Kirk & Crouch

[TheHood]

Are these guys the best tagger combo in the league?

You have to say that we are blessed to have an intelligent, focused, super fit freak in Kirky and a very very fast cattle dog in Crouchy.

So no matter who we come up against, their two best ball magnets have these guys stealing the ball or stuck on their hammer all day.

They often humiliate super stars starving them of possession and not only that they do it without the niggle and rubbish play (see Brodie Holland) and earn the respect of their beaten opponents.

The other best taggers are probably Tyson Edwards and Josh Carr. Carr's job on Michael Voss up at the Gabba last year was amazing and he managed to kick 4 goals in the process.

Anyone else suggest a better tagger combo?

[penga]

you can add fixter to that combo

[Charlie]

And Mathews as a smallish defender/defensive midfielder.

I've had a gut feeling for a while that one of these four is bound to get squeezed out at some point.

[dendol]

Mathews has been playing mainly in the defense hasnt he? He usually gets the job on one of the smaller forwards, and only occasionally has a run in the midfield.

And Fixter will develep into an in-and-under midfielder; I'd hate to see him turned into a tagger!

[Mike_B]

It seems to me that Crouch tends to play more on the opposition's number 1 small forward (Farmer, McRae etc) than as a tagger in the midfield. It's only when there is no match up inside the defensive 50 that he pushes up and plays on an opposition midfielder.

[motorace_182]

Fixter will not be a tagger, he played as a defensive player in his first full season, but like Schneider, he is being primed as a midfielder. He is one factor that will heavily improve our chances this year.

[Triple B]

The other best taggers are probably Tyson Edwards

????

Stenglein is the Crows #1 tagger, a bloody good one at that. Edwards doesn't play a tagger's role.

[Ajn]

Kirky will be upset at this discussion, remember he is a "Defensive Midfielder"

Crouch occassionally tags (just watched him on Crawford on Fox last night), but is better at stopping the Farmers, Burns, Materas and Milne types.

Fixter will be similar to Fosdike and will probably rotate with him, along with Schneider/Davis.
Bolton is our in and under, with Ablett/Buchanan/O'Keefe having the likely rotate roles.

One of our strongest strengths is our ability to rotate through the midfield and catch out oppositions with mismatches.

[liz]

Originally posted by Ajn
Kirky will be upset at this discussion, remember he is a "Defensive Midfielder"

Crouch occassionally tags (just watched him on Crawford on Fox last night), but is better at stopping the Farmers, Burns, Materas and Milne types.

IIRC, Crouch has had mixed results on small forwards. I remember him completely towelling up Matthew Lappin recently when Lappin was in top form, but Crouch himself was made to look ordinary by Farmer on more than one occasion. I think with Milne they have each had good days and not so good ones.

The beauty of Fixter and Crouch is that they can both play as small defenders, defensive midfielders or attacking midfielders. That gives Roos the flexibility to try different things, and gives him a "Plan B" if one is getting towelled up by his opponent or failing to have any impact in the midfield.