Carlton Supporters Club

Martin, Bontempelli, Fyfe, Cunnington, Mitchell, Cogs, Whitfield, Neale etc all deal with tagging and don't need a Royal Commission to deal with it. If Cripps used his size and strength more he wouldn't have lightweights like Anderson shoving him about. Pittonet does need to do more as do Cripps teammates but it does get back to Cripps imposing himself physically and leading from the front. Have been pleased with Walsh who does have a go back at players who try it on with him and it will set him up for the future and he won't end up an easy target.

And all of those players deal with taggers without resorting to ironing them out.

One of Crippa’s strengths is his strength and he is trying to rely on that to beat the tag.  However, by initiating and maintaining contact, he is often out of the contest and playing into his tagger’s hands.

Other tagged players have a variety of tactics but they often involve greater defensive effort, working harder, keeping on the move, exploiting height, speed, endurance, etc advantage, going to another opposition player to free up their opponent, etc. 

Wrestling with the tagger at stoppages isn’t the answer and neither is being switched to full forward.

Of course, the best way to deal with a tagger is to make it a team priority to break the tag(s).  Our coaches must have missed the memo.

We are winning the clearances, but it comes at a cost of maybe not having Cripps always front and centre.

I think we should probably ask Cripps to get into more deep F50 stoppages, and let their blockers and taggers run the risk!

That leaves our others to hang back outside of F50 and push to the D50 end. Often Cripps is patrolling the F50 arc, and guys like Kennedy and Setterfield push deeper, I suppose that is because of Cripps height. But it might be missing a trick, I concede it's a pluses and minuses argument.

Good luck to the opposition at a deep F50 stoppage, Cripps can just go the ball making sure those hanging onto him get fully noticed! It won't take Betts and Martin long to switch onto the fact opposition around Cripps are being reactive and breaking the rules, they'll feast on the reflex actions!

Surely that’s what he should be doing at all stoppages?  Once he grapples with his opponent, holding the man is not an option.

Maybe we should move Murphy into the centre to become "The Enforcer"...

It easier said than done, these taggers are coached in ways of putting an opponent off-balance or disrupting an opponents focus. Not just coached in general techniques, but coached specific techniques for a specific opponent. They build up whole dossiers on players, what sets them off, what doesn't work, what does work.

Also, as fans watching, we must not assume Cripps holding someone isn't part of the plan. I know that seems hard to believe, but it's possible.

He'd do a better job than your or I, how many AFL games have we played combined?

It's a joke, Joyce...

Somebody need a hug??

No, you?