have no lock-down player we can trust to go to these players when they are hot to try and neutralise them.of course having a shit ruck doesnt help but a quality tagger is vital in every top team Ling for cats,Cornes for port,Sewell,Kirk/crouch,and J.carr for Port

something to think about anyway

I should add that i dont expect us to go and draft one today but it is definatly something that the club needs to address over the summer pre-season

 

[The Royal Sampler]

I think Ryan Cook could end up being a tagger for us. His endurance is top 5 at the club, he's quick, and he could be potentially damaging going the other way (a la Ling).

Just a thought.

 

[Dazman]

I think Ryan Cook could end up being a tagger for us. His endurance is top 5 at the club, he's quick, and he could be potentially damaging going the other way (a la Ling).

Just a thought.

My exact thoughts as I opened this thread.

 

[Bay Pie]

I think Ryan Cook could end up being a tagger for us. His endurance is top 5 at the club, he's quick, and he could be potentially damaging going the other way (a la Ling).

Just a thought.

I never thought of that but that could be a good idea. Perhaps Ben Johnno. But Brodie was injured last eyar and still our no.1 tagger.

 

[jerry springer]

I think Ryan Cook could end up being a tagger for us. His endurance is top 5 at the club, he's quick, and he could be potentially damaging going the other way (a la Ling).

Just a thought.

interesting,I have never thought of him in that role either,needs to hit the weights a bit though still,and get a bit of aggro

stanley has the body already probably, not the footy smarts atm

 

[Dazman]

interesting,I have never thought of him in that role either,needs to hit the weights a bit though still,and get a bit of aggro

stanley has the body already probably, not the footy smarts atm

I don't think Stanners has the defensive ability to go tagger. I see him as a normal midfielder, neither attack or defence minded.

Cook definitely has all the tools and is learning the trade, albeit on the half back flank where he's shutting down dangerous small forwards instead of midfielders.

 

[doppleganger]

B.Holland
R.Lonie
R.Shaw

all had poor 07s due to injury, all more than capable playing shut down roles on a variety of different playing types

 

[OniAu]

i do like rhyce as a tagger , quick enough to go with anyone and extremely damaging with that pace and can break the lines easy.

im expecting a big year from him in 08 , he woulda been quietly with the end of his 07 season considering he started so promising early in the year.

he should get first dibs on tagger imo

 

[Buckley is my hero]

I think the game has moved on from a couple of years ago when sides had specific players in the side whose role in the team was to stop key opposition players (St Kilda comes to mind that still does it). The way MM coaches is to give players specific tasks to move the ball forward as quickly as possible when we have the ball and to stop their opposition player when they have the ball (ie one on one accountable football). There's no longer room in the side for players who only have a negative side and I think you'll find that most of the players who had reputations for playing tagging roles have been weeded out by their AFL clubs. By the way I don't think we do have enough inside mids and now we have a ruckman (Wood) I'd like to see us develop a few inside players.

 

[jerry springer]

There's no longer room in the side for players who only have a negative side and I think you'll find that most of the players who had reputations for playing tagging roles have been weeded out by their AFL clubs.

I disagree

You still need a player who can go out and be given the task to shut down a player(Ling is a prime example)and also make them a bit accountable.As I said in my opening post there were times last year when we were murdered by one player which in some instances cost us the game.Foley for richmond and Black for Brisbane were 2 of these.It seemed if we were completly helpless against these players.Holland used to do this but he is questionable at the moment

 

[Buckley is my hero]

You're right. Foley and Black murdered us, but you still need to get numbers at the ball to get it forward. When you lose possession you need to get numbers back to defend the goals. If all a player does is tag you lose the ability to get numbers at the ball. Whoever played on Black and Foley those particular days didn't do the jobs to which MM assigned them and the side went down as a consequence. But it's just as bad not to do the team assists as to let your opponents go free. If you look at the players we've been recruiting since Hine took over nearly all have both defensive as well as attacking sides to their games. You have to ask the question why didn't we pick up Simpson who's a massive ruckman and clearly superior at the taps (and probably a better mark) than Thoolen. Answer - Thoolen has the ability to go forward or back depending on the situation (even though he's clearly not that fast). Simpson is the sort of player who is going to hang around the center of the ground when he's not sitting on the interchange bench. Also, if Rhyce is such a good tagger why did we try to unload him during trade week. Also, Lonie is capable of doing tagging jobs on players (example Goodes) and we tried to unload him as well. Answer is both Rhyce and Lonie are poor at the team assists.

 

[Bonuspoints]

I don't think taggers are obsolete, but their role is more demanding now in that they can't just negate players they have to give us something when we have the ball as well.

I can't say I've watched that much of Cook playing for Willy, but I don't see him as a run with player at all. He doesn't seem to have that great one on one ability that Ling, Sewell and Corns do. He'd need to work real hard on that one.

Others on our list that could do it I'd probably go with goldsack. He's got courage, speed, one on one ability and can develop the tank to do it. Holland, Lonie and Shaw are also possible, but I reckon only Holland has the one on one ability. Shaw and Lonie can do decent jobs on the receiving mids but I doubt they have the strength to go against mids like Black.

 

[moe sizlak]

Clarke is the prototype 'new tagger.' He has the running capacity to be damaging offensively, however he can still play extremely 'accountable' football. I expect this 'style' of midfielder to become the norm i.e. a more close watching Ben Cousins.

 

[BEEG]

i do like rhyce as a tagger , quick enough to go with anyone and extremely damaging with that pace and can break the lines easy.

im expecting a big year from him in 08 , he woulda been quietly with the end of his 07 season considering he started so promising early in the year.

he should get first dibs on tagger imo

He had a great start of the season but injury held him back the last 9 rounds glad we didnt trade him he is quality player that is very under rated.

 

[MarkT]

B.Holland
R.Lonie
R.Shaw

all had poor 07s due to injury, all more than capable playing shut down roles on a variety of different playing types

Yep. Unless you have a Kane Cornes or Lyng who tag someone out and get plenty of it themselves then these types will suffice. They can do a job. I’d rather concentrate on getting a damaging mid at this point than a negating one given only 1 option.

 

[PieLebo87]

I have to disagree with the OP.

We have a very good list of players capable of shutting down numerous styles of attacking midfielders in the comp.

Rhyce Shaw has had training on a particular Judd and did a reasonable job in his time on the great man.

Brodie Holland has been mentioned by many, and rightly so, considering he is our best tagger, but was unlucky with injuries. Will be very damaging as a shut-down midfielder in '08.

A few of you people are forgetting that in the immediate future, Dale Thomas is going to be a very handy tagger on a part-time basis for the Pies until he can be unleashed as a more attacking midfielder on a full-time basis.

Lets not forget there are youngsters such as Ryan Cook and Danny Stanley who will be given roles over the next couple of years to help develop their games.

There is also Ryan Lonie when need be as a shut-down player on the wings and middle.

We've got a fair number of taggers and some players in our team that don't even need to play that role anymore like Scott Burns and Tarkyn Lockyer.