David King is curious to see which outgoing AFL stars leave the biggest void to fill for their previous side.
The focus is usually on the player and how they will fit in at their new club, but King wants to look the other way.
Whether it’s Geelong needing to fill the Joel Selwood void, Brodie Grundy’s absence at Collingwood or something else, whose absence will be felt most?
“We look at the Cats and talk about what Joel Selwood is going to leave in terms of the leadership void, and I know they have great replacements, but they’re not Joel,” King told SEN’s Whateley.
“In that Grand Final he was huge. Early in that game he was huge. I know Patrick Dangerfield was just as big.
“So how do the Cats replace someone like that?
“Will the Pies miss Brodie Grundy? It’s easy to say he wasn’t there for most of last year, but what happens when they start getting beaten in the ruck and all of a sudden the only way they can score is counterpunch and there is no other option? How much does that hamstring them?
“(Tim) Taranto and (Jacob) Hopper leave GWS and it’s all good when they’re going and they’ve got all these picks coming in, but what if Finn Callaghan isn’t quite ready to run that midfield yet? What does that do to their fortunes?
“I know they’ve got Stephen Coniglio, Tom Green is going to be a top-liner, but are these calls early?
“Dan McStay at Brisbane. That happened so quickly and so easily. I know Brisbane wanted to keep him for the first half of the year, and then I think they threw their hands in the air and said he’s gone.
“Eric Hipwood and Joe Daniher, can they get it done? I know Jack Gunston goes up there, but at what point will they miss McStay?
“The Dees and Luke Jackson, they fought to keep him, he’s gone, and now it’s a different look.
“I just wonder – we always talk about the clubs they’ve gone to, but what does it leave behind in the wake of those departing stars leaving the clubs?”
King believes Gold Coast with Izak Rankine and the Western Bulldogs with Josh Dunkley are two examples of players who leave a large void to fill.
“(Rankine) only kicked 25-odd goals, but all of them were pretty much his own doing. He created the goals. There was no ‘Joe the goose’ out the back. It was forward stoppage, a little bit of brilliance – we know they’re going to miss him,” King said.
“The one for me … the Western Bulldogs have always been built around this elite midfield and volume and they keep getting deeper and deeper.
“They’ve lost two midfielders in Lachie Hunter and Josh Dunkley. Dunkley is their defensive midfielder. He’s the one that goes both ways. If you lose that and your midfield wobbles a little bit and your talls don’t work, then what have you got then?
“Are you going to ask Marcus Bontempelli to play a true clearance role? Which he didn’t play last year. That hasn’t been his go. You see the magnet there and think it’ll be fine, but it hasn’t been that role over the last 12 months.
“He’s not really that clearance beast we saw five years ago. I’m fascinated to see what the outgoing does, rather than what the incoming does.
“We always talk sugar at this stage of the year with what is coming in, but what does it leave behind?”
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