Geelong were quite good at doing this in their last premiership year and were still doing it quite effectively the last couple of years. Haven't watched them enough this year to see if they still do it.
It makes sense to play the percentages. At the moment it doesn't look pretty because some of the tackling is pretty average. Like you said, just a bear hug. There are times when a bad tackle is made and the ball gets out easily. Tutt does it a fair bit. His tackling while running is excellent, but from a more or less stationary position it's not so great. Needs to learn how to twist them up a bit and use leverage to take them down. Wallis also does the same bear hug thing where all he does it hang off them but doesn't put them off balance. If the player is strong it won't do anything. Players like Picken and Boyd are very good at stationary tackles. I've even seen Jones get a few nice trips in. I remember a few years ago (while Everitt was still at the Dogs) they were doing Judo in the preseason. I wonder if they still do some form of grappling to assist with the tackling.
They don't need to be olympic calibre freestyle wrestlers, but a little more than just hanging off a guy who can easily take their weight isn't enough most of the time.
