AFL Draft: Adelaide Crows detail the bold move that nabbed Daniel Curtin
Considered a top-five talent, Daniel Curtin has the size and skills to start for Adelaide in round one 2024, SIMEON THOMAS-WILSON reveals the inside story of how he became a Crow.
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Adelaide national recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie says the Crows “bold move” to trade up the order and snare West Australian utility Daniel Curtin only really became apparent two to three days out from the first night of the draft.
Ogilvie said the Crows were “ecstatic” at trading up to get pick No. 8 from GWS to select Curtin – considered as the best defender in the pool – saying it made the draft “a massive win for us”.
This masthead reported on Saturday that the Crows were after the Giants pick, which was then at No. 7, with the belief they were after Curtin.
To get the 197cm All-Australian centre-half back, the Crows sent picks No. 11, 15 and a future second to the Giants for No. 8 and 17 – which slid to 21 after father-son and academy bids.
Ogilvie said finding out Curtin could be available changed the Crows’ plans considerably.
“We thought it was more about pick 7 but we weren’t really sure at that stage whether it was Dan, because we still didn’t really know what the clubs inside six were going to do,” he said.
“But it became somewhat of a reality over the past two to three days.
“We were ready for it, that was the good thing. We had a number of scenarios planned out and offers and to be fair to the Giants they were really good to deal with so we worked well on that together.”
While he has impressed as a defender in West Australia, Curtin can also play as a forward and could even be a tall midfielder – which the Crows have been crying out for.
“Yeah he was really a forward during most of his junior footy, last year he was interrupted and played pretty much everywhere this year,” Ogilvie said.
“Started forward in the colts, played a bit of everywhere in the AFL Academy and by the end of the season in the league team he was all over the place.
“So it was a good standing and those WAFL finals he played in were really tough and gives him a really good grounding.
“So we are ecstatic, it was pretty bold the move but credit to Reidy (list boss Justin Reid) and the analysts they had all the scenarios ready to go and we were able to work with the Giants to get it done.”
Curtin had been spoken about as a top five and top three pick for most of the year and Ogilvie said the Crows believed he wouldn’t slide more than he did.
“Because the Bulldogs were up there and they weren’t taking another tall and Nick Watson was rated highly by a lot of those clubs around those picks so it wasn’t really a slide the other clubs had other priorities,” he said.
“And the fact the Bulldogs have so many talls and were going to get (Jordan) Croft really helped us
“Melbourne were always going to take (Caleb) Windsor or (Nick) Watson so they weren’t really a threat so we were always going to be able to get him once we moved up into that Giants pick.”
Daniel Curtin is the top WA prospect in this year's AFL draft. His manager Jason Dover recently called him the best talent to come out of WA in more than a decade. @FootyRhino#7NEWSpic.twitter.com/U6hCRnQf07
— 7NEWS Perth (@7NewsPerth) November 19, 2023
West Coast was offering the Giants its future first round pick to secure Curtin, and Ogilvie said the Crows plan was to take Curtin if they could get him.
While they were able to snap up Curtin, the Crows did miss out on promising South Australian ruckman Taylor Goad with North Melbourne selecting him at No. 20, one pick before Adelaide’s second pick.
“All I can say is we wish Taylor well at North Melbourne and we will be watching him closely, good on him and it is a credit to him but those things happen on draft night but Charlie Edwards was always in our plans,” Ogilvie said.
Edwards at 191cm also is set to provide the Crows with some height in their midfield.
“There were pretty strong connections, he is a Bendigo kid that wants to come to Adelaide. He has already moved out of home,” Ogilvie said.
“He adds to that tall midfield with Dawse (Jordan Dawson) that haven’t always been easy to get those 191cm mids so Dawse, Billy Dowling and now Charlie we have three taller mids which is great.
“And Charlie can play in three spots, he started at half back and did a great job there and then he goes into the midfield and plays in the best team in the Coates League and then had some cameos up forward at the end of the year.
“A 191cm mid hasn’t been always easy to find and he is a good country kid and we know that country kids go well in Adelaide.”
With their final pick of the first night of the draft, the Crows selected Murray Bushrangers defender Oscar Ryan.
While it was a surprise selection to many, with Ryan only at the draft function as a plus one for friend Connor O’Sullivan Ogilvie said the classy running defender was high on the Crows talent order.
“That one was more on our talent order more so than need, we rated him highly and knew that we could probably manipulate a little bit depending on what was left but I didn’t want the guys to take a risk,” he said.
“I wanted to take him then rather than try and accumulate stock because we knew West Coast and Brisbane were coming pretty quickly behind us.
“We rated him really highly, he was a player we sort of targeted if we were going to have three or four picks and he was going to be one we hoped we would take with our third or fourth pick.
“He is a great kid and you are going to love to watch him play, he has movement, skill and is really dynamic.”
Adelaide won’t be in action on Tuesday’s second night of the draft, with the Crows focus now on re-selecting James Borlase and Will Hamill in Wednesday’s rookie draft.
Originally published as AFL Draft: Adelaide Crows detail the bold move that nabbed Daniel Curtin
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