TODD MARSHALL sees things. He has that rare gift to judge an opportunity or a play that critical split second before most other AFL players.
And now Todd Marshall does things. That raking frame is no longer a pushover for seasoned back men, as one Fremantle defender learned while the flat-footed Marshall bewildered him with perfect split-second timing and powerful bodywork in the pre-season game at Alberton Oval.
No wonder Charlie Dixon and Robbie Gray insisted on keeping Marshall in the AFL line-up as he tried to harness his extraordinary perception and sublime talents ... as a teenager with more than the usual burdens of life on his shoulders.
Marshall made his league debut with Port Adelaide late in the 2017 season - against the Western Bulldogs at Ballarat - seven weeks before his 19th birthday. His third game was an AFL elimination final - against West Coast at Adelaide Oval in 2017 - when senior coach Ken Hinkley boldly backed the kid with enormous promise rather than more experienced options.
Port Adelaide was truly believing in the boy from the Riverina. But the spoils of that belief in Marshall - and many other young key forwards - takes times in an era of draftees being thrust on the big stage to serve their apprenticeship.
This is critical to understanding Marshall's journey. The elite game is not as Australian football was two generations ago. Think back to 1986. Stephen Kernahan made his VFL debut for Carlton at 22 - 22 years and 211 days! - and instantly became a star. But he has served his 100-game apprenticeship in a powerful State league, building his resume against uncompromising men and in hot State-of-Origin contests.
Marshall arrived at Port Adelaide as a teenager from Denilquin, New South Wales in the heart of the Greater Western Sydney academy zone. Fortunately, for Port Adelaide's recruiting team, the AFL ruled Marshall - who had toyed with cricket earning NSW selection for a youth tour of England - did not qualify as a Giants academy candidate.
From under-age football with the Murray Bushrangers to Port Adelaide's AFL line-up in less than 12 months after being the No.16 pick in the 2016 national draft tells how much football apprenticeships have changed.
Marshall this weekend reaches his 100-game milestone having been tested by far more than football challenges. Most, if not all, draftees who leave their family bases chasing their dream as an elite footballer will face the emotional torment of "homesickness". But Marshall lost both his parents in the space of six months before he was 21 - first his mother Mary through cancer and then his father Robert to a sudden death.
He found a new family at Port Adelaide among coaches and players who speak of Marshall with emotional admiration.
"I cannot imagine," says team-mate Miles Bergman, "going through as much as Todd has and coming out the other end a stronger person."
The counters at Champion Data record Port Adelaide has a 2:1 chance of winning with Marshall in the line-up (66 wins, 33 losses in 99 matches). They have counted a 2:1 goalkicking accuracy, 142 goals and 70 behinds in 99 games including 36.16 last season when Marshall was clearly hobbled by a hip complaint late in the season. And notable are the 59 goal assists - 15 last season - from a player who has every reason, as a finisher of plays, to be selfish inside-50. But Marshall prefers to live the mantra of team.
Three times the record books tell of Marshall having career-best returns of five goals (against West Coast in 2022, in a Showdown in 2022 and against Hawthorn last year).
But no statistician can record what Marshall sees - and does for his team-mates with those deft taps, blocks and taps that turn a 50-50 contest into a clear opportunity for a Port Adelaide forward. And where does one go to appreciate the running patterns Marshall has developed from a tough learning curve, finding his zone during a demanding pre-season after he passed the 50-game milestone in round 20, 2021?
The 100-game apprenticeship - on the big stage, not in a State league as Kernahan gained in Adelaide before moving to Carlton - has required patience and persistence, just as Dixon and Gray kept advocating.
Marshall did take a significant step in becoming a reliable core in the Port Adelaide attack last season when he exited the reset during the summer with a clear understanding of his role.
"I understand my role very clearly now," Marshall declared before posting his best figures in any of his seven AFL campaigns. "Probably the first few years of my career I was sort of chopping and changing between tall forward and half-forward, so to cement that tall forward spot and know what I’m doing each week is really good."
On signing a five-year contract extension during the off-season, Marshall is on Port Adelaide's books until at least the end of 2029. By then he will be the experienced one in an attack that will feature the next generation of key forwards with Ollie Lord and Tom Scully and whoever is added to the Port Adelaide list via the draft and trade.
It is the enticing script Dixon and Gray saw following them while they watch Marshall see things well before others on the football field.
