The effectiveness of Port Adelaide’s tag on star defender Tom Stewart last Friday night has sparked concern for the five-time All-Australian, with experts predicting further unwanted attention will come his way.
For the third match in less than 12 months, Port Adelaide sent pressure forward Jed McEntee to minimise the impact of Stewart – and not for the first time, with great success.
McEntee held the co-captain to a season-low six intercept disposals (excluding Round 6 where he was concussed), with his constant pressure also playing a part in Stewart’s lowest output for disposal efficiency this year.
Having been recognised as an All-Australian five times in the last six years, Stewart’s influence as an intercept defender is widely documented.
However, Port Adelaide’s success in nullifying his output across two of their last three matchups has left some former AFL champions encouraging other sides to take a leaf out of the Power’s playbook.
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Speaking on Fox Footy’s First Crack, St Kilda great Leigh Montagna broke down Stewart’s response to the tag after multiple encounters with McEntee.
“They’ve done this in the past haven’t they Port Adelaide, and they’ve had real success,” Montagna said.
“The understanding coming out of Geelong is Tom Stewart doesn’t like this; he likes being able to control things on his own terms, and when he doesn’t – it makes life difficult for him.”
Two-time North Melbourne premiership player David King then explained how the Power forward was able to successfully execute the tough matchup.
“Just have a look at what he does – he’s (McEntee) twisting, he’s bending him, he’s just delaying him getting to that contest time and time again,” King said.
“He’s an intercept player, he wants the ball Tom – he wants to go after those high balls coming in.
“When they moved him to the wing, there was a concession that ‘you’ve got us, you’ve actually had a win with this tactic’ – he got frustrated, he gave away 50’s.”
Stewart’s movement to a wing came during the second term, with the 31-year-old subsequently held to just two disposals for the quarter.
Stewart was still able to find the ball 18 times on Friday night, however three of those came from kick-ins and several were while McEntee was off the ground.
Finishing his analysis on the match-up, King stressed that if last Friday was anything to go by – as an opposition coach he would be clamping down on Stewart every round going forward.
“To me, I look at this and I say ‘good luck with this going forward Tom, this is going to happen every week,” – because it has an impact on him personally, and a massive impact on them as a team,” King exclaimed.
“It’ll work for every team… if they’ve got a player that’s diligent enough to stick to role and stick to task, I think Tom Stewart is in for a difficult next 15 weeks.”
McEntee, a chronically underrated player across the competition, will have by no means caught the attention of observers when scrolling through his weekly stat line.
To the eagle eye though, his work off the ball both regularly nullifies the impact of his direct opponent, as well as allowing the likes of their tall forwards and Willie Rioli to focus more on their offensive output.
It is also no secret the former Sturt player is rated highly internally, with senior coach Ken Hinkley and forward coach Chad Cornes regularly defending the selfless role he plays.
Across his 39 AFL games to date, the 23-year-old has kicked 21 goals – showing when his role allows for it, he can also hit the scoreboard.
Former Melbourne Demon Gary Lyon also provided his thoughts on the matchup via Fox Footy’s On The Couch on Monday night.
“McEntee goes after Stewart, and plays such a game to the point where – (Stewart) had a better second half, but didn’t have the impact in the first half – (McEntee) was in his grill, and just going to work on him,” Lyon pointed out.
“It’s across the board now that we’re starting to see it (tagging half-backs).”
Lyon also highlighted that in addition to McEntee, Matt Guelfi, Alex Neal-Bullen, and James Jordan have all had notable success in recent weeks run tagging similar types of defenders.
GWS’ Lachie Whitfield was been targeted by Guelfi and Jordan in recent weeks, with the former also locking down James Sicily in Round 1.
Neal-Bullen successfully clamped Port’s own Dan Houston in Round 3.
There’s no doubt Stewart is capable of shaking off future attention from opposition forwards, but it may require a change in plan or extra assistance from his teammates moving forward.
Geelong play Gold Coast in Darwin on Thursday night, with one of Nick Holman or Tom Berry the likely culprits to tag Stewart, should Suns coach Damien Hardwick follow Ken Hinkley’s blueprint.
The Power return to Adelaide Oval this Sunday against Hawthorn, with Connor Rozee, Jordan Sweet and Jase Burgoyne all likely to be available for selection.
Source Agencies
