Freo are still dependent on Sandi because they waited until this year to invest in a replacement. Only rucks they've bothered with before Darcy are Griffin (worked out as a spud early), Rob Warnock (spud who left and ripped Carlton off instead) and Clarke (worked out as a spud early but insisted he would be better than Naitanui). Griffin was a cast off and the other two were rookies. Now the rookie list isn't a bad place to find a god-tier ruckman, but with such a glaring weakness they should have been using the main draft sooner.
Ditto replacing Pav, which they tried to do in trade week instead of the draft (see: realising you've left something too late) with the sterling success of McCarthy and Kersten. Yes they picked up Apeness a few years ago and he's struggled with injuries (probably should have had more than one young KPF on the go, Freo), hasn't set the world on fire when fit either, and the only other one I can recall them drafting is Taberner (see above re: spud). Waited until this year to draft a KPD in Logue after having nothing to replace McPharlin last year but Alex Silvagni (spud).
I don't think I've ever seen a club be so wilfully blind to the inevitable reality. I lean towards blaming Lyon, who ****** St Kilda's list up pushing for the flag, but it's not like Freo were fantastic recruiters before him.