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Player Watch Daniel Curtin

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Good article re young Dan this morning. Can’t quote too much but here are a few passages


At West Coast Junior Football Club, he would learn all sorts of roles. “He’d play out on a wing, but the problem was other kids getting the ball to him,” Morrison says. Curtin never had that problem with his teammates. “One thing that stood out with Dan was – because of his personality, I think – he really tried to bring other kids into the game,” Morrison says. “He was a pretty timid, not extroverted kid, but was always really generous. “He was super understanding of what it meant to be part of a team. “He wasn’t just focused on kicking goals and taking as much metreage as possible.

Curtin’s running power suits the position. He has ranked in the top five for distance covered during games in seven of the past eight games and first in three of them. “Dan’s got the size of a full-forward and moves like a small forward, which was really similar at juniors,” Morrison says. “His athleticism has always stood out.” (EDIT - article then talks about Dans admiration of Pav) Drafted from Adelaide to Perth, he was part of trade speculation with the Crows and Port for much of his career, but retired as a one-club player. Curtin was seemingly linked with the WA teams from the moment the Crows selected and social media raised eyebrows at his restrained reaction with his family. “I was on the table with him on the night,” Smith says.

“Adelaide was never really in the picture for him, so it was a reaction that might have had Adelaide fans scratching their heads a little bit going ‘gee, does this kid not want to play for us?’. “But he was always going to be really happy to go anywhere.” Curtin helped coach the Tigers’ under-14 development squad during his draft year when he was playing league footy. “It’s something we’ve always tried to do with role models in the pathway … and he didn’t need much encouragement,” Smith says. “He was a natural and the boys loved him. “They’re definitely following his progress and I’m sure they’ll remember he had a bit of a hand in their development. “He was premiership captain of our colts team in his draft year. “His ability to build connections with his teammates and staff, ability to show empathy, build relationships with senior boys when he went up and played league footy gives an indication he must have done a good job at building connections when he got to the Crows.”
 
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Like any prospect, you try to see if they'll excel at inside midfield and settle for a lesser position if they can't do it well. Though if you can't excel at inside midfield from wing, it's not likely you're going to be a gun wing for long either.

Being titled as the most damaging wing in the competition in a era that does not care for wings at all is damned with faint praise. The wings who were worth their salt transitioned to being star inside mids.
Sydney and Gulden would disagree on that. Ed Langdon was pretty important to Melbourne in their premiership year too.

So I think it depends. There are some players that can remain on the wing and star.
 
Coaches at Perth’s West Coast Junior Football Club turn to each other late in a game and ask the question.

“Should we hit the Dan button?”

The team has rotated youngsters through various positions so is ready to unleash its foolproof plan to flip the match in its favour.

Put Dan Curtin in the ruck.

“We were trying to be generous with how we shared time in the midfield among others who weren’t quite as good … so Dan some games would be full-forward or back pocket,” Curtin’s junior coach Seb Morrison says.

"If we’d get to three-quarter time and be a couple of goals back, we’d hit the Dan button, put him into the ruck and win every game."

 
Coaches at Perth’s West Coast Junior Football Club turn to each other late in a game and ask the question.

“Should we hit the Dan button?”

The team has rotated youngsters through various positions so is ready to unleash its foolproof plan to flip the match in its favour.

Put Dan Curtin in the ruck.

“We were trying to be generous with how we shared time in the midfield among others who weren’t quite as good … so Dan some games would be full-forward or back pocket,” Curtin’s junior coach Seb Morrison says.

"If we’d get to three-quarter time and be a couple of goals back, we’d hit the Dan button, put him into the ruck and win every game."

He hit the Dan button himself when we were struggling v Melbourne a couple of weeks ago
 

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Curtin's played inside mid, forward, back and been somewhere between incompetent and mediocre in all of them. Until he moved to the wing and suddenly became one of the best players in the competition.

Curtin is also a sub 30 game player and sub 2 years on the list. Mediocre whilst doing a role is expected at this stage. The fact he isn't speaks volumes that we've hit big, though there hasn't been much to worry about in Dan's profile.

Personally, I'm pulling the trigger on inside midfield after one more preseason. The tank and body is there, ditto the game sense. Something akin to 4th-5th inside minutes for half a season seems a good way to test the waters on how ready he is.

Sydney and Gulden would disagree on that. Ed Langdon was pretty important to Melbourne in their premiership year too.

So I think it depends. There are some players that can remain on the wing and star.

Sydney wouldn't disagree. Sydney played Gulden as a 4th-5th inside midfielder during their run last year including 4-5 games at > 60% attendance.

Langdon is kind of a case in point, handy but hasn't done much since.

There are a lot of players who would star on the wing. The problem the position is in is the skills needed to star on a wing are inadvertedly the skills needed to be a star inside midfielder or half back flank, two considerably more important positions.

Any reason why Curtin can't be our Saint Nick?
i.e. a roaming key forward that can actually kick straight for goal.

Yes, why would you go that route with our list and with what Curtin has shown on a wing?

If this was a Thilthorpe-less build, then it's something that makes sense, but considering the lack of high draft picks in the midfield and we've hit on what looks to be a top 3 KPF for the next decade, Dan's needed elsewhere at Adelaide.
 

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I'll go with playing out of position.

Played juniors as a midfielder his whole career till a growth spurt last year where his coaches went. Ooh, tall, let's play him as a kpd.

He's not used to defending and can't beat the leading patterns of forwards at this level. If we're playing his as a defender he's 2 years away from being there. And why the **** did we draft him. We have good kpd depth. We don't need him there. And he'll be burried

And the compensation well get from someone like butts/murray/Keane won't compensate what we used on him. Bust.

Now. If we play him in the midfield. I'll wait and see how that goes. I'd love him on a wing right now. Move him there and jones/nankervis to the flank. Could be better for the team.
I called it after 2 games.
 
There have been few wingers like Dan over the years. Mostly through the years they were almost rover size. The earliest tall winger I can recall was Des Meagher from Hawthorn (yes, I’m THAT old) and the earliest tall winger I can recall in the SANFL was Barry Stringer at the Roosters
The 1st wingman over 6 feet tall was Brian Dixon from Melbourne FC. That was in the late 50s/early 60s. I was privileged to see him play.
He died last week in his late 80s.
 

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