Arguably no-one in the history of the AFL has displayed the ability to win the football as much as Tom Mitchell, and senior coach Ross Lyon will consider tasking Bailey Banfield with limiting the star Hawk on Sunday at Optus Stadium.
No-one in the history of the AFL has displayed the ability to win the football as much as Tom Mitchell, and senior coach Ross Lyon will consider tasking Bailey Banfield with limiting the star Hawk on Sunday at Optus Stadium.
Mitchell, who broke the record for the most disposals in a VFL/AFL season in 2017, is leading the total disposal count by 83 this year.
Lyon said some of Mitchell’s ability to accumulate disposals comes from how hard it is to tag him, and didn’t confirm if he will assign that role to Banfield.
“It’s something we’ll look at but (Mitchell’s) hard to stop,” Lyon said.
“He plays very much like his dad (Barry Mitchell). He wins it, fires on, very active, big tank and he’s really tough and smart.
“He’s hard to contain, sometimes you could try and work off him or contain him around the stoppage.
“They’re all things we’re thinking about. It was a challenging match committee.”
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Lyon agreed with a suggestion in Friday’s media conference that playing on Mitchell would be a great learning experience for Banfield.
“Bailey’s played on some great players,” Lyon said.
“If Bailey can play on him he’ll learn a fair bit. (Fellow first-year midfielder) Adam Cerra could go to him to learn about bodywork, reaction and activity around the stoppage and running patterns.
“It’s all a part of their growth.”
Lyon credited the 20-year-old Banfield for his efforts in his debut season, saying the rookie draftee is capable of contributing significantly outside of his tagging role.
“We haven’t (used Banfield as a tagger) every week, he’s played forward in his own right,” Lyon said.
“He went to (Essendon’s) Zach Merrett last week. He was really good for three quarters but Merrett worked off him in the last.
“That’s a bit about conditioning, a bit about his teammates helping him.
“The beauty of Bailey is that we’re not just locking down, Bailey wins his own ball as well.
“He’s one of our higher possession winners and that’s a great attribute to have.”
