Not every team has a Marcus Bontempelli. Some teams don’t like Whitfield racking up 30 uncontested possessions at half-back—hence, the tagger. These blokes sacrifice their own game to stick to opposition stars like cheap suits. While I can see their value in winning a game of footy, there’s nothing worse as a fantasy coach than watching your star player get blanketed while your Fantasy team gets slowly strangled to death.
So, with that in mind, today I’ll look at each team, their taggers, and whether they’re a real threat—or a Blue Baggers-level threat to the flag (read as: the Baggers will continue to not be flaggers).
It’s important to note that tags generally come in the form of a midfield role rather than other positions, though it’s certainly something to consider—except in the ruck?
Credit for the stats goes to DFS Australia—these guys do great work. All scores are in AFL Fantasy format. These stats look back on past years, but I’ll also factor in potential changes for 2025.
AFL Teams and Their Taggers - Taggers or Baggers
Adelaide Crows
Over the last two years under Nicks, the Crows haven’t been aggressive with tagging. Despite their lacklustre performances, they’ve been happy to let opposition stars run wild.
When they have tagged, they’ve turned to Keays, Murphy, and Berry, but none have locked down the role or done a marvellous job. When they have tried, they’ve struggled to slow down stars—see Scott Pendlebury (105), Josh Dunkley (140), Lachie Neale (143), Nic Martin (97), and Zach Merrett (109) all copping some attention but still getting their numbers.
That said, the Crows have brought in James Peatling and Alex Neal-Bullen, both of whom have shown they can do a solid job when asked. Keep an eye on them, especially if Nicks starts fearing for his job.
Verdict: Baggers
Play your stars against Adelaide without fear—until Nicks looks like he’s about to get sacked, then Peatling or ANB might shift roles.
Brisbane Lions
As a rule, the Lions haven’t needed to tag. When you’ve got their midfield depth, coming off a flag, and access to star kids yearly at no cost—why would you?
On the two occasions they did tag, Jarrod Berry actually did a great job, holding Steele to -32.6 and Bontempelli to -12.9 from their averages.
Verdict: Flaggers
They aren’t tagging. But if the season goes sideways and Berry starts playing more, just watch what he’s doing.
Carlton
Carlton tagged a lot in 2024—but true to form, they weren’t great at it. They tagged defenders, forwards, and mids.
Their main taggers were Cincotta and Kennedy. Kennedy is gone, and Cincotta has a significant injury delay for 2025, but given the 2024 trend (a tag of some kind from Rounds 9–22), I think they’ll do it again. Hewett could step up for midfield tags again, but I expect another player to emerge in a role similar to Cincotta’s.
Verdict: The Baggers are actually taggers
In 2024, 8/14 tagged players scored under their average. Expect Carlton to give it a crack again in 2025 as they fight for finals.
Collingwood
Collingwood introduced a tagger in Round 22 as they pushed for finals. Their man? Steele Sidebottom. And he was effective.
In just three tags, he produced three significant negative results:
Errol Gulden: -37.8
Lachie Neale: -13.3
Jack Viney: -33.4
Sidebottom was once a superstar, aided by his elite running. Now, he’s turned to the dark side, shutting down our stars.
Verdict: Taggers
If Collingwood is touch-and-go for finals late in the season and Sidebottom starts tagging, fade against him.
Essendon
The Dons are all about making love, not war—and holidays in September. they don't love the AFL Teams and Their Taggers vibes.
They won’t be making any deep finals runs, so I think they’ll continue their tag-free ways. They had a dabble in 2024 with Heeney, and he still went 117 for the round.
Verdict: Baggers
Fremantle
It’s been a while since 2023, when Hayden Young was deployed as a tagging midfielder (which, by the way, cost me a spot in our home league draft grandfinal).
With the hype surrounding Freo’s midfield in 2025, I expect them to back themselves at the contest rather than lose a player to tagging.
Verdict: Baggers
But if finals get close, they could shift strategies—watch this space.
Gold Coast
In 2023, the Suns even tagged first-year players (see: Harry Sheezel). But under Dimma in 2024, we saw none of that pettiness.
Dimma will likely continue backing his growing midfield talent in 2025. The caution? Nick Holman—if he plays a forward tag role, Lachie Whitfield types could be in danger.
Verdict: Baggers
I’ll roll until I see otherwise.
Geelong
The Cats have experimented with different taggers, but Mark Blicavs has been their go-to.
Cue AFL commentator: Did you know he was a steeplechaser?
Despite his athleticism, he hasn’t been particularly effective—Gulden dropped a 151 on him. Geelong tried tagging more early in 2024 but moved away from it later in the season.
Verdict: Baggers
They might tag, but their midfield structure makes them more of a general defensive unit rather than targeting individuals.
Greater Western Sydney
The Giants’ tagging in 2024 was ferocious—it put fear into fantasy coaches everywhere.
Of the 14 players they tagged, only one went more than five points above their average.
Toby Bedford, is the Tag King of the AFL, he absolutely shut down:
Butters
Walsh
Anderson
Day
Gulden
Neale (twice!)
Peatling also did some jobs, but he’s moved on for 2025.
Verdict: Taggers
Toby Bedford will ruin our weekends. Fade and fade hard against GWS.
Hawthorn
Hawthorn’s tagging approach significantly changed under Sam Mitchell.
In 2023, Nash and McGuinness tagged most weeks.In 2024, as the team developed, Mitchell backed his own midfield, and tagging was significantly reduced.
McGuinness was the main tagger, applying five significant tags in his 13 games. Except for Sam Flanders (who dropped a 125 on him), he was effective—curtailing Oliver, Sheezel, Daicos, and Heeney.
Notably, in finals against the Bulldogs, Connor Nash held Bontempelli to -33 from his average.
Verdict: Taggers-
They tagged early, stopped mid-year, then resumed in finals. Watch for trends.
Melbourne
I think Melbourne could be a shambles in 2025. No matter how ripped Clarry gets, I think they’ll struggle.
That said, they don’t think this—they believe they’re a finals team.
Despite barely tagging in the last two years (Daicos and Merrett are the only ones who copped it), I think this changes in 2025. I believe they’ll back their mids early, but as they lose games and slide down the ladder, someone will get a tagging role.
Who? No clue. Neal-Bullen is gone to the Crows, and McVee got towelled up by Daicos in Round 24.
Verdict: Baggers… for now. Expect them to start tag-free but potentiallyend the year as taggers.
North Melbourne
Let’s make this short and simple: If you see Will Phillips on a team sheet in 2025, he’s there to do a job.
Too many have gone past him in North’s midfield, and too many more are coming. If he plays, he’s tagging.
Verdict: Taggers
If Phillips is named, he’s tagging—and he’s good at it.
Port Adelaide
Don’t play Tom Stewart vs Port.
Now that that’s out of the way—Willem Drew has been Port’s main tagger. However, he doesn’t follow players everywhere; he more tags at the contest instead.
His impact? Decent. Most stars he tags drop about -10 points from their average.
Drew is currently recovering from plantar fascia surgery, and Josh Carr (a former tagger himself) is transitioning into the head coach role.
Does Carr follow the advice of Kane Cornes (another Port tagging legend) and continue using taggers? Or does he back in the AFL’s best young midfield trio (Butters, Rozee, and JHF)?
Verdict: Baggers… I think.
I lean towards them backing in their own mids, but with a new coach who used to tag, this is a watch-and-see situation.
Richmond
They are going to get smashed in 2025.
There will be some horrific games (for them great for us). Jack Graham, who did a couple of jobs in 2024, is gone.
Sometimes coaches give younger players tagging jobs as a learning experience—expect that in 2025.
Will it be effective? No clue. Can a kid really stop a star? We’ll see.
Verdict: Baggers… for now.
They’ll probably tag, but until I see a real threat, I won’t hesitate to play stars and a alot of them gainst Richmond.
St Kilda
It’s Ross Lyon—players are getting tagged.
The guy to watch? Marcus Windhager.
He’s good at it and also Ross will tag against all teams even likely to tag against bottom teams, meaning:
Taranto
Whoever is still walking at West Coast
A North Melbourne mid
…will cop it.
I also think he’ll tag more in 2025 than his six jobs in 2024, especially with the Saints’ mounting injury list.
As they slide down the ladder, expect Lyon to get more defensive and try to suffocate teams.
Verdict: Taggers A big team to watch for tags in 2025. Lets just hope they don’t roll a defensive forward tag.
Sydney
New coach. Gun midfield depth.
We all thought James Jordan was the great white hope of our teams with #MoreMidfieldTime.
Turns out - Nope. He became a defensive forward, completing job after job on opposition stars, And he was effective.
Sydney tagged half-backs more than any other team in 2024:
Whitfield (tagged 3x, all for negative returns)
J. Clark (tagged 2x)
Tom Stewart (tagged once)
Dale Was tagged until Richards got off the chain.
Verdict: Taggers - New coach might change this, but until I see it… if Sydney plays GWS, Whitfield gets a week off in my squad.
Western Bulldogs
The Dogs back their midfield guns against anyone.
It’s the one thing we can be happy about with Luke Beveridge.
Verdict: Baggers They don’t tag. Enjoy.
West Coast
Like Richmond, it’s going to get ugly in 2025.
Another new coach, another huge rebuild phase.
Verdict: Baggers
The matchup is too good to stress about. I’ll wait until I see a body of work proving they can hold a single player to a subpar score.
Final Thoughts
Tagging is a huge factor in Fantasy, and some teams are way more dangerous than others.
If you take one thing away from this, let it be this:
GWS (Toby Bedford) and St Kilda (Windhager) are the biggest tag threats.
Carlton & Collingwood are on tag watch.
If Will Phillips is named for North, he’s tagging.
Melbourne, Port, and Sydney are wildcard teams to monitor.
Enjoy your stars—until they get shut down at the worst possible time.
Cheers,
The Goal Practitioner
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Post the code and who you got in the comments if you solve it
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