Geelong’s Oisin Mullin produced one of the great tagging performances in nullifying Brisbane star Hugh McCluggage, revealing the shutdown instincts come naturally to him.
Labelled the Irish Nick Daicos by Cats captain Patrick Dangerfield before he had even made his AFL debut, 41-gamer Mullin has become a crucial member of Geelong’s premiership push.
In last Friday night’s qualifying-final win over the Lions, Mullin restricted newly minted All-Australian McCluggage to just 14 disposals.
It was the least amount of possessions the Brisbane premiership ace has had in a game since round one, 2023.
Although Mullin was naturally a star in Gaelic football, he still did jobs on keeping the opposition’s best players quiet.
“I did play as a defender back home, I was more of an attacking half-back, but I did end up getting that man-marking role and it’s probably slightly more one-on-one back home as well,” the 25-year-old said.
“That’s what I would have grown up as until I got older and progressed more into that attacking role rather than defending.
“I had that from when I was younger, I wouldn’t have been overly ball-hungry, and I didn’t have the forward instinct too much growing up.
“It was probably easy to kind of transition back into playing that role for the team as a tagger.”
It has been informally dubbed the ‘Irish role’ at Geelong given Mullin’s countryman Mark O’Connor has often had tagging jobs, notably on Lions star Lachie Neale.
“I’m not sure it’s exactly what we want to be stuck labelled as, but it’s definitely something that’s helping the team at the minute,” Mullin said.
“We’re both very happy to do that.”
With Geelong earning the weekend off after securing a 14th preliminary-final appearance in 19 years, Mullin says he will just take in the semi-finals as a fan rather than looking ahead.
If Adelaide win through to play the Cats, Mullin could be sent to Crows captain Jordan Dawson.
But if Hawthorn manage to book a final-four spot then Mullin might be going to in-form Hawks midfielder Jai Newcombe.
Whatever happens, the key Cat won’t overthink his task.
“Don’t make it too complicated,” Mullin said.
“It’s just get told who you’re going to, have a look at their previous games and how they set up, and what positions he might move to and things.
“It happens a lot with tags, teams will try and move around a bit to break the tag or pull apart a system.
“It’s just kind of getting a little idea of where he might end up, but nothing too overly complicated.
“Just shut them down.”
To complete a flawless performance against the Lions, Mullin finally slotted the first goal of his AFL career, mobbed by his Cats teammates.
“There was definitely a few comments here and there from lads,” he said.
“Getting past 40 games and kicking seven behinds from nine shots, two or three out on the full.
“It was definitely becoming a slight inside joke, but happy to squish it and get it off the back.”
