JLT 2018 - Carlton v Hawthorn (Sat 10th Feb)

[LP]

I can't agree with you on this, LP. Having and tagger is necessary, but having a 2nd option is always useful.
Last year, when Ed Curnow was out, Kerridge came into the side and did a negative role, and managed to get a lot of the ball as well. He had some tremendous games late in the season in that role.
At the moment he is off the pace in the 2's, but that will probably change in a week or 2.
I don't know if he can do the job full time, but having the option is a really good thing for us.
Also Polson was used in a negative role late last season. With his pace he could be very good doing that in the future.

Why do I bring these guys up?
Two reasons. Having one tagger is fraught with danger - a point source error. If that tagger gets beaten badly, we have no backup.
Secondly, some teams have 2 guys that simply need to be picked up and squashed.
I don't think we can afford 2 players who contribute nothing going forward, but the ability to stifle the oppositions best players (something we have been poor at in recent times) can be the difference between victory and defeat.

It is good having Ed Curnow back. He is our best tagger at the moment and he has been getting reasonable stats himself. However, we miss a guy a Carrazzo, who not only kept guys out of the play, but who also provided a heap of drive themselves. Guys like Carrots do not come along all that often.

When we have the best midfield in the competition and guys look to tag our guys out of the game and can't, because WE have too many options, then we can afford to go light on the tagging.

I think our point of difference is how many players who can tag versus how many are in tagging roles at any one moment!

I expect in the team on the day we can have multiple players capable of tagging, but I think having one actually doing some tagging is enough to disrupt most opposition clubs, and having more than one player tagging just hurts your own team by making it's game play one dimensional.