CROWS midfielder Chris Knights says tags are getting heavier this season and believes the umpires should offer more protection for the player going for the ball.
The issue of tagging tactics raised its head on the weekend after West Coast playmaker Daniel Kerr retaliated physically to the apparent constant niggling from his Western Bulldogs opponents.
“AFL is hard enough to play when you don’t have a tagger, so it’s twice as hard when you do,” Knights said.
“I’d like the players to be looked after, so if you’re getting tagged illegally [you should be rewarded].
“Obviously, you’re allowed to have an opponent running with you and playing the right way on you, but if it’s illegal, you’d like to be looked after.
“You don’t want players holding you behind the play or getting into you off the ball.”
Last week, Knights’ midfield teammate Scott Thompson received some heavy attention from Fremantle’s Ryan Crowley and
“Personally, I haven’t been tagged this year and I only received a little bit of attention towards the end of last year, but I know from listening to a few of the guys that the attention has increased this year,” Knights said.
“It is frustrating for midfielders because you don’t want to retaliate and then get into trouble, but at the same time, you want it to be fair.
“The main issues are players holding on to you behind the ball or bumping you off the play. It wears you down. Sometimes the umpires are in the wrong position and you go to run for the ball, but you can’t because someone has hold of your jumper.
“You like to see the Chris Judds, Gary Abletts and Scott Thompsons playing to the best of their ability, but sometimes they are prevented from doing that.”
The Crows used Robert Shirley to run-with Chris Judd on Saturday and Knights said it was up to the umpires, and not the tagger, to determine what was ‘fair’.
“For some players, tagging is their role. That’s what they’ve been told to do by their coach and that’s what they have to do for the team,” he said.
“Those players do it to the best of their ability and it’s not up to the players to police that – it is up to the umpires and the judiciary.”
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.
