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The season proper is less than two weeks away, and it’s time to change the conversation.
Let’s move from peptides to power forwards; from criminals to contested marks; from tanking to tall targets.
It’s gone almost unnoticed amid the off-field drama as we enter season 2013, but the AFL currently has a rich crop of key forwards capable of dominating their inside-fifty domain.
Each are explosive and unstoppable on a given day, and any one of them could be wearing a Coleman Medal around his neck by season’s end.
The weekend’s NAB Cup matches contained a few five-goal hauls from power forwards, with Taylor Walker, Josh Kennedy and Jarryd Roughead all recording team-high marking stats while hitting form in the lead-up to the season proper.
Walker truly announced himself under the more direct game-plan of Brenton Sanderson last year, after struggling to tailor his instinctive game to the stricter, process-oriented, slower-moving confines of Neil Craig.
The blazing mullet may draw its share of attention, but don’t let some of his more ockerish tendencies distract you from his sure hands, missile of a kick, or match-winning ability.
Josh Kennedy kicked seven goals in round one last year against the Western Bulldogs, suggesting that he was ready to explode, before his season was curtailed by a serious foot injury.
His eccentricity is his Fred-Flintstone-at-a-bowling-alley run-up, but his accuracy is usually first class, and at 25 years of age he’s primed to have a career-best season.
Despite some solid seasons in front of the big sticks, Jarryd Roughead has never recaptured the goal-kicking heights of 2008 when he nailed 75 majors.
On the weekend, however, he offered a glimpse of what could be if he was left alone in the forward line for an extended time.
Strong both overhead and on the lead, it might be time for Alistair Clarkson to revisit his second ruck option and play the big country boy closer to goal.
Other key targets to have an impact on Saturday were Tom Hawkins, Matthew Pavlich and Jack Riewoldt, the latter of whom marked strongly and kicked truly after the siren to hand the Tigers a narrow victory down in Launceston.
Jack is a dual Coleman medallist and he topped the goal-kicking in 2012. This is despite him struggling to make an impact at times throughout 2012, while also being let down by unusually inaccurate kicking.
I don’t think he’s reached his ceiling though, and as the focal point of a Richmond outfit ready to burst into the finals he can go to another level.
No forward judges a high ball, or uses their body to mark it, better than he does, and his x-factor comes from a canny knack of turning the impossible into the unbelievable.
It seems Matthew Pavlich has been a superstar since black and white TV, but playing closer to goal in the second half of last year he decimated opponents with a series of big bags.
Ross Lyon knows the weapon he has at his disposal, and anyone who doesn’t need only revisit footage of Fremantle’s demolition of Geelong last September.
Freo will be even better this year, which means more opportunities for the Dockers skipper.
What a pleasure it was to see Tom Hawkins reach the heights that had long been forecast for him in 2012.
‘Big blokes take time’ is an oft-used line in AFL circles, and Tomahawk’s sixth season was proof enough of that.
With a belief borne of a superb finals series the year before and a match-winning grand final turn, he tore apart defences like they were warm bread.
One senses this was only a stepping stone on his way to superstardom.
Travis Cloke didn’t turn out for Collingwood on the weekend, but he’s the biggest beast in the game when on song.
His poor form last year was well-documented, as has the fact he still managed 59 goals in spite of it. Once front position is his, nothing short of a nuclear blast can dislodge him, and his prodigious left foot is its own weapon of mass destruction.
Throw in old hands Drew Petrie, Nick Riewoldt and Jonathon Brown, the vastly underrated Jay Schulz, last year’s surprise packet Mitch Clark, as well as emerging GWS duo Jeremy Cameron and Jon Patton, and key defenders are in for a sleepless year!
Oh yes, and there’s a pretty handy player in number 23 for Hawthorn who also knows how to trouble the scorers.
We only need two words to describe what he’s capable of, and we’re forever indebted to Anthony Hudson for them: Thirteen! Thirteeeeeen!!
Whether through rule changes, interchange rotations, or the ever-evolving tactics of the modern game, we seem to be seeing the big men up front becoming dominant once more.
The speediest way through the press and easiest way to penetrate a defence is quick long kicking, and for that to be successful you need someone who can take a contested mark.
With the names that I’ve rattled off above, why wouldn’t you get it in as fast as possible?
While the days of multiple players topping a century of goals may be long behind us, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to see our glamour forwards continue to excite the crowds with big hauls.
I can’t wait to see them all in action again this year.