AFL 2024: Port Adelaide closing in on signing key forward Todd Marshall on long-term deal
Todd Marshall is closing on a long-term deal with the Power. As Marshall enters the prime of his career, MATT TURNER analyses what the extension will mean now and into the future.
Port Adelaide
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Port Adelaide’s forward line of the future is taking shape as Todd Marshall prepares to follow fellow talls Ollie Lord and Mitch Georgiades in re-signing.
Marshall, in particular, is just as important to the Power’s present because how he performs this coming season can have a big say on the club’s premiership prospects.
He is expected to ink a deal of at least four years in the next few weeks, ensuring he will bypass free agency at season’s end.
The Deniliquin product would have been one of the most sought-after forwards on the market.
So too Lord before he signed an extension until the end of 2026 last month.
Georgiades was set to come out of contract in 2023 but re-signed for four more seasons in September.
Marshall, at 25 and 97 games into his career, is the oldest and most experienced of the trio – Lord and Georgiades are both 22.
The Power’s other established key forwards, Charlie Dixon and Jeremy Finlayson, are uncontracted beyond this year.
Dixon, 33, is probably entering his last campaign.
The toll of injuries restricted him to playing 26 of a possible 47 matches the past two seasons.
Finlayson, who turns 28 next month, has featured 42 times in that span since joining the Power from GWS and it will be a surprise if the club does not re-sign him.
While Dixon will receive much of the scrutiny and spotlight again among Port forwards in 2024, it feels like it is Marshall’s time to shine.
The 198cm forward is no longer a youngster.
Taken with pick 16 in the 2016 national draft, he is entering the prime of his career and needs to step up with Dixon near the end, missing so many games.
After kicking 45.15 from 21 matches during a breakout 2022, Marshall was hampered by a hip issue late last campaign that led him to barely training and having post-season surgery.
He booted 36.16 from 21 games in 2023, which included 10 in the club’s last seven matches and two in each of the finals losses.
Marshall ranked elite for tackles inside 50 per game (1.3) and marks inside 50 (2.9), above average for marks (4.9), goals (1.7), goal assists (0.7) and shots (3.2), average for disposals (9.3) and accuracy (53.7 per cent), and below average for contested marks (1) and ground ball gets (1.5).
Although he will be in Dixon’s shadow publicly until the ex-Gold Coast Sun retires, Marshall is a very different forward.
Lord plays most like Dixon, crashing into packs and playing aggressively.
Marshall’s strengths are more subtle.
He does not average many contested marks – he ranked 69th in the AFL last season – and does not show the same fire as the heart-on-his-sleeve Dixon.
Marshall’s weapons are his football IQ, off-the-ball work, unselfishness and – usually – his accuracy.
In many ways, he plays akin to a small forward, not a spearhead.
The Power does not need him to be Robbie Gray or Dixon.
But Marshall will be hoping to better his 2022 season, which culminated in a career-best sixth-placed finish in the club champion award.
That year, he seemed to thrive on the extra responsibility with Dixon sidelined until round 11.
Marshall and the club would have a fair idea how much his hip problem affected his form last season, when he placed 12th in the best-and-fairest.
Still on the comeback trail, he sat out of match simulation at training on Friday.
His signature will be a coup for the Power after extending new skipper Connor Rozee and vice-captain Zak Butters’ deals before Christmas.
With contract distractions soon over, Marshall gets a chance to prove his value to a team that needs him firing if it wants to win a flag this season and views him as an important piece for years to come.
Dixon has been “the guy” in Port’s forward line for a long time.
Marshall is primed to take on more of that mantle.
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Originally published as AFL 2024: Port Adelaide closing in on signing key forward Todd Marshall on long-term deal
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