Port Adelaide Hall of Famer Kane Cornes has named his top five taggers.
Following the retirement of GWS defensive midfielder Matt de Boer earlier in the week, the former Power star wanted to pay tribute to the best of the caper.
Cornes, who played 300 games for Port, was also one of the greatest taggers of the 21st century.
“Matt De Boer has retired and he was a player I greatly admired for him going after the best player from the opposition, (he) had an incredible job,” Cornes said on SEN Breakfast.
“Credit to Finn Maginness (Hawthorn) and Ryan Clarke from Sydney for trying to keep a little flicker of a flame there for the tagger (in recent weeks).”
“But congratulations to Matt de Boer.”
See Cornes’ top five below.
Special mentions: Liam Picken, Steven Baker, Ryan Crowley, Ed Curnow, Jarrad McVeigh, Nathan Van Berlo
5. Brady Rawlings (245 games for North Melbourne)
“Three best and fairests for Brady and one of the hardest players to get a kick on.”
4. Josh Carr (207 games for Port Adelaide and Fremantle)
“(I’ve got) a lot of love for Josh Carr, he took on (Michael) Voss and (Mark) Ricciuto and was not afraid to get in the face of those players.
“Josh Carr was an absolute star.”
3. Tony Liberatore (283 games for the Western Bulldogs)
“Won a Brownlow, just an undersized and (spirited player).”
2. Cameron Ling (246 games for Geelong)
“Cameron Ling for his leadership and he’s just really difficult to get a kick on.
“Played on them all, had a great record on Boomer Harvey and I respect anyone with a good record on Boomer because he’s almost impossible to stop.
“Could get heaps of the ball as well but almost sacrificed that area of his game.”
1. Brett Kirk (241 games for Sydney)
“That Sydney team, if you ever went to the SCG and played there, they had about eight taggers.
“(Ben) Mathews, (Jarrad) McVeigh, (Jude) Bolton could do a bit of it, and it was tough to get a kick.
“I just wanted to pay my tributes to those because the art of tagging is dead.”