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The tactics of Collingwood’s Brent Macaffer on Richmond captain Trent Cotchin on Friday night reignited the debate about taggers in our game.
This debate is nothing new. It happens every season when a very good player is totally shut down by a tagger. So often last season it was Fremantle’s Ryan Crowley, now it’s Macaffer after Cotchin managed 13 disposals in the Tiger’s 38-point loss.
The bottom line, as every Magpie fan or Freo supporter will tell you, is that it is legal. It has been for years, and as long as the umpires crack down on any illegal play, bad luck to the tagged.
It’s a compliment to the player being tagged. He is clearly a star, and opposition coaches need to negate him. Trent, ask Gary Ablett about it. Ask Brent Harvey about it. Ask Chris Judd or any of our game’s elite.
Having taken his game up a level, he is being tagged. Now he has to raise the level yet again – not just physically but mentally. That’s what stops you reacting when your tagger wants you to. That’s what helps you break the tag. That’s what helps you help your team again.
You don’t have to like tagging – and personally I don’t – but it is part of the game. If there was a way to get it out of the game, I’d be the first to agree, but like the players, we have to live with it.
I’d much rather see the best players doing things that average players can’t than having to watch less polished players trying to emulate the good ones. But coaches have to put the brakes on opposition superstars, and if it’s within the rules, they will continue to do it.
It’s about getting four competition points, no matter how you go about it.
When the Swans were accused of being ugly in 2005, most rival fans complained it was bad for the game. Did you hear any Sydney fans complaining? Ugly doesn’t matter as long as you win, and they won a flag.
Taggers are and always will be the most hated opponent come match day. They are detrimental to the game according to opposition fans, but among the most valuable to their coach. That was the case with Macaffer on Friday, and I’m sure their coaches would testify it has been the same for the likes of Ryan Crowley, Steven Baker, Sean Denham, Jared Crouch and Tony Liberatore in the past.
As Liberatore once said, “When a player gets sucked in it’s a massive win for the side.”
Taggers are seen as the villains to the game’s superheroes, the evil against the good, but all they are is one of 22 players with a job to do.
They will forever be part of the game. So be it, as long as they are belted over the knuckles by the umpires if they break the rules.
What Cotchin needs is a stronger mental attitude and some teammates to lend a hand in breaking the tag.
I understand the angst and complaints of Tiger fans, but Cotchin being tagged is not the biggest problem they have right now. They are so far from playing like the team that knocked on the door of the top four in 2013, with one scratchy win and three losses to start 2014.
They have an easy game against Brisbane this week, but then face Hawthorn and Geelong. They had better find some form or the 2014 Tigers could be like so many of their predecessors, looking in from outside the eight come September.
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