Collingwood tagger Brent Macaffer has arguably had more publicity this week than through his entire career, with his exploits – and tactics – in becoming a master tagger dominating headlines.
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Macaffer is now widely regarded as the No. 2 run-with player in the league, behind Fremantle's Ryan Crowley, and is quickly earning the reputation of the best taggers from yesteryear, such as West Coast’s Dwayne Lamb and the Western Bulldogs’ Tony Liberatore.
His recent scalps include Sydney’s Kieren Jack and Richmond skipper Trent Cotchin, with prime movers Brent Harvey or Daniel Wells likely to be on the menu this week when the Magpies tackle a surging North Melbourne on Saturday.
Kangaroos coach Brad Scott has expressed confidence in Harvey and Wells handling any close attention, although it should be remembered that Harvey has had troubles with tough tags, namely Crowley.
''If we get too caught up in all that we’ll take our focus off what’s really important,'' Scott said on Wednesday. ''We always talk about supporting our players, but Brent Harvey has been tagged for 360 of his 365 games, so he’s used to it. Daniel Wells is used to it, so nothing will change for us. Macaffer’s been doing it really well. I’m not going to get into the debate about the legalities of how he’s doing it. The reality is that he’s kept some really good players down from their usual output. We expect him to go to one of our good players, and the umpires will do their job, and we’ll make sure we do ours.''
After a week of conjecture about Macaffer’s controversial tactics, Scott expects the umpires to scrutinise his match-up. ''I think they’re humans, so they’ve probably got to. It’s going to be pretty hard to avoid,'' Scott said. ''But I think it’s just another sign of the evolution of the game. I remember very distinctly Nathan Buckley writing an article, when he finished playing and went into the media, about how the tagger was dead.
''I was midfield coach at Collingwood at the time, and he made a point of saying: 'There are no taggers anymore'. Well, he’s changed his mind on that one, obviously.''
AFL operations manager Mark Evans this week said he had noticed the return of the ''hard tag''. Scott also has, although he would not elaborate on why this was the case. His mind, however, isn’t only on Macaffer, for he lavished praise on three of the Magpies’ key men – captain Scott Pendlebury, Travis Cloke and Nick Maxwell – and suggested Pendlebury would be tagged.
Pendlebury has been in mint form in the midfield, prompting Scott to declare: ''I think they [Magpies] have got, probably Gary Ablett aside, I think they have a guy I regard as the best player in the competition in Scott Pendlebury. And Travis Cloke has led the competition in contested marks and inside 50 marks over the last five years. While he hasn’t been at his best, he generally saves that for us. We will be ready for him.''
Cloke has only two goals in four matches this season, with AFL legend Wayne Carey calling on him to be mentally tougher. He booted nine goals in the two meetings between the teams last season but was held goalless in the one-off clash in 2012. His overall record against the Kangaroos is modest – 20 goals in 12 matches – and he faces the tough test of dealing with All-Australian full-back Scott Thompson.
Maxwell has been instrumental in the Magpies’ success, largely as a loose man in defence. Scott must decide whether to man him up.
The Kangaroos are hopeful hardnut midfielder Jack Ziebell will return from a shoulder injury. Skipper Andrew Swallow is expected to return via the VFL next week, having recovered from an Achilles tendon rupture.
