Every AFL superstar has to deal with getting tagged at some stage of their career. This is simply what Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera’s life looks like now.
But Ross Lyon has a saying; forearmed is forewarned. They’ve had the warning and now know what to expect next time.
Nas and the Saints should take what happened against Harry Perryman and Collingwood on Sunday night as a huge learning opportunity.
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It’s a compliment to get tagged, as hard as it is. The opposition is basically saying we have to stop you — and nearly solely you — for us to win the game.
You need to accept that this person running around with you has little interest in chasing the football and that changes the whole dynamic.
They’re following you around like a caravan, they just tow behind you and whatever you do, they’re basically step for step.
And it worked on Sunday night.
Collingwood negated Nas and they beat St Kilda as a whole in front of the biggest home and away crowd St Kilda has ever experienced.
Sure, it was only Opening Round. But the evidence after one game is that it worked. And Nas is in some small way stoppable after last year’s heroics.
There’s no doubt we live in a society in Australia of ‘tall poppy syndrome’, and Nas was really tall last year.
That’s everything. From the way he played as an All-Australian for the first time, starting as a halfback flanker and dominating in the midfield.
Then obviously the pay packet and the storyline that came with the Saints re-signing him for another two years.
I reckon Collingwood would’ve verbally used everything they’re allowed to say to remind him of all those things to try and find a way to mentally wear him down.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera wrestles with Harry Perryman (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
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On the back of that, Nasiah, his teammates and the Saints need to accept this new reality; this is what life looks like now and will for a long time.
So how do you try and stop or contain it?
Collingwood has handled it as well as any club when its own superstar, Nick Daicos, has drawn attention.
Pretty much from day one, Nick has been getting some version of attention by the opposition.
He’s shown he can combat the tag by changing up his starting position — he can go to half forward, sit behind the football and at stoppages he’s really strategic about where he starts and finishes.
But what his teammates have done to some success over Nick’s journey is they’ve tried to protect him — physically and verbally — against the opposition and particularly his direct tagger.
What that does for Nick is it makes him feel supported and like he has great connection with his teammates. But there’s also the physical aspect of it where he gets a metre of two or space, which is ultimately all he really needs.
I remember one of my early learning experiences when I was getting tagged by Cameron Ling. As soon as I broke away from the Ling tag and got some space, Geelong was so disciplined as a team that the next teammate would step across and borderline tag me until Ling could get back to me.
It was no longer a one v one contest, it was the opposition v me. I respected their discipline, willingness and selflessness to do whatever it took to beat the opposition.
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This is all foreign to St Kilda right now, given no one has really been tagged for years.
So Nas’ teammates aren’t probably aware of a couple of things …
One, how to support someone being terrorised by the opposition.
And two, when to support them, exactly what that looks like and understanding how it helps your player and one of the best players in the competition.
I can only imagine there will be a conversation now with Ross Lyon and Robert Harvey, St Kilda’s midfield coach, around the education. To say: ‘We look after each other and if they go after one of us they go after all of us’.
Because Nas could feel really isolated.
There was 80,000-plus at the MCG on Sunday night, yet I feel like there would’ve been moments where Nas felt so lonely like he was on the only person in the stadium.
Because he was so isolated with some of the physical stuff he was getting into and the ball movement wasn’t flying like it had been in the pre-season and over the back-end of last season.
But I see this as a great opportunity for the Saints coaching staff and Nas to work through this tag.
It’s a natural journey for any club on the rise much like the journey of an emerging AFL player still finding his way.
There’s a selfishness; you want to play senior football and need to prove yourself and you’re worried about team selection every week.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera celebrates a goal (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
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You need to make sure your performance is up to scratch so you’re not in and out of the team.
It’s a huge challenge to push that individuality to the side for the greater good of the team and maybe at the detriment of your own performance, but knowing it could help get a win.
So it’s as much about Nas’ coaches and teammates helping him as it is him working his way through it.
Yet many of those Saints players are still forging their own path.
For example, Mattaes Phillipou is back after missing a lot of football. He’s getting more midfield time and learning his own craft and still trying to beat his direct opponent.
Hugo Garcia’s sole focus was to stop an opposition player, let alone try and help his own.
Sam Flanders was playing his first game for the club and making sure he’s doing what he was recruited for.
So too, Tom De Koning, who made his Saints debut in front of over 80,000 fans after huge speculation all of last year.
So maybe you can understand why they struggled collectively to quell the Nas tag when you break it down player by player.
Despite that, I’m confident that Nas has the support network around him moving forward.
Robert Harvey was tagged his whole career, not many people in the game know more about being tagged than him.
Ross Lyon has been through this multiple times when you think about the players he’s coached including Nat Fyfe.
And if I was new captains Cal Wilkie and Jack Sinclair, I’d want to make a stand in supporting a teammate and communicate that really clearly this week.
You know what’s really hard when you’re getting tagged? To actually ask for help. I always thought it came across as a little bit selfish. So the one who would find it the toughest to ask for help is Nas himself.
But there’s multiple people from different parts of the program that will sill say: ‘Hey, we’re here for ya’.
This will only make Nas a better player overall and further mould him into the superstar he’ll become.