With seven rounds still to play in the season, Ben Jacobs has almost matched his 2014 tally of 14 games.

He’s done it by becoming the club’s go-to tagger, cementing his spot with a string of quality jobs in the last five weeks.

It’s easy to forget he was playing a completely different role in the first half of the season. The majority of his first seven games were spent off half-back, and he was omitted after the Round 8 loss to Fremantle.

Upon resumption in Round 10, Jacobs was the substitute for the victory against West Coast, but his role still remained unclear.

It was at Etihad Stadium the following week where Jacobs started as a tagger. Dan Hannebery was in a purple patch of form, having averaged almost 35 disposals and eight score involvements a game in the previous month.

Jacobs took the task and restricted the Sydney star to 22 disposals, two clearances and only two score involvements, minimising his influence on the game.

It still stands as Hannebery’s second lowest disposal count of the season so far, and the only time he’s had less than three clearances since Round 22 last season.

Off and running as a tagger, Jacobs then travelled to Spotless Stadium to face Dylan Shiel in Round 12.

Although an injury has since prematurely ended Shiel’s season, at this stage he was regarded as a probable All-Australian selection.

The Roo completely shut down his opponent, limiting Shiel to only 11 disposals and one clearance. It was his lowest disposal count in a full match since Round 19, 2013.

Jacobs also picked up 16 disposals and a career-high six clearances against the giants.

Then it was onto the Gold Coast and the returning Gary Ablett. Jacobs had the task on the little master until three quarter time, when the decision was made to release the tag. North was down by 30 points at the time and was desperately searching for any spark to get back into the game.

Ablett proceeded to run riot in the final term, overshadowing the excellent job Jacobs had done up until that point, as the numbers show.

In Ablett’s next two games, he’s collected 30 disposals against both the Western Bulldogs and Giants, arguably playing well enough in both to earn Brownlow votes.

Onto Geelong, and although Joel Selwood’s numbers seem high – 26 disposals, 9 clearances – they weren’t of the usual damaging effect. As NMFC.com.au detailed in the Round 15 post-match wrap:

On the defensive side, North was able to restrict the influence Joel Selwood normally has from stoppages. Heading into the game, the Cats’ captain was particularly effective from centre clearances – clearly the best in the competition at creating scoring shots.

However from Selwood’s nine clearances, Geelong only managed one scoring shot.

Selwood also had five free kicks against and seven clangers. Not coincidentally, North kicked almost six more goals from clearances than Geelong on the way to victory.

The most recent victory from Jacobs was against the Bombers on Friday night. The absence of Jobe Watson due to injury potentially changed the landscape, and the Roo spent the evening on Dyson Heppell.

Heppell went into the match with good form against the Kangaroos, tallying a total of 100 disposals in the last three encounters.

However his opponent collected only 16 at Etihad Stadium, with his five kicks the equal lowest in his 99-game career to date.

Jacobs also had the moment which sparked North, pinning Heppell with a sensational tackle early in the third quarter. It led to the first of five majors for the term and turned around what was an eight-point half time deficit.

With the likes of Tom Rockliff, Marc Murphy, Patrick Cripps, Nathan Jones, David Armitage, Nat Fyfe and many more confronting the Kangaroos in the run home to a potential September appearance, Jacobs will have an extremely important role to play.