North Melbourne will regret their decision to sub off young Will Phillips, Fox Footy’s Leigh Montagna believes, after the Roos coughed up the seventh biggest comeback in AFL history on Sunday.
Phillips had been given the job tagging Magpies star Nick Daicos – and restricted the young gun to 19 disposals to three quarter time before coach Alastair Clarkson made the call with his side up by 31 points.
With Phillips taken from the game in a tactical move, Daicos tore new opponent Liam Shiels apart to finish “the difference” between the two sides in Collingwood’s thrilling one-point win.
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“They lost this one in the coaches box with the decision to sub out Will Phillips at three quarter time after he did the tagging job on Nick Daicos and was doing a really good job for three quarters,” Montagna said on Fox Footy’s First Crack.
“They wanted to bring Jaidyn Stephenson in to the game. They subbed out this kid (Phillips) and I think it had a massive bearing on this game.
“We know coaches live and die by the decisions they make – and sometimes they get it wrong.
“I think they’ll look back and they’ll regret this decision.”
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Clarkson was asked to explain the tactical call in his post-match press conference and admitted to taking a “punt” with the sub move.
“We had the freshness of the sub and Wil was starting to fatigue a little bit,” he said.
“But yeah, when you don’t win you sit there and say ‘Oh geez, was that pivotal?’ I don’t think that was pivotal in terms of the final result but we just wanted to use the freshness of our sub.
“We just thought the fresh legs would help us in the last part of the game.”
Montagna said he understood the decision to bring on Stephenson’s fresh legs – but not at the expense of Phillips.
“They had two rucks. They had Toby Pink. They had Kallan Dawson and Aidan Corr in defence – they had a lot of other options if they wanted to get more run into the game in the last quarter,” he said.
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“But Will Phillips went out and all of a sudden they put Liam Shiels onto Nick Daicos and he stepped up when the game was there to be won. (Daicos’) fourth quarter as unbelievable. His will to win, his work rate, his intensity just stood out – they couldn’t contain him.
“(Shiels) just did not have the leg speed to go with him.
“Daicos put them to the sword.
“We know Will Phillips has the competitiveness and he’s got that character that I think even if he was fatigued, he could have got the job done.”
In the final quarter alone, Daicos had 10 touches compared to Shiels’ two, five contested possessions to two and three goal assists to zero.
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“He ran amok. I think they’ll look back and think we probably made the wrong decision there,” Montagna said.
“He was the difference in the fourth quarter.”
Phillips’ future at North Melbourne remains up in the air, with the former pick 3 reportedly assessing his options after battling away in the VFL before he was called up for the clash with Collingwood.