Do we protect Hodge enough?

[Hodgepodge]

Much noise has been made recently about Carlton's reluctance to 'protect' Judd from his taggers.

Having watched the Collingwood/Saints game earlier in the year, I was impressed by how the Pies were able to put Clinton Jones off his game and turn him into a fumbling mess just by putting a bit of contact onto him when he was tagging Didak.

So we know it can be done.

Should our midfield group be putting time into Hodgey's taggers? It'll probs be Liam Picken this week.

 

[Pessimistic]

One good thing about the hawks is we dont have discreet "ball players" and "taggers"

The duties get shared round

 

[owenkraveki]

unlike judd and didak, luke hodge has a penis

 

[Fear0411]

unlike judd and didak, luke hodge has a penis

this

and i dont mind if hodge gets tagged because sewell and mitchell and lewis usually get free and do some damage then

 

[hawks_time]

All those saying we can cover him and stuff, that's all well and good by why not just protect him a bit and then we can add Hodge back to that list? I, too, would like to see some tagging of the tagger, when the ball is dead and around packs, stick up for the 1 man that has been there for us all year.

 

[Hawk-in-syd]

No we don't. When he's being tagged I think the players think he's tuff enough to look after himself but that is just BS. Most times if the opposition puts a hard tag on Hodge or Mitchell they go missing. Watch the cats and see how they protect jnr. Just need to lay a few blocks to give em space. Its one of those 1% that we do better when everything is going well. Haven't really seen it since 08.

 

[Gold Member]

In all fairness we should be protecting the opposition from Hodge.

 

[TBoyleSuperstar]

I don't think we do, in fact I think we are crap at protecting any of our players that are getting tagged. Mitchell, Hodge and Bateman are prime examples of guys that when they are tagged can drift right out of the game. It's these times we should be hepling them out as all 3 are key members of our midfield and for us to push for the flag, need them up and running all the time.

 

[Jaeger]

No we don't.

 

[killerspud]

Hodge doesn't need protecting - I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to do what Baker did to Johnson as Hodge is far too smart - he will wait until the perfect moment and quietly get revenge then wait for the the tagger to retaliate in front of an ump and win a free. And as others have pointed out with all th attention on Hodge leaves Sewell, Mitchell, Burgoyne etc loose to run riot.


Having said that does anyone remember a game years and years ago against an early brisban bears outfit when tagger Johnny Gustav was making life a bit difficult for Johnny Platten??? I do recall a gentleman by the name of Gary Ayers went over and stood in the way of Gustav and I don't think he bothered the rat again

Sheedy always had a player in his teams for the express purpose of "breaking the tag" - this player knew he would only play a few crucial games a year and miss quite a few weeks at the tribunal, those were the days

 

[macdaddio]

I have been thinking about that lately too, but after what happened to Baker i dont think you will see that kind of stuff any more, but maybe we could off got some onto Welsh last week to free up Hodge..

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

I'm a little confused about this "protection" for midfielders caper. What about the treatment key forwards get? They cop it week in week out and not a word, but the moment pretty boy Judd cops some treatment everyone starts screaming. When I played, I copped at least one full blooded punch to the back of the head in marking contests each week.

Why do people accept key forwards getting held, pushed, shoved, etc, but think midfielders should be allowed to run around like an unregistered dog?

 

[macdaddio]

I'm a little confused about this "protection" for midfielders caper. What about the treatment key forwards get? They cop it week in week out and not a word, but the moment pretty boy Judd cops some treatment everyone starts screaming. When I played, I copped at least one full blooded punch to the back of the head in marking contests each week.

Why do people accept key forwards getting held, pushed, shoved, etc, but think midfielders should be allowed to run around like an unregistered dog?

Didnt they bring in the hands in the back rule to help forwards? but what rule they should bring in is that you cant play 2 defenders on 1 forward and then Buddy can kicked 10-20 goals per game...

 

[Fluro Boots]

In all fairness we should be protecting the opposition from Stratton.

efa.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

we cant protect any player.. we are "unsociable" hawks, and get penalised way harder then other teams.... imagine, 9 weeks for protecting a player... do we want that? we need to be men and deal with it and play the ball

 

[TimmehJC"]

Didnt they bring in the hands in the back rule to help forwards? but what rule they should bring in is that you cant play 2 defenders on 1 forward and then Buddy can kicked 10-20 goals per game...

I think Richo and Buddy have shown that the hands in the back rule helps defenders at least as much. It is a rule that helps the weaker, out of position player. It's absolute garbage.

Biggest problem in AFL footy is we have different rules for different positions. Its amazing what ruckmen get away with (and even more amazing when they ping them). Dean Cox at a boundry throw in is the clearest exponant of push in the back you'll ever want to see. Do the same around the ground, free kick.

 

[Hawk-in-syd]

Hodge doesn't need protecting - I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to do what Baker did to Johnson as Hodge is far too smart - he will wait until the perfect moment and quietly get revenge then wait for the the tagger to retaliate in front of an ump and win a free. And as others have pointed out with all th attention on Hodge leaves Sewell, Mitchell, Burgoyne etc loose to run riot.

Hodge doesn't need protecting from the baker type aggro, he can cope with that. What he and mitchell need help with is the heavy tag from the like of ling, corns, kirk etc. When they are tagged they struggle unlike guys like ablett. Part of it is because ablett/judd have the pace to burn off a tag but in abletts case his teamates block far more than the hawks, this gives him that half meter break to get free.

Anyone who thinks we do enough of this doesn't watch the stoppages closely enough. I watch the cats every week(my misus is a cats supporter) and they do it Waaaaay better than us.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

I think Richo and Buddy have shown that the hands in the back rule helps defenders at least as much. It is a rule that helps the weaker, out of position player. It's absolute garbage.

Biggest problem in AFL footy is we have different rules for different positions. Its amazing what ruckmen get away with (and even more amazing when they ping them). Dean Cox at a boundry throw in is the clearest exponant of push in the back you'll ever want to see. Do the same around the ground, free kick.

100% spot on the mark. Back in the early 70s and before that, the only contact ruckmen were allowed to make were with their bodies. If they pushed or grabbed an opposition ruckmen, it was penalised. Then along came Justin Madden who began shoving opposition ruckmen out of the way, then the grabbing and grappling, to the ugly wrestling matches we see in today's footy.

We now also see the ridiculous tactic of ruckmen such as Sandilands who take their eye of the ball after it is bounced, focus on their opponent and then slam straight into them. It's still illegal, always has been, but for some reason the idiots in white never pay it.

As to the positions aspect, I've always wanted to know why most free kicks are given across half back. The same free at half back is not a free at full forward. I'm still combing the rule book to see where this is written.