It isn’t often that you see teams in the modern era rolling out three big key position forwards that rarely drift outside 50.
Gone are the days of the 1000 goal forward, with Buddy Franklin’s milestone in 2022 tipped to be the last time a player reaches the millennium of goals as midfielders spend more time forward and small and medium sized attackers kick bags themselves.
So when Adelaide Crows coach Matthew Nicks rolled out his tall timber trio at the start of this season, commentators within the game dutifully rolled their eyes.
After the loss to Geelong in Gather Round, even Nicks lamented he may have got the mix wrong.
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"There is a balance with [the forward line], and we're aware of that," Nicks said.
"We know that some of the things that we really love about our forward line … if we don't deliver the ball the way we need to and we're a little bit off, it can cost us."
But as the fourth-placed Crows make the journey to Sydney this weekend, they do so as the second best scoring team in the comp, thanks largely to their retro looking forward line.
Leading the pack is Darcy Fogarty, the set-shot king who is steadily improving his goalkicking returns year-on-year.
After kicking 24 goals in season 2021, Fogarty has kicked 33, 34 & 41 in each of the past three seasons, with his current tally of 26 from 10 games putting him in sixth place on the Coleman Medal leaderboard.
Where he is truly excelling in a stacked forward line however, is a season average of 5.3 marks a game, well up on his career average as he continually offers a strong pair of hands in the forward 50.
Also enjoying a breakout year and sitting just one spot behind Fogarty on the Coleman leaderboard is Riley Thilthorpe.
Not even 23-years-old yet sporting a beard that would be the envy of many, Thilthorpe has emerged as one of the best aerial markers in the game this year with a strong 5.6 per game playing on some of the best defenders in the land.
But his goalkicking has risen to a new level this year, with the big forward booting 25 for the season so far, including five bags of three and one massive haul of five.
After not managing to kick more than 18 goals in a season since debuting in 2021, Thilthorpe has come of age at the perfect time alongside Fogarty as the Crows surge up the ladder in 2025.
Rounding out the triple-pronged attack is the veteran of Adelaide’s forward line, Taylor Walker.
The 35 year old is clearly in the sunset of his career, but is proving a much-needed senior figure in the development of Fogarty and Thilthorpe, with his game awareness and ability to pop up when required still top class.
Walker’s 18 goals from 10 games may be below his illustrious career average of 2.3 a game, but only two seasons ago Tex kicked his highest tally of goals in a season with 76, proving that there’s still plenty of life left in the tank.
With more time spent in the ruck this year to help out Reilly O’Brien, Walker will likely see his game time managed throughout the year and if he chooses to carry on into 2026.
With a mammoth 69 goals kicked between them already this season, it’s no surprise that Nicks is backing in his triple threat to carry on as they have been.
The only question now is, how do you stop them?