ADELAIDE defender Graham Johncock says a candid chat with coach Neil Craig during the week helped him break the shackles of a heavy tag in the club’s 44-point win over Melbourne on Sunday.

Johncock has been in rare form this season, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the Crows coaching staff when Hawthorn assigned forward Beau Muston the job of nullifying the running half-back when the two sides met at Launceston before the mid-season break.

Muston held Johncock to a season low 11 possessions, prompting Craig to shift the 27-year-old into attack.

The Dees copied Hawthorn’s tactics at AAMI Stadium on Sunday, sending medium forward Lynden Dunn to Johncock, but this time the creative defender was given a license to work through the tag.

Johncock finished with a season-high 32 possessions, six marks and a goal in a near-best-on-ground performance and after the game said he felt better prepared to handle close attention from the opposition.

“I seem to get tagged every so often when Andrew McLeod or someone like that is not playing and teams try and stifle our run from down back. I had a bit of experience with being tagged against Hawthorn and Craigy moved me up forward straight away, so I spoke to him during the week and asked that if I got tagged again to let me deal with it a little bit more,” Johncock said.

“I had a chat to some of the guys, who get tagged regularly like Simon Goodwin and Andrew and they told me just to be strong with it because it’s the tagger’s job to stop me obviously. They gave me some tips like trying to go to another opposition player and try and stick with them to make it a 2-on-1.

“I thought I handled it okay when Lynden Dunn came to me today and hopefully the more I get tagged the better I’ll get at dealing with it.”

Adelaide started poorly against the Hawks in round 12 and appeared keen to make amends against the Dees on Sunday.

The Crows kicked nine of the first 12 goals to lead by 41 points at half time and survived a third-quarter scare to run out 44-point winners.

Johncock said Adelaide’s want and desire in the opening stanza had set the tone for the rest of the game.

“[Melbourne coach] Dean Bailey put it out there during the week that Melbourne needed to get off to a fast start because their form and record over here hasn’t been that good of late,” he said.

“We knew that if we matched or bettered them in that area it would go a long way to helping us win the game and to the boys credit we were able to do that and stick with it.”