At 208 centimetres, Sam Darcy is taller than most elite defenders. Throw in the wingspan of an albatross and a willingness to run and jump at the ball, and you have the monster from every backman’s nightmare.
“Feeling for the key defenders who will have to play on Sam Darcy for the next 10+ years #freak,” veteran Melbourne defender Steven May wrote on social media platform X last week.
Sam Darcy is already proving a handful for defences.Credit: Getty Images
May, 33, will not have this worry for too much longer. But how to stop the Western Bulldogs’ rising star will dominate the planning of 17 other clubs well into the next decade.
It did not take long for the hype machine to kick into overdrive after Darcy’s performance in round two, but this might be one of the occasions where hype meets reality.
Thirty games into his career, Darcy, 21, is already in esteemed company. Since the start of last year, he sits top of the tree for average contested marks – above the past three Coleman medallists Jesse Hogan, Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay. St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt and Hogan are the only two younger players to have taken more contested marks at the corresponding stage of their careers.
Last week was the third time Darcy had kicked four or more goals in a game but, significantly, it came on the big stage under Friday night lights and against a top-line opponent in Darcy Moore.
Moore, at 201 centimetres, is as well equipped as any defender to nullify Darcy, but even he had difficulties. The coaches could not separate the young pup from Nick Daicos and Tom Liberatore for influence, giving him eight votes in the AFL Coaches Association award.
So, how do you curtail a giant forward with a long reach, decent leap, the athleticism to also be a threat when the ball hits the ground and the competitiveness to stick tackles?
Darcy’s preparedness to jump and extend his arms to meet the ball make it extremely difficult for opponents to spoil without chopping the arms.
A figure from another club’s football department, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were talking about a rival, said getting more numbers to compete in the air could help.
This, the rival said, would help cloud the picture with more arms and legs, making it harder for umpires to adjudicate – though it would also leave defences more vulnerable to soft drops, which allow small forwards to score or create pressure.
The key, then, is to prevent Darcy from getting a run and jump at the ball, former Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson says. When the game was on the line last week, Moore used his more seasoned frame to wrestle with Darcy, allowing Jeremy Howe to zone off his opponent and take a relieving mark.
With half a minute to go, a well-timed nudge from Moore unbalanced Darcy just before he was to launch at the contest, forcing the forward under the ball. But not all defenders have Moore’s smarts, cultivated over 11 years at the highest level.
“Typically, those guys of that height – he’d have done a lot of ruck training,” Sanderson said of Darcy. “They wrestle, jockey for best position. Even if you try and get body on him before the ball comes to the contest, he’ll probably be stronger than you in a one-v-one fight for best position.
“He’s got you for height, body strength. Any time he gets one on one, it’s going to be lights out, game over.”
In the era of team defence, it’s not all up to a single defender to stop a forward. Pressure up the field leads to imprecise kicks inside 50 that give backs a chance to spoil.
“I think we can acknowledge any defence will break down if we’re not on with our pressure around the ball,” Carlton coach Michael Voss, whose Blues have the job this week of stopping Darcy, said.
“We’ll make it as hard as we can and try and get that ball as high as we possibly can.”
Jeremy Howe and Darcy Moore team up to spoil Sam Darcy.Credit: Getty Images
Slowing down the ball movement gives teams more time to drop a ruckman in the forward’s leading space and other defenders to get back to help, either by spoiling, marking or jumping into Darcy.
“No one likes it,” Sanderson said. “The bigger, skinnier younger guys, if you’re getting repeatedly jumped into by a third-up jumper, that gets pretty tiring. You’re getting bruised and battered.
“This is all great in theory and good on a whiteboard but much harder to execute because he’s a smart player. I can tell he’s been really well coached.”
Not all No.1 defenders get the job on the opposition’s best forward, the thinking among coaches being they can use their most accomplished backman in a more attacking role. Collingwood’s deployment of Moore on Darcy suggests some players must be afforded maximum respect.
The rival football department figure said defenders such as Brisbane’s Harris Andrews, Hawthorn’s Tom Barrass and Fremantle’s Alex Pearce were among the few backmen who had both the height and bodying skills to stop Darcy.
Sanderson said he would give the job this week to All-Australian defender Jacob Weitering, who stands 13 centimetres shorter than Darcy.
“Sometimes you can overthink it,” Sanderson said. “Just put your best defender on him but make sure you have a plan B ready.”
If Weitering can’t get the job done either, then the defender’s nightmare will have become a reality.
“At the moment, it looks like he’s going to be a horror match-up for the opposition,” Sanderson said. “If he stays fit and confident, and the Bulldogs keep getting inside-50s, we’re going to start talking about him winning a Coleman because he’ll be impossible to stop.”
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