To tag or not to tag- that is the question and Albury has the answer

Broomhead is one of the league's best players, but was largely nullified as Page delivered a near-perfect lockdown game at Albury Sportsground.

"It was the same last year, it's what he does, he runs around and tries to stop people, he was better than me today (Thursday), he beat me," Broomhead acknowledged.

"He follows you around everywhere, that's what they want him to do and he did it well."

Page never allowed the former Collingwood player out of his sight and constantly had physical contact with Broomhead, even when the ball wasn't in the vicinity, although he disciplined enough not to impede the Hoppers' mentor and give away a free kick.

Broomhead moved into defence in the third quarter in an effort to break the 'hard tag'.

However, Page impacted on the scoreboard in the final term when Broomhead spilled a mark and the Tiger grabbed the ball out the back a metre from goal to cut the margin to a point.

There were still 10 minutes remaining and Albury's Mat Walker then kicked the match-winner with two and a half minutes left.

Page won Albury's best player award.

"He (Page) played on him (Broomhead) last year and we thought he did a good job," Tigers' co-coach Shaun Daly explained.

"Tim Broomhead's a superstar of the competition, we know he's a great player and a great coach, if we could negate his influence on the ground as a coach, it goes a long way to winning.

The 'should we tag or not tag' debate has been around since the game started and it's rare to see such a 'hard tag' enforced for every moment of an O and M game.

However, Page's discipline and desire to stop North's most dangerous player was outstanding and other teams might adopt the same approach.

"Jake is really competitive and he cherishes those roles, he looks forward to them," Daly added.

Albury has now won its last 29 matches against North - the league's longest winning streak against one club in O and M history.