FOLLOWING West Coast's round one loss, the question on everyone's lips is; stop Ella Roberts, beat the Eagles?

Having won the club's last two best and fairest awards and also named in the All-Australian team in both seasons, Roberts is the obvious target for opposing sides in their preparation to face the Eagles.

In round one, Irish Giant Grace Kòs effectively stemmed the impact of West Coast's barometer, greatly helping Greater Western Sydney to an upset win to kick off the season. And while the likelihood of ever totally stopping Roberts is minimal – she still kicked a stunning goal in the battle – limiting her in key areas is emerging as an important way to best the developing Eagles.

On Sunday, Roberts recorded her fewest disposals (15) since round five, 2023, and fewest metres gained (165) since round four, 2025.

What Kòs did exceptionally well throughout the tag was starve Roberts of outside ball, preventing her from getting any fluency in her game. And the stats bear out – since the beginning of 2025, Roberts averages 3.1 fewer uncontested possessions, 3.2 fewer marks, and 55.2 fewer metres gained in losses compared to wins.

Instead, forcing her into more contested scenarios and making her defend minimises her impact.

Ella Roberts since RD1 2025

For Gold Coast, who looks at its clash with West Coast as a first opportunity to snag a win in 2026, it will surely be considering a tag of its own.

In 2023, now-Suns co-captain Lucy Single broke through as the premier tagger in the AFLW. She perfected the art of stopping a dangerous opponent while also winning her own footy. In that impressive run she bested the likes of Ellie Blackburn, Brianna Davey, and Ebony Marinoff to the point where coaches were forced to move players out of the midfield to catch a break.

Despite having established herself as a Bonafide midfielder in her own right, could Single be set to reprise her tagging role of years gone by?

It could very well be the difference between a win, and a loss for Gold Coast.