GEELONG veteran Harry Taylor will continue playing in the forward line despite his underwhelming start to the season.
Although Taylor has not transitioned into a full-time forward position, he is yet to register a goal in the opening three rounds despite spending lengthy periods in attack.
The 30-year-old's extra flexibility has eased the burden on forwards Tom Hawkins and Daniel Menzel in the early rounds.
Taylor, who was trialled up forward in the JLT Community Series with little success, acknowledged his move was yet to reap the rewards – at least on the scoreboard – but said the Cats had not given up.
"'Hawk' and 'Menz' are playing some really good footy for us and my influence from a scoreboard point of view has been non-existent at this stage, but hopefully some of the things we're trying to implement are helping the team," Taylor told Fox Footy on Monday night.
Earlier, Cats coach Chris Scott said Taylor would stick to his current role.
"What's best for Harry may well be just to play as a key defender, but it may well be that what's best for the team is for him to play forward," Scott said.
"So in that scenario, Harry wants to play forward because he is … the quintessential team man."
Taylor managed just six disposals in Saturday's 29-point win over Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.
Meanwhile, Essendon goalkicking great Matthew Lloyd said Taylor's positional change could signal the end of his playing days, unless he moved back to his more familiar defensive role.
"I think this could be an early end to his career," Lloyd told Channel Nine on Sunday.
"If they keep playing him here, it's going to end his career because he's too slow in the forward line, he has no explosive pace, he's got no forward craft.
"They've [Geelong] kicked 55 goals for the year. Do you know how many he's kicked? None."
Taylor has forged a reputation as a reliable defender over his 207 games for the Cats.
The two-time All Australian defender has also been used as a swingman up forward at times to exploit a match-up, kicking 45 goals.
