Player Watch Daniel Curtin

[earlsta]

You can’t bring him to ground either, he’s too strong and he’s able to get his hands away for a handball to a teammate if needed.

Didn’t know he had a fend off at his disposal either.

This guy was what we hoped Fog would be in the middle, but he’s taller, faster, fitter.

Scary player imo, not many players have what this guy has

 

[Mutineer]

The kid is going to be a superstar.

I was worried we wouldn’t know how to play him and wanted a pure mid instead as I thought we’d waste him.

Wanted him at half forward, didn’t think he’d be mobile enough for a wing.

But FMD, he’s an elite wing. He’s the perfect go to get out of trouble bomb it to the wing, he’ll either mark it or bring it to ground.

He can go deep in defence for a chop out.

He can go forward and create an attacking option.

He moves in traffic, is calm, great decision making and elite skills.

I haven’t loved another bloke this much since Jon Snow.

Kudos to Hamish and the recruiting guys hey?

 

[Cromulant]

Some of us were saying this earlier in the season.

Perfect player to kick the ball out to in a one on one.

Good to see the club are now using him to advantage as a heck of a weapon.

I dont think even the most optimistic of us thought he'd be quite this good this early.

I knew once we settled him somewhere he'd show more signs, but hes flying

 

[Cromulant]

You can’t bring him to ground either, he’s too strong and he’s able to get his hands away for a handball to a teammate if needed.

Didn’t know he had a fend off at his disposal either.

This guy was what we hoped Fog would be in the middle, but he’s taller, faster, fitter.

Scary player imo, not many players have what this guy has

The whole "Fog to the middle" was always a supporter fantasy though.

 

[FR0GGY]

You can’t bring him to ground either, he’s too strong and he’s able to get his hands away for a handball to a teammate if needed.

Didn’t know he had a fend off at his disposal either.

This guy was what we hoped Fog would be in the middle, but he’s taller, faster, fitter.

Scary player imo, not many players have what this guy has

He’s also got a handball available to him at any angle, there was one yesterday when he was in an awkward position and he shot out a handball in a completely different direction to where I expected it to go and went straight to a teammate.

 

[tinman]

Rising star winner??

Into second favourite with the bookmakers behind Ashcroft. Certainly a big chance given the rate of improvement we’ve seen, Dan looks like he will finish the year stronger than he started.

Was at $21 before the season kicked off now into around $4. I think a few people here took him at juicy odds.

 

[tinman]

Was 100% confident he would become elite, it's the speed at which that's happening that I am shocked by. Didn't think we would see these games for another 18 months.

Same here. Always thought that Dan was a great selection and early signs were good. But tempered with the old “talls take longer to come on”. Absolutely loving what we are seeing.

 

[FullyBigKPro]

Spare a quick thought for Norf..... Took Zane Duursma ahead of Dan in that draft.

 

[Golumless]

I reckon just leave this guy on the wing for 300 games.

He covers so much distance and is so lethal in space, there’s no need to put him into the centre square.

Nah, these performances are screaming that the best move is to put Curtin in the center square as soon as possible. We're getting to the stage that we want Dan to be everywhere.

 

[cmndstab]

Nah, these performances are screaming that the best move is to put Curtin in the center square as soon as possible. We're getting to the stage that we want Dan to be everywhere.

I reckon the role at the moment is about right. Wing most of the time, but then moves into the contest when there's a stoppage between the arcs.

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Nicks' response to the next question was also quite revealing of his mindset. To start with it sounded like he was conceding that they had waited too long on him last year, but by the end of the answer he had circled back around to the opposite conclusion.


Question: How much do you put that down to, um, his playing in the SANFL a fair bit last year - didn't play a whole lot of football in the senior side - but, do you put a lot of his confidence down to that, do you think?

Nicks: Breaths and thinks for a second Um, we don't always get it exactly right when we're working with players, because you just don't know... every player is different on how they're going to develop, but everything we do is about fast-tracking that development. So with Dan, we felt there was a need to spend some time at an SANFL level, which is where our guys play if they're not in the AFL.

There have been times in the past with other players that we've done the same, and it hasn't necessarily worked out quite to where this has, but there's no doubt that we and Dan got this one right... the timing of when he should be in our AFL side, the balance of getting some things wrong at AFL level and keeping him in the side... just for him to be able to grow and learn, and... yeah, I think from a footy club point of view, we've nailed that. But, it then comes back to the player. He's a professional, he's so coachable, and so he's learned so much through making mistakes, but also getting things right, and now he's in a really rare spot, which we're going to make the most of.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

I reckon the role at the moment is about right. Wing most of the time, but then moves into the contest when there's a stoppage between the arcs.




Nicks' response to the next question was also quite revealing of his mindset. To start with it sounded like he was conceding that they had waited too long on him last year, but by the end of the answer he had circled back around to the opposite conclusion.


Question: How much do you put that down to, um, his playing in the SANFL a fair bit last year - didn't play a whole lot of football in the senior side - but, do you put a lot of his confidence down to that, do you think?

Nicks: Breaths and thinks for a second Um, we don't always get it exactly right when we're working with players, because you just don't know... every player is different on how they're going to develop, but everything we do is about fast-tracking that development. So with Dan, we felt there was a need to spend some time at an SANFL level, which is where our guys play if they're not in the AFL.

There have been times in the past with other players that we've done the same, and it hasn't necessarily worked out quite to where this has, but there's no doubt that we and Dan got this one right... the timing of when he should be in our AFL side, the balance of getting something wrongs at AFL level and keeping him in the side... just for him to be able to grow and learn, and... yeah, I think from a footy club point of view, we've nailed that. But, it then comes back to the player. He's a professional, he's so coachable, and so he's learned so much through making mistakes, but also getting things right, and now he's in a really rare spot, which we're going to make the most of.

It's an interesting comparison with Draper this year.

I think Curtin got games at the end of last season because we were awful and couldn't make finals. So we saw Curtin, we saw Bond. A bit of experimentation.

This season we've seen the benefit of that with Curtin. We still didn't know where to play him but he'd banked some games and started finding his feet. Had something to build on.

Due to our position on the ladder, Draper is unlikely to build on his games tally. He won't be in the position Draper was after 2024.

Investing in Curtin late last season was easy, investing in Draper now would be a braver, bolder decision.

 

[Archie87]

Wtf did North see in Duursma to overlook this kid?!?!

I love how Dan is starting to work out he's just way to ****ing big and fast to stop and he can ragdoll seasoned AFL players already.

 

[Crow till I die]

Thinks its fair to say he now knows he really belongs at AFL level & can do anything.

This year he realised he is stronger than most other AFLplayers, he knows he can out mark most players and he has developed an AFL fitness base. Its been a high quality development year for him. If he can keep developing at this rate, and he already looks every inch anA grade player in the making next year we might witness a very special player moving forward.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

We’ve actually seen this, he’s become a bail out kick on the wing, because he does get it done for us.

I’m more thinking he has been clutch as the winger who drops back into D50.

Has consistently won 2 vs 1 contests dropping back.

 

[tinman]

Kudos to Hamish and the recruiting guys hey?

Absolutely. Recall we traded up to draft Dan, looking like an unbelievable move.

Was it GWS that traded down with us? I know they have no shortage of talent but they must be kicking themselves now to have traded out of the pick we used for Dan. Perhaps they also saw him as a key defender and thought that they didn’t need cover there?

Great get by Hamish and the recruiters.

 

[Crow till I die]

Keeps this trajectory and his next contract might be record setting…

I hope our management is already in discussion with his about extending his contract

 

[Crow till I die]

Kudos to Hamish and the recruiting guys hey?

Kudos to the other clubs who passed on him too...what a miss by them

 

[FR0GGY]

I’m more thinking he has been clutch as the winger who drops back into D50.

Has consistently won 2 vs 1 contests dropping back.

Hes done that also.

 

[FR0GGY]

Kudos to Hamish and the recruiting guys hey?

Yep they’ve nailed this one

 

[Crow till I die]

Absolutely. Recall we traded up to draft Dan, looking like an unbelievable move.

Was it GWS that traded down with us? I know they have no shortage of talent but they must be kicking themselves now to have traded out of the pick we used for Dan. Perhaps they also saw him as a key defender and thought that they didn’t need cover there?

Great get by Hamish and the recruiters.

WCE knew what was up. They had to take Reid with pick 1. Everyone would have as he is going to be a star of the comp. But they tried to trade their f1 knowing it was likely a top 2/3 pick. Very glad we passed as it would have been a Dan Curtin for probably Jagga Smith who is going to have to become one heck of a player to outshine Dan

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

Hes done that also.

As perverse as it sounds, when he was caught in that 2 on 1 in the goal square yesterday and the WB player gave the free away- it was almost exciting seeing it was Curtin in that contest as opposed to anyone else. You just knew he was going to either neutralise or win that one.

 

[FR0GGY]

As perverse as it sounds, when he was caught in that 2 on 1 in the goal square yesterday and the WB player gave the free away- it was almost exciting seeing it was Curtin in that contest as opposed to anyone else. You just knew he was going to either neutralise or win that one.

I was worried he was going to get held or blocked and wouldn’t get a free.
Lucky the bulldog player was so obvious there was no choice.

 

[Peter Doherty]

He has shortened 3 times since the game yesterday, now into $3.75 for RS.

 

[George CantStandYa]

Kudos to Hamish and the recruiting guys hey?

For sure.

So how about those misses hey?

 

[Cromulant]

For sure.

So how about those misses hey?

No more than most recruiting teams.