“When Ross first got to the club,I would always play on a guy like Lachie Neale at training because he was a young guy coming through and he’d be in the second 18 when we were doing match practice,” Crowley said.
“I genuinely think he is pretty good at getting through a tag now because he spent every training session with me hanging off him.”
Marcus Windhager has become an important shutdown midfielder for St Kilda.Credit:AFL Photos
Crowley also has an association with Windhager. He sought out the young Saint after the West Coast game in Perth a fortnight ago to welcome him to the “brethren”. Windhager had just shut down Harley Reid.
“After the game,I saw the whole St Kilda team grabbing dinner and I made a beeline for Marcus and said to him I was glad that he had done a really good job,” Crowley said.
“I was really impressed with the way he did it. He’s got the application and he’s got all the attributes[to be a good tagger].”
Lyon’s return to the coaching realm and the comeback of shutdown players is hardly a coincidence.
“It’s like the mullet,right? Everything comes back into fashion,” Lyon said this week.
“It’s back in,it’s back in. There was the rhetoric that you can’t run a tag,and play team defence.
“Saints,Dockers,we always ran a heavy tag. Geelong had[Cameron] Ling running around. You can certainly play team defence and have a tag.”
It was a hot topic of conversation when Crowley recently caught up with Lyon for a coffee in Perth.
Tagger Ryan Crowley became a vital cog in Fremantle’s midfield under Ross Lyon.Credit:Justin McManus
“I did mention that I find it bizarre that more teams don’t do it,” Crowley said.
“I have always been of the opinion that if the opposition’s best midfielder is not touching the ball as much,I don’t see how that doesn’t help your team win the game. I think we have seen that over the last few weeks.”
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Crowley’s name is synonymous with the show-stopping midfielders of the game. Players at AFL and suburban level still seek him out for advice.
“Whenever a guy has a tagging role,I’ll inevitably get a message,whether it’s on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook or something like that,” Crowley said.
“It’s probably a couple of times a year,I reckon,since I retired that somebody would message me and say,‘I’ve got a tagging role this week,have you got any tips’?”
Crowley passes on the key lesson he learned from Sydney great Brett Kirk when he was an assistant coach at Fremantle.
“When guys are tagging,you sort of get in the mindset that you are following the other guy around,but one of the big things I always say to guys is,‘Play in between them and the ball’,” Crowley said.
“If you get towed around like a caravan,it’s very easy to get blocked. Whereas if you play in between them and the ball,they have got to come through you to get it.”
Ross Lyon has been preaching the return of the tagger.Credit:AFL Photos
Crowley seeks out emerging taggers such as Windhager to offer them encouragement.
“No one gets drafted as a tagger,and not a lot of guys stay in it for the duration of their career like I did,but it is a gateway to getting more experience in the midfield,” he said.
“Even Caleb Serong,from Fremantle,did it a few times early in his career,and we sat down and had a chat about a few tactics and stuff,and I think it has made him a better footballer.”
Ultimately,Crowley believes the victor in the Neale v Windhager match-up will come down to the better teammates.
Good teams block for good players,he said,while on the opposite side of the ledger,a tagger relies on his teammates for cover. Whoever does it best,he said,will win the contest.
So,when push comes to shove,whose side will the ultimate tagger be on?
“I am going to have to say Lachie because he is one of my great mates but,yeah,I hope it is just a great contest.”
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