Key forwards are officially back.
We’re eight games into Round 5 and we’ve already seen the likes of Matt Taberner, Charlie Curnow, Aaron Naughton and Taylor Walker kick five or more goals in their respective games this weekend – proving the value of big targets inside 50.
With tall forwards becoming increasingly influential in 2022, Kane Cornes and Josh Jenkins pondered who the best is in the crucial position.
Discussing the topic on SEN Breakfast, both Cornes and Jenkins named their number one key forward in the game right now.
Cornes: “In order right now, who would you take? Not playing for the future, this is for the premiership this year.
“You’ve got (Harry) McKay, Max King, (Joe) Daniher, (Tom) Hawkins or (Jeremy) Cameron, you’ve got to rank them in order.”
Jenkins: “Hawkins one, this is top to bottom, Max King, Cameron, Daniher, McKay.”
Cornes: “I reckon Joe Daniher is the best key forward in the game right now.”
Jenkins: “I love him (Daniher), I was high on what I thought he could do this year.
“The important factor to stress is that we have so many good tall forwards.
“Max King has a skill that no other player possesses in the game … he can mark the ball 12 feet in the air.”
Cornes: “I reckon Daniher can also do that.”
Further proving the value of individual goalkickers, SEN’s Nic Negrepontis tweeted that after 40 games in 2022, a player kicked four or more goals 44 times, while 40 games into 2021, the same feat had happened on just 23 occasions.
After 40 games of the 2022 season:
— Nic Negrepontis (@NicNegrepontis) April 16, 2022
A player has kicked 4 goals or more in a game 44 times.
In 2021 after 40 games, a player had kicked 4 or more goals in a game 23 times.
If Hawkins kicks more than three goals for the Cats against the Hawks on Easter Monday he’ll retake the lead atop the Coleman Medal race after five rounds.