\u2018Go after him\u2019: Inside Pies\u2019 Nasiah plan as McRae reveals meeting that sparked AFL ambush<\/a><\/p>\nOn 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.<\/p>\n
So how do you try and stop or contain it? <\/p>\n
Collingwood has handled it as well as any club when its own superstar, Nick Daicos, has drawn attention. <\/p>\n
Pretty much from day one, Nick has been getting some version of attention by the opposition.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s shown he can combat the tag by changing up his starting position \u2014 he can go to half forward, sit behind the football and at stoppages he\u2019s really strategic about where he starts and finishes. <\/p>\n
But what his teammates have done to some success over Nick\u2019s journey is they\u2019ve tried to protect him \u2014 physically and verbally \u2014 against the opposition and particularly his direct tagger.<\/p>\n
What that does for Nick is it makes him feel supported and like he has great connection with his teammates. But there\u2019s also the physical aspect of it where he gets a metre of two or space, which is ultimately all he really needs.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“It’s About to Boil Over!” | 01:04<\/p>\n
This is all foreign to St Kilda right now, given no one has really been tagged for years. <\/p>\n
So Nas\u2019 teammates aren\u2019t probably aware of a couple of things …<\/p>\n
One, how to support someone being terrorised by the opposition.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
I can only imagine there will be a conversation now with Ross Lyon and Robert Harvey, St Kilda\u2019s midfield coach, around the education. To say: \u2018We look after each other and if they go after one of us they go after all of us\u2019.<\/p>\n
Because Nas could feel really isolated.<\/p>\n
There was 80,000-plus at the MCG on Sunday night, yet I feel like there would\u2019ve been moments where Nas felt so lonely like he was on the only person in the stadium.<\/p>\n
Because he was so isolated with some of the physical stuff he was getting into and the ball movement wasn\u2019t flying like it had been in the pre-season and over the back-end of last season.<\/p>\n
But I see this as a great opportunity for the Saints coaching staff and Nas to work through this tag.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a natural journey for any club on the rise much like the journey of an emerging AFL player still finding his way.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a selfishness; you want to play senior football and need to prove yourself and you\u2019re worried about team selection every week.<\/p>\n
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera celebrates a goal (Photo by Michael Willson\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Where should St Kilda play NWM? | 00:52<\/p>\n
You need to make sure your performance is up to scratch so you\u2019re not in and out of the team. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
So it\u2019s as much about Nas\u2019 coaches and teammates helping him as it is him working his way through it.<\/p>\n
Yet many of those Saints players are still forging their own path.<\/p>\n
For example, Mattaes Phillipou is back after missing a lot of football. He\u2019s getting more midfield time and learning his own craft and still trying to beat his direct opponent.<\/p>\n
Hugo Garcia\u2019s sole focus was to stop an opposition player, let alone try and help his own.<\/p>\n
Sam Flanders was playing his first game for the club and making sure he\u2019s doing what he was recruited for.<\/p>\n
So too, Tom De Koning, who made his Saints debut in front of over 80,000 fans after huge speculation all of last year.<\/p>\n
So maybe you can understand why they struggled collectively to quell the Nas tag when you break it down player by player.<\/p>\n
Despite that, I\u2019m confident that Nas has the support network around him moving forward. <\/p>\n
Robert Harvey was tagged his whole career, not many people in the game know more about being tagged than him. <\/p>\n
Ross Lyon has been through this multiple times when you think about the players he\u2019s coached including Nat Fyfe.<\/p>\n
And if I was new captains Cal Wilkie and Jack Sinclair, I\u2019d want to make a stand in supporting a teammate and communicate that really clearly this week. <\/p>\n
You know what\u2019s really hard when you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s multiple people from different parts of the program that will sill say: \u2018Hey, we\u2019re here for ya\u2019.<\/p>\n
This will only make Nas a better player overall and further mould him into the superstar he\u2019ll become. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every AFL superstar has to deal with getting tagged at some stage of their career. This is simply…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,16716,124501,263105,19061,10133,3499,2105,263104,69035,36839,263103,263102,263100,647,7198,15674,63396,13152,677,263107,8015,263099,38194,12127,263101,218314,262076,19545,49776,113642,1124,85,1122,26889,263106,192922,52906,263098,1117,660],"class_list":["post-529535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ball-movement","tag-cal-wilkie","tag-cameron-ling","tag-coaching-staff","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-daniel-pockett","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-halfback-flanker","tag-hugo-garcia","tag-jack-sinclair","tag-learning-experiences","tag-learning-opportunity","tag-life-looks","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-willson","tag-midfield-time","tag-nick-dal","tag-nick-dal-santo","tag-oceania","tag-off-the-charts-statement","tag-opposition-player","tag-opposition-v","tag-pay-packet","tag-report-card","tag-rival-blueprint","tag-robert-harvey","tag-ross-weighs-in","tag-saints","tag-sam-flanders","tag-senior-football","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-st-kilda-saints","tag-support-network","tag-tall-poppy-syndrome","tag-team-selection","tag-teammates-helping","tag-tom-de-koning","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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