Former Port Adelaide and Gold Coast forward Charlie Dixon has strongly expressed the benefit of teams playing three key forwards.
"I'm always big on having three key forwards, especially if you're going to have a ruck go off and one of the keys come up and play in the ruck role, it throws a lot of your play out, because ruckmen don't rest forward, because they don't know how to," Dixon said on SEN SA.
It comes at a time where Fremantle has established itself as arguably the most potent forward line in the league with the triple threat of Josh Treacy, Patrick Voss and Jye Amiss, while Sydney and Adelaide are other dangerous sides to utilise a tall trio in attack.
Brisbane and Geelong both played the 2025 AFL Grand final with two key forwards and a pair of rucks, but more teams are preferring three tall forwards this year.
GWS, Essendon, Richmond, West Coast and Port Adelaide are other teams to preference that model, with Dixon using the Crows' setup to highlight why the model works.
"Not every one of (Adelaide)'s keys is going to be kicking 10 goals a game, it's going to be one or two of them. I always felt when I was on the Gold Coast and it was me, Tom Lynch and Sam Day, it was one of the three and someone (would) get the ball up the ground," he said.
"(Taylor Walker) is playing that perfect connector role at the moment and is still getting on the end of kicking goals. With Riley (Thilthorpe), they've still got two big presences down the line when the ruck doesn't show up."
Collingwood and North Melbourne, meanwhile, have flipped between three keys and one genuine ruck, and two and two early in 2026 as they navigate how to best utilise the fifth player on the bench.
It represents a significant shift in the game, with Collingwood using undersized key forward Brody Mihocek as the linchpin of a mostly small forward line in its triumphant 2023 grand final, while Richmond was also reliant on a mosquito fleet of smalls during its era of success from 2017-2020.
