Dan Curtin’s AFL game time to slowly build in Adelaide’s final four matches

Adelaide fans desperately wanting Dan Curtin to get more time in the senior side might just get their wish granted. But the Crows will still remain cautious with their young gun.

Daniel Curtin.Picture: Tom Huntley

Adelaide assistant coach Scott Burns says top draftee Dan Curtin will get more AFL action in the final four games of the season, but the Crows will remain cautious with him.

The No.8 pick returned to the AFL side last week in the club’s woeful loss to Hawthorn having played eight games in a row in the SANFL – with a focus on playing as a midfielder.

The Western Australian came on as the sub against the Hawks, adding to being subbed-off in his previous two AFL games against Port Adelaide and Brisbane.

There has been a clamour among Crows fans online for Curtin to get more time in the senior side, especially with Adelaide not making finals. Burns said Curtin would “slowly get more minutes” as the Crows continue to be patient with the exciting prospect.

Curtin has been named on the Crows interchange bench for their clash in Geelong on Saturday.

Curtin is set for more AFL minutes. Picture: Getty Images

“We will lock in our sub closer to the game, we were pretty pleased with Dan last week,” he said.
“I was actually just reading an article on Pendles (Scott Pendlebury) playing his 400th game and it was about Round 10 or 11 that he played his first game in his first year.

“I think in Adelaide especially we get caught up with our high draft picks, it would have been interesting if we had drafted Pendles this year and he hadn’t played until Round 10 or 11 whether that was the right thing for him but he ended up playing 400 games and been a pretty good player.

“Some players will come in straight away, Matty Rowell comes in straight away, Nick Daicos comes in straight away, others are a little bit different and can take more time.

“He is going to be a big player for us over the next 10 years Dan, he has huge ability when he gets ball in hand and is a pretty special player in regards to that.

“But we don’t want to rush him and make sure that he finishes this season with a hell of a lot of confidence but also knowing the areas he needs to work on going into his second season.

“There are still four games to go as well, there times where you do play a few younger players a bit early and sometimes it is not a great thing.

“There is a benefit of going back to the SANFL and improving your game, we recruited Dan as a back but he can play as a mid so we gave him a good month as a midfielder in the SANFL before we brought him back up.

Curtin celebrates a goal in the SANFL. Picture: SANFL image/ David Mariuz

“He was sub last week but he will slowly get more minutes and we are looking forward to him getting rock hard fit and becoming a really good AFL midfielder in the future for us.”

Burns was speaking in place of senior coach Matthew Nicks, who did not do his usual media conference after the Crows’ schedule was changed after they could not get onto GMHBA Stadium prior to Saturday’s clash against the Cats.

Nicks, who will coach on Saturday, was involved in a football strategy meeting on Friday.

Burns said the Crows would have to deal with not getting a run on GMHBA Stadium prior to Saturday.

“GMHBA is a different oval, it is quite skinny and doesn’t have much width on it so we would have liked to go down and get a feel for it,” he said.

“We probably have from this time last year a good half a dozen who haven’t played there so it would have been nice to get down there but as we saw a couple of weeks ago it was pretty muddy there.”

They have brought back captain Jordan Dawson, veteran midfielder Matt Crouch and defenders Nick Murray and Josh Worrell.

Burns said the Crows would still look to give young players such as Billy Dowling, Zac Taylor and Hugh Bond exposure in the run home.

“We want to prioritise those younger fellas as much as we can,” he said.

“This time last year when you look at the team it has been quite different and I think over the last 10 weeks we have been the least experienced team in the comp nearly every week.”