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Top Dog, star Crow face tagging problems

Adelaide's Rory Sloane and Western Bulldogs defefender Jason Johannisen enter Friday night's AFL game grappling with the same issue.

Adelaide Crows player Rory Sloane
AFL rivals have found a way to curb Rory Sloane's influence in the past seven rounds. (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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Within the big picture of Adelaide's crunch AFL game against the Western Bulldogs is an intriguing scene.

Can two top-liners from the respective clubs shake a tag?

Star Crow Rory Sloane and top Dog Jason Johannisen enter Friday night's fixture on opposite sides, yet grappling with the same problem.

Both prime movers have been repeatedly subdued by taggers recently.

And both can expect similar hard tags in the Adelaide Oval encounter.

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Crows coach Don Pyke usually is reluctant to deploy a tagger.

But he says there have been discussions about tagging Johannisen, who hasn't cracked the 20-disposal mark in his past four games.

"Certainly we look at it and think there's an opportunity to take out one of their main rebounding defenders," Pyke said.

"And the Bulldogs like to rebound out of the back half pretty quickly whether it be through Johannisen or (Robert) Murphy.

"And obviously sides have had success doing that (tagging). That is something we have a discussion about."

Crows midfielder Sloane streeted into Brownlow medal favouritism with a dashing start to the season.

But the vice-captain's output has been dimmed markedly by tight tags. The usually prolific ball-winner has been restricted to under 20 touches in four of his past eight matches.

Sloane's dip has coincided with a lull from his side, who remain in second spot despite four defeats in eight games.

Two of those losses have come on home turf at the Adelaide Oval.

"Winning at home ... is important and those two losses we had here are disappointing," Pyke said.

"And certainly we want to be creating a real cauldron which makes it difficult for opposing teams to come and play well.

"We want to build that imposing record and we have let ourselves down on a couple of occasions this year."


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