LIAM Shiels didn't plan to become Hawthorn's run-with player of choice.

But do something well once, and you are bound to be asked to do it again.

And so it's been that the 21-year-old, naturally a freewheeling midfielder, has found himself shadowing some of football's most dangerous players this season.

Disciplined and with a strong aerobic capacity, the role has suited him perfectly.

It started against North Melbourne in round 10, when Shiels kept dangerous veteran Brent Harvey to just 14 touches and no goals.

 "I tagged Harvey a couple of times in my first couple of years and did OK, so 'Clarko' (coach Alastair Clarkson) wanted me to go with him again when we played the Kangaroos this year," he told hawthornfc.com.au this week.

"I did an OK job, and then the week after that we were playing Port, and we thought [Danyle] Pearce was a similar type of player.

"It's continued from there."

With Shiels tracking his every move, Pearce managed just 15 disposals in Port Adelaide's loss to Hawthorn, and had little impact on the match.

The damaging Kade Simpson came next.

He could get the ball only 15 times as the Hawks steamrolled Carlton by 50 points in round 14.

And in round 16, after Ryan Griffen racked up 10 touches in the first quarter, he found Shiels at his side for the start of the second term.

The Western Bulldogs star managed only 12 more disposals for the game.

Shiels might love to be roaming free and collecting huge hauls of possessions, but as long as he's helping the team, he's happy.

"I've kind of had to embrace it," he said.

"Probably my natural instinct is to go and get the footy, but I'm learning a fair bit by running with such good players about where and how to run.

"If I'm helping the team, then I'm happy to do it week in and week out."

Shiels wasn't given a set defensive role against Collingwood last week.

"'Clarko' just said go out and get the footy, so I enjoyed that," he said.

"He probably didn't know which one [of the Magpies' midfielders] to tag, so he thought we'd run the gauntlet and see how we'd go."

It might be back to tagging on Friday night, however, with Shiels looming as an ideal opponent for dangerous Essendon midfielder Brent Stanton.

"I'll just have to leave that up to the coaches," he said.