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Live sport on SN this weekend“Incompetence”: Malcolm Blight’s gripe with modern day coaches
Andrew Slevison • March 12th, 2025 10:01 am
Malcolm Blight believes coaches who fail to tag the opposition’s star midfielders are incompetent.
The footy icon was referencing GWS tagger Toby Bedford’s job on Collingwood’s Nick Daicos in the Giants’ 52-point Opening Round win on Sunday.
Daicos finished with 21 disposals,17 of which came in the first half and gained only 65 metres. He still got a bit of the ball but overall was quelled by Bedford who made life difficult with close-pressing and harassing.
The end result was a big win to the Giants, made possible by a decent effort by Bedford, and Daicos sitting on the bench with foot soreness after a tough day.
Blight says modern day coaches simply must scheme to get the better of the elite mids around the competition.
“I probably shouldn’t say what I’m about to say, but if you’re a head coach or line coach or whatever coach you want to be, and you ignore trying to subdue a good player by not tagging him, I think it shows some sort of reticent, almost incompetence, not to think about it and then do it,” Blight said on SEN’s Sportsday SA.
“Nick Daicos to half-time had 17 possessions, he only went 60-odd metres with his possessions. Obviously he was a bit wounded in the second half.
“It’s a bit like Patrick Cripps last year with 45 votes. He got 32 - nearly three votes a game - in every win. And less than one vote in the losses.”
Blight is well aware that a tagger or a run-with player can cause chaos for the best opposition midfielders, and wonders it doesn’t happen more often.
“They don’t realise what it does to you when a player runs alongside you. I’ve been there and done it both as a player and a coach. It is bloody difficult,” he added.
“It actually puts you off. You think that I’m going to outrun them, I’m going to do this, I’m going to be smarter than him, but it takes ages (to break down a tagger).
“I just don’t understand why those really good players… they all get three votes because they let them run around. No, I’m sorry.
“Is it incompetence? Or irrelevance?”
The two-time Adelaide Crows premiership coach recalls sending a young and inexperienced Kane Johnson to St Kilda star Robert Harvey in the 1997 Grand Final.
While Harvey, who had just won the '97 Brownlow Medal, ended up with 36 touches, Johnson was able to stifle some of his possessions while having an impact himself with 21 touches and a few key moments in the Crows’ 31-point win.
“I put a 19-year-old on him in a Grand Final. Robert still played very well but Kane did six or seven great things and got involved,” Blight said further.
“He just made it a bit harder for Robert. I thought R.Harvey was as good as anyone on the ground. But if you let him go earlier, he gets 50 possessions and they win.”
Blight feels tagging in the modern game has been somewhat lost and would love to see coaches of today rediscover the tool.
Listen to Blight’s tagging rant below:
