This week’s Notebook is a single topic affair, focusing solely on James Jordon’s role tagging Sam Walsh.
Most tags are relatively straight forward. One player follows another around from start to finish, their focus by and large on nullifying a star’s output.
But Jordon’s role had a few fascinating tweaks I hadn’t seen much of recently, making it a topic ripe to dig into.
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In the previous fortnight, Jordon had spent time on Lachie Whitfield and Jordan Clark, creative half backs with a licence to take the game on through kicking, run and carry, or both.
It meant Jordon’s early season rotation as a flexible utility – on-baller/winger/high half forward as required – morphed solely into a forward rotation with a defensive focus.
Both roles were successful, Whitfield and Clark restricted to well below their best albeit in slightly different conditions to standard; the Sydney derby played in the wet and the Fremantle clash played with a club reeling at the news of Cam McCarthy’s passing.
Nevertheless, Jordon played his role as well as possible, which is all that can be asked. But a date with Sam Walsh, a pure midfielder, presented a different challenge.
In theory, when Player A tags Star Midfielder B, it’s expected Player A will spend plenty of time as a starting on-baller, altering their team’s rotations.
But as Sydney’s on-ball rotation settles into a nice groove with Isaac Heeney, James Rowbottom, and Chad Warner as the lead three, Errol Gulden floating in and out from the wing, Taylor Adams and Tom Papley spending second string minutes in there, and Justin McInerney as required, changing it for a solitary, largely defensive matchup arguably brings more risk than reward.
So Jordon didn’t attend one centre bounce against Carlton. That’s right, despite tagging Sam Walsh – who was at 15 of them himself – Jordon didn’t start a single one inside the centre square.
The natural reaction – or mine at least – how can Jordon, starting at half forward, successfully get to Walsh without bending team structures in the interim?
And that’s where the fun starts.
Sometimes it was pretty simple though. From the very first centre bounce, where Rowbottom starts on Walsh…
…Carlton win the clearance and it goes forward for a behind. As teams restructure for the kick in, it provides an easy hand over point.
Even amidst Carlton’s hot start, kicking the first four goals of the game on route to a 26-point lead, there was a glimpse of the sort of movement it appeared Sydney wanted to create.
From the second centre bounce of the game, it’s Warner who starts on Walsh. Jordon’s charge from forward 50 to the Blue creates a little confusion and although a rushed Ollie Florent handball bounces to Matt Kennedy, it’s noticeable the room Warner finds himself in:
Although if anything, the early moments of the game looked like Jordan, and Sydney’s midfield unit, hadn’t quite got the timings right.
In this case, Jordon’s rush into an already congested situation meant Nic Newman had the room to gather a rushed Marc Pittonet kick.
As Sydney settled into the game, extra benefits of this approach materialised.
Naturally when Walsh wasn’t starting in the centre, instead at half forward, Jordon’s role changed a little bit. Sprinting 70+ metres to become part of the defensive rotations was a bridge too far, albeit disappointing to not see happen for comic reasons.
It allowed Jordon to alter his patterns when he knew he wasn’t required to rush up while Walsh played elsewhere. From this centre bounce, as Sydney took advantage of what arguably should have been called back, Jordon hangs back while his starting opponent tries to close on Warner.
It’s the complete opposite of his approach to this point, and Warner recognised the situation to take the short option.
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Although Jordon was nominally part of the starting forward rotations, coming up to the ball had the extra effect of creating extra space forward of the ball for Sydney’s actual forwards.
For some teams, it wouldn’t have mattered too much because extra numbers closer to the ball thwart their chances of getting it into the open.
But for Sydney, currently the best ball movement team in the competition (I said what I said), they were able to make the most of contest wins with immaculate movement patterns.
Take this for instance. Starting from a contest on the defensive side of the wing, Sydney undoubtedly get a little luck with Joel Amartey’s hack off the ground bouncing straight to Heeney.
But from the instant Heeney gathers and dishes, there are Swans forward of the ball, Swans behind the ball, and Swans moving through the corridor.
The movement from all angles leaves Brodie Kemp in a helpless position, forced to choose between backtracking towards Amartey or moving forward to Tom Papley.
Nearly the definition of a lose-lose situation, he gives away a free kick that leads to a Sydney advantage goal.
And perhaps the biggest benefit of Jordon coming up from half forward rather than starting as a midfielder was how it allowed Sydney to continue running their preferred midfield patterns at set plays, retaining flexibility.
Nowhere was it more evident than during the third quarter burst that ended the game as a contest.
When tags are a hard, I’ll-go-where-you-go midfield follow, it usually means something else has to give. In this case, for Sydney – especially at centre bounces – it really didn’t matter whether Walsh and Jordon were on the field, one was off and the other on, or both on the bench.
For this goal, Jordon is on the ground but with Walsh off, there’s no second guessing or hesitation on his role. The Swan slots straight into a regulation half forward spot and his teammates do their thing as a result.
And for the final clip of today’s piece, it’s time to pay off a glimpse we got early in the game.
With everything now rolling for Sydney, their midfielders know whoever is on Walsh at centre bounces has the luxury of rolling forward almost without consequence.
Watch how brazen Warner is here, although it results in a secondary stoppage…
…and that pattern continues shortly after because Warner knows as the ball moves closer to Sydney goal, his matchup becomes a Carlton defender – in this case Jordan Boyd – who’s under the pump as the entire team is under siege.
The mental drain it takes from a Carlton perspective – constant changing of matchups, an opponent on fire – leaves them more susceptible to what look like simple errors on the surface but in reality is a build-up of pressure reaching breaking point.
And it’s a risk-reward calculation for Warner. He doesn’t have to worry about Walsh because that responsibility is taken, his team is also up by a big margin – can Boyd win the ball and hurt him to such an extent it’s worth straying from the area he’s occupying?
Warner calculates the reward is greater than the risk and is, well … rewarded.
All these moving parts mentioned in today’s piece only happen with a team firing on all cylinders, understanding both their own role and the roles of others.
How Sydney approach Jordon’s role in coming weeks will be one to watch, starting with a fascinating conundrum against the Bulldogs on Thursday night.
If Jordon replicates the Walsh role, the Bulldogs have half backs that could sit behind the ball and hurt Sydney more than Carlton’s equivalents in the absence of Adam Saad.
But then if Jordon returns to the defensive forward role that worked so well on Whitfield and Clark, the Bulldogs midfield is in strong form of their own.
Either way, it’d take a brave person to bet against Sydney figuring out the correct approach after their start to 2024.