I agree with all of this..The forward line was so much more potent last year when we had that 2nd key forward in Waite. Allowed Wood & Ziebell a bit more free reign.
Larkey is obviously not going to replace Waite’s output, but the benefits of having him (as the extra tall) in the side could be 3-fold. These benefits are assuming he can have a bit of scoreboard and aerial impact:
- Makes it less likely that Brown gets double & triple teamed
- Frees up Ziebell & Wood to play on lesser opponents making them more dangerous.
- Gives us another tall, marking option.
If Larkey could contribute 20 goals and take the focus a wee bit off Brown while freeing up Ziebell/Wood it would go a long way to us pushing the top end of the 8.
Although my worry is as a collective they’d have to up pressure numbers or we could see a few teams walk it out of defence ala bulldogs last year.