Geelong should tag Dustin Martin; Joel Selwood key to stopping Cats says Brent HarveyLAUREN WOOD AND CHRIS CAVANAGH,
Herald Sun
5 September 2017GEELONG should “100 per cent” tag re-signed Richmond superstar Dustin Martin in Friday night’s MCG blockbuster qualifying final, according to games record holder Brent Harvey.
But one former stopper believes a team-based approach will be most effective.
Harvey, who played 432 games for North Melbourne and was forced to deal with taggers throughout his 21-year career at Arden St, believes that the Cats will be best served by sending a player to Martin, rather than Richmond skipper Trent Cotchin.
Richmond will be wrestling with how to counter Geelong’s midfield dynamos Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield.
“Good teams nullify the opposition’s best players better than their opposition,” Harvey told the Herald Sun.
“I would have a tagger from my team going to Dustin Martin,” Harvey said.
“That would be my choice for Richmond. He wins his own footy. I think he’s going to have 25 touches anyway, but I think you can nullify his touches.
“Because he’s a kicker, you can make him handball a little bit more. His kick is elite, so you’ve got to put him under pressure.”
Statistics show a hard tag has worked on Selwood and Cotchin over the past three years, but has little impact on Dangerfield and Martin.
Cotchin has averaged 102.2 SuperCoach points when not tagged but only 76.6 points from seven games where he has been tagged for 40 minutes or more, while Selwood has averaged 13.2 fewer ranking points in the 18 games where he has received close attention.
There is almost no difference in the numbers for Martin and Dangerfield.
Harvey said he believes Cotchin is damaging, but Martin “kicks more goals, and his field kicking is more aggressive”.
Former St Kilda tagger Steven Baker said he believed the days of the hard tag were over but teams could target key opposition players effectively in other ways.
TAG YOU'RE IT
PLAYER Matches (not tagged) Average Matches (tagged) Average DifferentialTrent Cotchin (Rich) 57 102.2 7 76.6 -25.6
Joel Selwood (Geel) 44 111.6 18 98.4 -13.2
Dustin Martin (Rich) 63 110.5 4 109.4 -1.1
Patrick Dangerfield (Geel) 60 129.2 8 130.8 +0.8
(Tagged = 40 minutes or more against a defensive midfielder in the past three seasons. Source: Champion Data)“Usually the big players stand up on the big days so to shut them down goes a long way to shutting the team down,” Baker said.
“You’ve seen with some of the Western Bulldogs players that have been targeted this year, that’s when it really gets in their head and it’s really a lot easier when the whole team’s whacking into a player rather than just one on one.
“I got told by all my coaches, ‘Occasionally you can run off’, but I was just too scared about my man getting a touch if I ran off. But the players these days are a lot smarter and they know when to leave their opponent. I think the team approach is a lot better than the hard tag.”
Geelong star Patrick Dangerfield said Cam Guthrie could “potentially” be the man to go to Martin on Friday night.
“That being said, he’s one player and they’ve got 21 others that will take to the field on Friday night and that’s been the reason behind their success this year,” Dangerfield said.
“It hasn’t been just one player. So we’ve got to be very wary of the other players they have within their side. While he’s an integral part of it, he’s by no means the only reason that they’ve been successful.”
Richmond does not have a dedicated tagger in its line up but midfielder Dion Prestia has found form in the second half of the season playing run-with roles on the likes of Brisbane’s Dayne Zorko, Greater Western Sydney’s Dylan Shiel and Hawthorn’s Tom Mitchell.
AFL premiership cup ambassador Brent Harvey with the 2017 cup. Picture: Michael Klein
Harvey tipped Geelong to win on Friday night, but said stopping Selwood — who will this week face a fitness test after missing three matches due to ankle surgery — will go a long way toward Richmond winning the game.
“If you can nullify Selwood’s ball-winning ability inside, and stop the ball getting out to (Mitch) Duncan and these type of guys, I think you can beat Geelong,” he said.
“Dangerfield is a very hard matchup. If you play a midfielder on him, he takes you forward. If you play a backman on him, he takes you into the midfield, whereas Selwood hasn’t got that ability to go forward and take really clutch marks.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/geelong-should-tag-dustin-martin-joel-selwood-key-to-stopping-cats-says-brent-harvey/news-story/fd73d331ca4747169f3d4902e80c2f32
