Port Adelaide has a strong chance to be without tall forward Todd Marshall for the entire 2025 season, with a ruptured Achilles placing the Power attacker on the sidelines for an extended period.
The South Australian club will need to assess and settle on new plans for the upcoming campaign in the wake of Marshall's setback, with the Power home to a handful of fringe forwards who could fill the void.
With a list vacancy giving them a chance to add to their squad via the Supplemental Selection Period, Port Adelaide could also look to replace Marshall with a name outside of the AFL.
Here we assess five names who could step into a forward role for the Power this year to feature alongside Mitch Georgiades and Jack Lukosius in attack.
1. Ollie Lord
The leading and most likely name to slot into Marshall's role to start the 2025 season, with the Power hoping for a breakout year from their emerging tall forward.
Lord was limited to just six senior appearances last year after finishing 2023 on a high, with a clean run at AFL action exactly what's needed for the 23-year-old.
Internally, there is an expectation that Lord is ripe for a spot alongside the likes of Mitch Georgiades and Jack Lukosius.
"Someone like an Ollie Lord is really ready to want to grab that opportunity in front of him," Power high-performance boss Stuart Graham said this week.ย
"But there is contingency in the list (to cover for Marshall), and those guys are going to go harder at it. We've proactively got a little bit more size into (Lord) and changed his muscle mass and increased that.
"Ollie Lord's the one that's made a shift and he's hungry for it. His running engine is slightly different to a George (Mitch Georgiades) and a Lukosius, in that he's better suited to more a contest, battles, work-rate type forward.โย
