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Judd's life as a marked man
Chip Le Grand
July 15, 2005
A BRISBANE footballer yesterday flew 3590km with a single purpose in mind: to stop Chris Judd by any means, fair or unfair.
If he does his job, Brisbane stands a chance of winning tomorrow night. If he does not, it has next to none.
The identity of the Brisbane player will be a closely guarded secret until the teams run on to Subiaco Oval. It appears a two-horse race between Troy Selwood and Brad Scott.
Given the stakes, it would be hard to go past the pugnacious Scott, celebrated for his blanketing of James Hird in the 2001 grand final.
It is but one midfield match-up in a game laden with All-Australian talent.
The Brisbane focus on Judd cannot be at the expense of keeping tabs on Ben Cousins or Chad Fletcher.
West Coast will have its own plans for Simon Black, Jason Akermanis, Nigel Lappin and Luke Power.
Yet the interest in Judd goes beyond the two teams and four premiership points involved.
For the first time in his extraordinary career, the rise of Judd has reached a plateau. And much of it has to do with Judd's troubles in dealing with taggers like Scott.
Judd's season can be neatly divided into the seven games he played before he locked elbows with St Kilda's Steven Baker and the six games he has played since.
Pre-Baker, Judd was at his Brownlow best, averaging 23 touches, six clearances and five inside-50s per game. Post-Baker, Judd has been averaging 20 touches and one less clearance and inside-50.
Judd is hardly out of form. For any other player, these would be outstanding numbers.
Against Essendon a month ago, he was the best afield. But the early-season Juddernaut that obliterated Fremantle and the Western Bulldogs in consecutive weeks is no longer rolling.
According to West Coast, Judd is a victim.
After the Kangaroos' Brady Rawlings held and harangued Judd past the point of frustration last Friday night, Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett lamented the inaction of the AFL umpires department.
"The tagging methods used against Chris Judd at the moment are not within the rules of the game," Nisbett said. "We continue to speak to (umpires' boss) Jeff Gieschen and nothing happens. Chris is allowed to be tackled before he even gathers the ball."
Nisbett is right about Rawlings' tactics. But his comments add to a growing feeling among opposition clubs that Judd can be got at with concerted negating tactics.
Judd served a one-week suspension for striking Baker and was fortunate not to be sighted for punching Rawlings.
The tagging tactics that Judd must contend with are a by-product of his own genius.
With others in the competition, assigning a run-with opponent to pressure every disposal and hinder at every contest would be enough to curb a match-winner's influence.
Because of Judd's explosive pace and ability to find space, the tagging needs to go further, as former Brisbane midfielder Shaun Hart explained.
"You have got to be able to grab his jumper to stop him getting a run at it," Hart said. "You can be alongside him and all of a sudden, he breaks a tackle and is in space, even though you have done everything you could.
"He is one of those special players who doesn't need any space to cut you up."
So what is Judd to do? His club has complained to the AFL and gotten no response. His team-mates are prepared to throw their weight around but are restricted by what they can get away with.
Eagles coach John Worsfold insists Judd is working through the problem but his output against the Kangaroos suggested otherwise.
The Australian yesterday contacted two former players on different sides of the tagging debate. Unfortunately for Judd, their only consensus was there is no easy answer.
Sydney's Brownlow Medal winner Paul Kelly went through similar periods in his career and recalled instances where his frustration with taggers resulted in suspension.
He said lashing out at taggers is counter-productive.
"You try not to show it," Kelly explained. "If blokes know they can get to you, they will continue to niggle you.
"You can belt him obviously, but that is not a good option. You have just got to stay focused and get the footy. You can yell out to the umpire but that generally just makes things worse. It does annoy you, but you have just got to keep going.
"I used to find what weakness the tagger has. If he wasn't great near goal I used to take him up forward. If they weren't overly quick I would try to get a block and sprint forward. Sometimes I would go back and put it on the tagger to start thinking about getting the footy himself."
Hart, a triple premiership player and Norm Smith medallist, regularly performed tagging duties for the Lions.
"What he is doing is absolutely the right thing," he said. "He has got to get on the front foot with it and let blokes know that if they are going to cheat off him, he is not going to make it easy," Hart said.
"The guys I'd rather play on are the ones who don't do anything about it. They just concede. It is so easy to win the battle when an opponent concedes. You have just got to make sure you don't go past the point where your team will suffer or your own game will suffer."
The only certainty is that the Brisbane Lion who has flown 3590km to play on Judd will have watched the best of Baker and worst of Rawlings and compiled his own list of things to do. The umpires will watch carefully and see nothing. And the rest will be up to Judd.
Judd's life as a marked man
Chip Le Grand
July 15, 2005
A BRISBANE footballer yesterday flew 3590km with a single purpose in mind: to stop Chris Judd by any means, fair or unfair.
If he does his job, Brisbane stands a chance of winning tomorrow night. If he does not, it has next to none.
The identity of the Brisbane player will be a closely guarded secret until the teams run on to Subiaco Oval. It appears a two-horse race between Troy Selwood and Brad Scott.
Given the stakes, it would be hard to go past the pugnacious Scott, celebrated for his blanketing of James Hird in the 2001 grand final.
It is but one midfield match-up in a game laden with All-Australian talent.
The Brisbane focus on Judd cannot be at the expense of keeping tabs on Ben Cousins or Chad Fletcher.
West Coast will have its own plans for Simon Black, Jason Akermanis, Nigel Lappin and Luke Power.
Yet the interest in Judd goes beyond the two teams and four premiership points involved.
For the first time in his extraordinary career, the rise of Judd has reached a plateau. And much of it has to do with Judd's troubles in dealing with taggers like Scott.
Judd's season can be neatly divided into the seven games he played before he locked elbows with St Kilda's Steven Baker and the six games he has played since.
Pre-Baker, Judd was at his Brownlow best, averaging 23 touches, six clearances and five inside-50s per game. Post-Baker, Judd has been averaging 20 touches and one less clearance and inside-50.
Judd is hardly out of form. For any other player, these would be outstanding numbers.
Against Essendon a month ago, he was the best afield. But the early-season Juddernaut that obliterated Fremantle and the Western Bulldogs in consecutive weeks is no longer rolling.
According to West Coast, Judd is a victim.
After the Kangaroos' Brady Rawlings held and harangued Judd past the point of frustration last Friday night, Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett lamented the inaction of the AFL umpires department.
"The tagging methods used against Chris Judd at the moment are not within the rules of the game," Nisbett said. "We continue to speak to (umpires' boss) Jeff Gieschen and nothing happens. Chris is allowed to be tackled before he even gathers the ball."
Nisbett is right about Rawlings' tactics. But his comments add to a growing feeling among opposition clubs that Judd can be got at with concerted negating tactics.
Judd served a one-week suspension for striking Baker and was fortunate not to be sighted for punching Rawlings.
The tagging tactics that Judd must contend with are a by-product of his own genius.
With others in the competition, assigning a run-with opponent to pressure every disposal and hinder at every contest would be enough to curb a match-winner's influence.
Because of Judd's explosive pace and ability to find space, the tagging needs to go further, as former Brisbane midfielder Shaun Hart explained.
"You have got to be able to grab his jumper to stop him getting a run at it," Hart said. "You can be alongside him and all of a sudden, he breaks a tackle and is in space, even though you have done everything you could.
"He is one of those special players who doesn't need any space to cut you up."
So what is Judd to do? His club has complained to the AFL and gotten no response. His team-mates are prepared to throw their weight around but are restricted by what they can get away with.
Eagles coach John Worsfold insists Judd is working through the problem but his output against the Kangaroos suggested otherwise.
The Australian yesterday contacted two former players on different sides of the tagging debate. Unfortunately for Judd, their only consensus was there is no easy answer.
Sydney's Brownlow Medal winner Paul Kelly went through similar periods in his career and recalled instances where his frustration with taggers resulted in suspension.
He said lashing out at taggers is counter-productive.
"You try not to show it," Kelly explained. "If blokes know they can get to you, they will continue to niggle you.
"You can belt him obviously, but that is not a good option. You have just got to stay focused and get the footy. You can yell out to the umpire but that generally just makes things worse. It does annoy you, but you have just got to keep going.
"I used to find what weakness the tagger has. If he wasn't great near goal I used to take him up forward. If they weren't overly quick I would try to get a block and sprint forward. Sometimes I would go back and put it on the tagger to start thinking about getting the footy himself."
Hart, a triple premiership player and Norm Smith medallist, regularly performed tagging duties for the Lions.
"What he is doing is absolutely the right thing," he said. "He has got to get on the front foot with it and let blokes know that if they are going to cheat off him, he is not going to make it easy," Hart said.
"The guys I'd rather play on are the ones who don't do anything about it. They just concede. It is so easy to win the battle when an opponent concedes. You have just got to make sure you don't go past the point where your team will suffer or your own game will suffer."
The only certainty is that the Brisbane Lion who has flown 3590km to play on Judd will have watched the best of Baker and worst of Rawlings and compiled his own list of things to do. The umpires will watch carefully and see nothing. And the rest will be up to Judd.
