How to tank in 10 easy stepsJon Ralph | July 21, 2009 11:50pm
EVERYONE agrees players don't throw games. But that doesn't mean there aren't many ways for coaches eyeing priority picks to minimise their chances of winning.
Here is the Herald Sun's how-to guide to tanking.
1. PLAY YOUR STARS OUT OF POSITION When you are a bottom-four side and your coach is planning for the future, no one notices positional changes in the name of experimentation.
In the "Hasleby Game" of 1999, where Fremantle won a priority pick by coughing up a halftime lead to Geelong, even the Freo players were suspicious.
The Cats were down by nine points at halftime but Fremantle bled the last 11 goals, and Dockers midfielder Brodie Holland smelled a rat.
"I do remember sitting with (teammate) Jess Sinclair and talking about how it's the first time he's played back pocket and the first time I've played on the half-back flank," Holland later said. "There were a few funny moves. There's definitely been a few chats amongst the older boys because we were curious."
2. PLAY ALL YOUR KIDS It is now the norm rather than the exception -- force-feed your up-and-coming kids with games late in the year.
When the Pies lost 10 of the last 11 games of 2005 to secure Scott Pendlebury and Dale Thomas, they gave games to anyone. Promising kids such as Heath Shaw, Harry O'Brien and Sean Rusling were rewarded.
But many other debutants, including Ben Davies, Chris Egan, David Fanning, Brent Hall, and Adam Iacobucci, sank quickly from sight.
3. DON'T TAG THE OPPOSITION'S STAR In the infamous Carlton-Melbourne Round 22 clash of 2007, silky Demons onballer Travis Johnstone was allowed to run rampant, gathering 42 possessions loose across half-back. It was perhaps the only time that season he was not assigned the opposition's best tagger.
Heath Scotland earned three Brownlow votes for his 31 possessions a fortnight earlier in Round 20, but the Demons didn't tag him that day either.
In the same round, Essendon's Andrew Lovett cut Carlton to shreds. Yet a Carlton official has twice recounted the story that when a coaching member asked "Who is on Lovett?", the reply was something like, "Let's not worry about picking up Lovett".
4. PUT PLAYERS IN FOR SURGERYTony Liberatore, who was banished from Carlton for his tanking claims, said defender Bret Thornton was forced into a needless ankle operation late in 2007.
The Blues and Thornton denied that, but many players are now given early surgery.
Clubs call it "list management", and we don't blink an eye. But if you are rewarded with a priority pick for a low finish, the pressure is on to manage that list a little harder.
5. DUMP THE 30-PLUS TYPES It doesn't need explanation any more. Last year Demons Adem Yze and Jeff White played out their careers in the VFL. This year it is Tigers Joel Bowden, Nathan Brown and probably Troy Simmonds when he resumes from injury.
Bowden was in excellent form when dumped, but hasn't been able to get back in the side.
6. GIVE BATTLERS A GO If you haven't already succeeded by putting the elders out to pasture and introducing raw kids, there is Plan C.
Every list has a host of strugglers desperate for one last chance to prove they deserve another contract.
Mostly they are no good, but playing them in prominent or key-position roles helps to death-ride your team.
7. CHANGE TACTICS In that 1999 Kardinia Park game, a Fremantle team that had flooded heavily all year suddenly played one-on-one football.
"A lot of the boys were talking about a few of the moves," Docker Garth Taylor said. "The older players were having a conversation about it."
Boundary rider Richard Osborne noted "how refreshing in this day and age when coaches are just obsessed with flooding the backline, seeing Barry Stoneham one-out in the forward line".
8. LIMIT ROTATIONS As Terry Wallace said this month, it's not what you do. It's what you don't.
If your players just don't have any petrol in the tank because they haven't had enough rest, it stands to reason they will be overrun.
9. TAKE YOUR MATCH-WINNERS OFF LATE As Carlton's priority pick went down to the wire in 2007, Brendan Fevola was at several times brought from the field at key stages in games.
Against Collingwood, the Blues were level in time-on of the last term.
Then Fevola left the field for more than two minutes with a thigh problem, and Collingwood kicked the last four goals.
The evidence is not damning, but it doesn't hurt.
10. ASK YOUR COACH In 2003 former Hawthorn coach Ken Judge claimed Hawks board member Don Scott had asked him in 1998 to lose the last five games of the year to help the club's draft prospects.
Scott denied the allegation and threatened legal action.
But according to Andrew Demetriou, tanking doesn't exist, so Judge must have simply misheard him.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25817489-19742,00.html
