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Provocative Akermanis labels taggers as cheats
By Peter Ker
March 21, 2004
The opening round of the season will have added spice after two of the AFL's highest-profile players made provocative statements about their opponents on a Channel Seven football documentary last night.
Brisbane Lions star Jason Akermanis has slammed players who use tagging tactics, claiming that they are "cheats", and singled out his likely opponent next Saturday, Sydney's Jared Crouch, as the competition's worst offender.
Meanwhile, Kangaroos champion Glenn Archer has revealed that part of him wanted to "kill" former club captain Wayne Carey after the latter was found to have had an affair with the wife of friend and teammate Anthony Stevens.
Speaking on AFL Confidential last night, Akermanis revived the debate on the legitimacy of taggers by calling on the league to make rules against their negative tactics.
"Pretty much most of the players I play on every week will break the rules and I don't think they are very sportsmanlike at all," the 2001 Brownlow medallist said. "They cheat."
By naming 26-year-old Crouch, Akermanis ensured that Saturday night's season opener against Sydney at the Gabba would have extra feeling.
"The worst at it is probably Jared Crouch, I'm looking forward to playing him in round one," Akermanis said. "The ball will be right next to you and ... he will be looking at me, the player."
On the same program, Archer revealed that he felt mixed emotions towards Carey, who is expected to line up for Adelaide against the Kangaroos in round one next Sunday.
"One part of me would love to kill him after what happened, but then there's one part that says, gee, I wish this didn't happen because we had just such a great time and had a great friendship," he said.
"Some of the best times I've had, it was with Wayne." Carey played 244 games for the Kangaroos before resigning in disgrace over the affair. If selected in the Crows' team next Sunday, it will be the third time he has played against the club he captained to premierships in 1996 and 1999.
Archer said the fallout from the affair was so great that he was unsure if a premiership reunion could ever be held for the group. "At the moment something like that is pretty unforgiveable in my eyes," he said.
"I've thought about it a fair bit ... in 10 years' time when I walk down the street, what sort of reaction am I going to have.
"If in 2006 we have a premiership reunion and the captain and the most influential player - one of the main reasons we won that premiership isn't there - I don't know how we are going to fix that."
By Peter Ker
March 21, 2004
The opening round of the season will have added spice after two of the AFL's highest-profile players made provocative statements about their opponents on a Channel Seven football documentary last night.
Brisbane Lions star Jason Akermanis has slammed players who use tagging tactics, claiming that they are "cheats", and singled out his likely opponent next Saturday, Sydney's Jared Crouch, as the competition's worst offender.
Meanwhile, Kangaroos champion Glenn Archer has revealed that part of him wanted to "kill" former club captain Wayne Carey after the latter was found to have had an affair with the wife of friend and teammate Anthony Stevens.
Speaking on AFL Confidential last night, Akermanis revived the debate on the legitimacy of taggers by calling on the league to make rules against their negative tactics.
"Pretty much most of the players I play on every week will break the rules and I don't think they are very sportsmanlike at all," the 2001 Brownlow medallist said. "They cheat."
By naming 26-year-old Crouch, Akermanis ensured that Saturday night's season opener against Sydney at the Gabba would have extra feeling.
"The worst at it is probably Jared Crouch, I'm looking forward to playing him in round one," Akermanis said. "The ball will be right next to you and ... he will be looking at me, the player."
On the same program, Archer revealed that he felt mixed emotions towards Carey, who is expected to line up for Adelaide against the Kangaroos in round one next Sunday.
"One part of me would love to kill him after what happened, but then there's one part that says, gee, I wish this didn't happen because we had just such a great time and had a great friendship," he said.
"Some of the best times I've had, it was with Wayne." Carey played 244 games for the Kangaroos before resigning in disgrace over the affair. If selected in the Crows' team next Sunday, it will be the third time he has played against the club he captained to premierships in 1996 and 1999.
Archer said the fallout from the affair was so great that he was unsure if a premiership reunion could ever be held for the group. "At the moment something like that is pretty unforgiveable in my eyes," he said.
"I've thought about it a fair bit ... in 10 years' time when I walk down the street, what sort of reaction am I going to have.
"If in 2006 we have a premiership reunion and the captain and the most influential player - one of the main reasons we won that premiership isn't there - I don't know how we are going to fix that."
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