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Full Noise by SN
Why key Pie took it upon himself to make huge 2023 Grand Final call
Lachlan Geleit • April 2nd, 2026 11:05 am
Tom Mitchell was frequently frustrated during his time at Collingwood that the opposition’s best player was often allowed to roam free without a tag.
The Magpies have been resolute with backing their system over tagging individual players under Craig McRae, apart from a few one-off examples, which was something that would annoy Mitchell during his 36 games in black and white.
While the Brownlow Medallist understands why the Magpies backed their system over going after an individual - especially as he won more than 72 per cent of his games for the club - Mitchell believes there’s a way to keep structure while trying to restrict the opposition’s best.
“That's the way I see it. I just think it's a no-brainer (to send someone to the best players),” Mitchell told SEN Locked In.
“We were like this in my time at Collingwood, we far too often, I think, let the opposition's best player just have their way and do whatever they wanted, and we just got torched. We were playing a system, but I think there’s a way to do both.
“You can just have a slight awareness of a guy when you rotate in team defence and system, you can just shift to the area where they are and just be around them.
“I think competing is everything. When you're in those one-on-one battles, it's not all about that one-on-one battle, but just being around to make it a bit harder for them… if you can just make it 5 per cent harder for Nick Daicos… he’s still going to beat you probably, he’s a freak, but just make it harder for him.”
With the knowledge that Collingwood weren’t a tagging side, Mitchell knew he had to take it upon himself to restrict Lachie Neale on Grand Final day in 2023.
While the coaches didn’t instruct him to tag the Lions superstar, Mitchell stuck to him all day, keeping him to just 21 touches, while picking up 24 disposals, 13 tackles and 7 clearances himself on the way to polling multiple votes in the Norm Smith Medal in the four-point triumph.
Taking on those tasks as an individual is something that Mitchell thinks players should do more often.
“I probably transitioned when I was playing… I was the ball-winner and then shifted late to playing within a system and then playing some tagging roles,” Mitchell said.
“It was within the system in 2023, I actually said, ‘I'm playing on Lachie Neale, you can’t let this guy (dominate us)’.
“We played against him in Round 23. He was best on ground, dominated. I was like, ‘I'm just going to do it, I'm making the call, I'm doing it. I know for us to win, I have to do this’.
“It wasn't really put on by the coaches… it was a little bit, like, ‘Have an awareness’. But in my head, I'm like, ‘Going into this Grand Final, whether you think we should do it or not, I'm going to do this because I know how good he is’.
“I took it upon myself, and I think more players should do that, and I think players thrive in that one-on-one battle.”
The 2023 Grand Final turned out to be Neale’s 18th-worst-rated game across his 162 games for Brisbane so far.
