Player Watch #35 Charlie Curnow

[RedOrWhite]

Seeing him kick a bag was a delight but I think most of us would happily admit he did it against a much weakened side and a particularly weakened defence. Ryan Gardiner, Buku and Busslinger were no hope, whichever of them were playing on him.

What is most exciting for me is that Curnow appears to have taken the Hawthorn game to heart. He got smashed by Barrass. It was a really bad performance that night but since then he's looked much more focused, engaged in the game all four quarters and has been much, much stronger in aerial contests. Even when he doesn't mark it, he's not getting beaten in the air (and nor should he to be honest).

When you look at this stats for the year so far, he's looking much more positive than a lot of people seem to think too. Even prior to last night, he was in the top handful in contested marks, marks inside 50, score involvements, and scoring shots. He's now even higher after last night but of course he has a game in hand on most of his peers. Looking really promising and he has added so much to our forward line.

Agree with all of that. The big thing for me is him coming in frees up everyone else including Heeney and Warner when they push forward.

As long as he competes and provides an option which he's been doing outside of that 2nd half vs Hawthorn his talent means he'll get his share of goals and goal assists, when he lowers his eyes he can lace others out too.

 

[JackHiscoxWasFast]

So much copium on the Carlton board it’s actually quite hilarious.

 

[The King!]

What we needed was more consistency of effort. He doesn’t have to kick 7 a week, he has to compete for four quarters and find a way to fight out the whole game , he has been doing that since the hawks game, even the suns he should have had a bag, the eagles game was probably massive because I think the team got him going. He’s been part of a group of losers most of his career, it’s new to him

 

[Kbroome]

10.2 and 2 goal assists in the last 2 weeks but the best part is I don’t really recall him being beaten in a 1v1 in the last 2 weeks. At worst he is halving the contest to allow the smalls to get involved

 

[Ticky009]

 

[the hypnotoad]

Come on noone really took criticism of him seriously after a month did they?

He had a knee cleanout and a interrupted pre-season.

ha! david king ... and he spent most of last night's call trying to denigrate him

 

[Jewelsbon]

ha! david king ... and he spent most of last night's call trying to denigrate him

It was noticably weird the way he stuck the boot in every chance he could.
I mean, when the likes of HB of the Mongrel Punt are commenting on it, then it really is over top.

 

[MF]

10.2 and 2 goal assists in the last 2 weeks but the best part is I don’t really recall him being beaten in a 1v1 in the last 2 weeks. At worst he is halving the contest to allow the smalls to get involved

Yeah I think this is the part that's most underrated. Since Buddy retired we've often been monstered by the games best key defenders. Apart from the Hawks game (a team that has multiple a grade key defenders) we've improved massively in that area with teams finding it a lot harder to rebound from our defensive 50.

 

[Kbroome]

Yeah I think this is the part that's most underrated. Since Buddy retired we've often been monstered by the games best key defenders. Apart from the Hawks game (a team that has multiple a grade key defenders) we've improved massively in that area with teams finding it a lot harder to rebound from our defensive 50.

Already up to 17 contested marks this season, flicked through Sydney's contested mark leaders each year and other than Franklins freak 2014 year of 51 contested marks (2.3 avg per game) and Pike 52 (2.1), Charlie is on track to smoke every other player in each year as most were like 35-40 in a season roughly 1.5-1.8 per game.

Charlie is currently taking in 2.4 contested marks per game.

 

[JackHiscoxWasFast]

Already up to 17 contested marks this season, flicked through Sydney's contested mark leaders each year and other than Franklins freak 2014 year of 51 contested marks (2.3 avg per game) and Pike 52 (2.1), Charlie is on track to smoke every other player in each year as most were like 35-40 in a season roughly 1.5-1.8 per game.

Charlie is currently taking in 2.4 contested marks per game.

And he’s hardly lost any 1 on 1s - hawks game aside

 

[bedford]

Already up to 17 contested marks this season, flicked through Sydney's contested mark leaders each year and other than Franklins freak 2014 year of 51 contested marks (2.3 avg per game) and Pike 52 (2.1), Charlie is on track to smoke every other player in each year as most were like 35-40 in a season roughly 1.5-1.8 per game.

Charlie is currently taking in 2.4 contested marks per game.

Does he smoke like Ramps

 

[the hypnotoad]

It was noticably weird the way he stuck the boot in every chance he could.
I mean, when the likes of HB of the Mongrel Punt are commenting on it, then it really is over top.

more than weird after four or five goals ...

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

more than weird after four or five goals ...

I wonder if its team based biased would he be sinking the boots in if he went to Geelong?

 

[the hypnotoad]

I wonder if its team based biased would he be sinking the boots in if he went to Geelong?

who knows ... i have never understood the insular nature of the vic footy media
it used to fascinate me that eddie fathead appealed to "victorian footy fans" to get behind collingwood in their grand finals against the lions back in 2002-03 ...
so if curnow had stayed in victoria? no idea ... but carlton fans would still be grumbling

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

who knows ... i have never understood the insular nature of the vic footy media
it used to fascinate me that eddie fathead appealed to "victorian footy fans" to get behind collingwood in their grand finals against the lions back in 2002-03 ...
so if curnow had stayed in victoria? no idea ... but carlton fans would still be grumbling

They just have short memories their own agendas etc trade was a win/win for both clubs

Franklin took about a month and a bit to hit his stride when he came here and thats buddy.

 

[Kennedy Parker]

For all that has been made of Curnow's start to the year, he has kicked 19 goals in 7 games at an average of 2.7.

If we assumed that he maintains that average and plays 20 games. He will still end up with 54 goals by the end of the home and away. That is more goals in a season than any player not named Lance Franklin since 05/06.

 

[Voula]

ha! david king ... and he spent most of last night's call trying to denigrate him

And prior weeks there's been Mathew Lloyd and Kane Cornes.

 

[ashep]

I hate to be the elitist dick who says "you have to be at the game" but when it comes to some of the noise still persisting about Charlie not running hard, I really don't buy it.

The clear instruction is to park himself in the goal square and stay deep to stretch the defence.

I'm not saying he's the most agile guy but he does put in when the ball is in the vicinity. He's also doing a lot of wrestling which no doubt gasses him a bit.

I was happy to call out some particularly poor efforts in the Hawks game but on the whole he's making a huge contribution.

 

[SSwans2011]

I hate to be the elitist dick who says "you have to be at the game" but when it comes to some of the noise still persisting about Charlie not running hard, I really don't buy it.

The clear instruction is to park himself in the goal square and stay deep to stretch the defence.

I'm not saying he's the most agile guy but he does put in when the ball is in the vicinity. He's also doing a lot of wrestling which no doubt gasses him a bit.

I was happy to call out some particularly poor efforts in the Hawks game but on the whole he's making a huge contribution.

The criticism really perplexes me when we've scored 100+ every week other than the Hawks game and 120+ in half of our games.

If Charlie isn't kicking goals, Amartey, McDonald and Rosas are.

We have plenty of avenues to hit the scoreboard, which is exactly what we should want. The attention that Charlie gets from opposition defences plays a big role in that.

 

[Edmund hunt]

Most of the time he got the ball he had 2 defenders on top of him so didn't give him much space at all to get his shots away.

 

[MF]

The clear instruction is to park himself in the goal square and stay deep to stretch the defence.

We really didn't even target him much at all in the first half yesterday because it seemed like there was always another player free when we went inside 50. It would be great to see Curnow kicking bags but to be honest I don't give a shit who kicks them as long as the structure is working.

When we go inside 50 the oppositions intercepting defenders literally have to choose between sitting in the danger zone and guarding space or going back to help make it a 2 on 1 against Curnow and they're basically damned if they do and damned if they don't right now.

 

[DellaMaddalena]

Funny how a lot of heat has gone on Curnow this year, but yet he’s kicked more goals than the anointed best key forward this year in Josh Treacy (20v19).

 

[Millky95]

Funny how a lot of heat has gone on Curnow this year, but yet he’s kicked more goals than the anointed best key forward this year in Josh Treacy (20v19).

Think you'll find best forward of all time, Sam Darcy of the Bulldogs is injured and AFL isn't worth watching anymore

/s

 

[The King!]

If he just kicks better and nails the 3 goals it's not even a discussion .

He wasn't a star yesterday but he did kick 7 last week.

 

[Big Blood]

He's been OK but 11 of his 20 goals came against Eagles and Bulldogs with the two weakest defences. Khamis in particular was way out of his weight division.

Against Melbourne he had zero goal assists and zero score involvements apart from his 1.4. Didn't lay a tackle again.

But the pass mark for him this year is he has to stand up in a couple of big games. Kick a bag or kick a clutch goal. If he does that he's earned his keep.