Will Port ‘terrorise’ Lachie Neale again?
HOW does Port Adelaide solve a problem like Lachie Neale?
The Brisbane ball magnet has put Port to the sword on numerous occasions, averaging 29.7 disposals from his 13 games against the Power and 36.8 in his past five games. And this year he is arguably the form midfielder in the competition.
The Power has let him run free, backing its midfield to nullify his influence on the game and that hasn’t worked. And when it put an extremely hard tag on Neale last year, that backfired big time.
It was widely known then Port recruit Cam Sutcliffe would get the job tagging the man whose wedding party he was part of just eight months before. But when Ken Hinkley told Fox Footy’s David King just before the Round 17 match at Adelaide Oval the plan was to “terrorise” Neale it was clear just how far the Power would go to try to stop its tormentor.
Sutcliffe had the job stopping Neale getting hold of the ball as often as he usually does and the rest of the Port team seemed to have been told to ‘beat up’ the gun midfielder whenever they had the opportunity.
Tom Rockliff and Ollie Wines couldn’t wait to crash their bigger bodies into the 177cm Neale, while Dougal Howard – now at St Kilda – sent the Lion onto the floor off the ball and started a near all-in scuffle. Sutcliffe continued the physical barrage of his good friend as they ran off to the interchange, prompting Lions hard-nut Mitch Robinson to seemingly challenge him to a one-on-one on Adelaide Oval.
But while the plan was to “terrorise” Lachie, the Power tactics only galvanised a Lions side that would not be intimidated and kicked seven goals in a row to sew up the fiery match by quarter-time.
Hinkley said his players “misplaced” their aggression when it came to Neale, while Power captain Tom Jonas said in hindsight they went too far. Lions coach Chris Fagan was less than impressed at the heavy-handed tactics. “He got pounded, didn’t he?” Fagan said.
Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd said it was a “rubbish tactic” and while former Sydney, Western Bulldogs and Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade said Hinkley needed to back his instincts, the Power “went over the top”.
But stats from Champion Data show if you give Neale some attention a tag can work. Last year when Neale came up against five hard tags, he had no more than 16 disposals against his direct opponent.
Last week the Crows had some early success with a Ben Keays tag on Neale but the Brisbane star was able to break it and have 25 disposals on his former Lions teammate and 31 for the match.
Port will again consider using a tag, according to vicecaptain Wines. “With a player of Lachie Neale’s calibre you’ve got to look into every avenue to stop his impact on the game,” he said.