Dermott Brereton is certain Carlton young gun Charlie Curnow can be the best player in the AFL

LAST year Dermott Brereton declared Charlie Curnow could be the best player in the AFL. Outrageous thought the Carlton young gun. No chance! They caught up with Mark Robinson to talk about hype, destiny and the Blues.

CHARLIE Curnow had met Dermott Brereton just the once.

It was a casual hello at Brisbane airport after Round 18 last year, where Brereton and the Carlton team were waiting to catch a flight back to Melbourne.

“He said, hey, well done, you played well,” Curnow remembered. “I said ‘yeah’, but I was pretty disappointed because we had just lost.”

Two days later, Brereton would declare on radio: “Charlie Curnow in two years’ time will be the best player in the comp.”

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Fast forward seven months and they meet again in a Richmond cafe, the Herald Sun inviting Brereton to a sit-down with the great white hope — or is that hype? — of the rebuilding Blues.

It’s the kid meeting The Kid, which was Brereton’s nickname as a young swashbuckler at Hawthorn in the early 1980s.

Curnow is friendly and fidgety. And Brereton is running 15 minutes late.

Curnow admits he knows Brereton the commentator more than Brereton the footballer.

“He’s a key player in the history of the game, Derm,” Curnow said. “I’m good friends with the Couch family, and there was Paul Couch and he had a lot to do with footy when I was growing up. So I know a little bit about the ‘89 Grand Final between Geelong and Hawthorn ... wasn’t it?’’

Dermott Brereton and Carlton young gun Charlie Curnow chat all things footy. Picture: Mark Stewart

When Mark Yeates hit Brereton, who got up spewing and then kicked a goal minutes later?

“Yeah that’s right. The Cats ended up losing. I wasn’t born then, I was ‘97, but I’ve been told about this game. I’ve never watched it, but I’ve seen clips. Didn’t someone go after Gary Ablett Snr? It was pretty close wasn’t it? Six points, that right?’’

Curnow is 21 and as humble as they come.

Even without Brereton at the table, he feels awkward talking about himself.

“It’s pretty overwhelming at times,” he said of the hype.

“If you play AFL there’s going to be pressure so you have to expect it I guess. I’ve got a lot of things I have to work on still and I see myself with a lot of improvement.”

Best player in the AFL? “It feels good for people to say things like that, but as we spoke about, you must stay grounded,” he said.

“There’s a lot of good players in the AFL, so I don’t think it’s going to happen. It seems pretty far-fetched to me.”

Brereton arrives. Friendly and not fidgety. Asked why he made the call on Curnow, after Curnow had returned 15 disposals and two goals in that Brisbane game, Brereton is happy to expand.

“He did things no normal footballer can do. His ability to win the ball at the highest point. His size, his shape, his agility, his speed, he’s an exceptionally rare package.

“What Charlie has is the basic building block to be an exceptional player, one of the really good ones, but if you don’t add on the little bits around the side of that exceptional building block, you become a run-of-the-mill player.

“So there’s still a lot of water to run under the bridge. But if you’re asking the footy God, what do I want, Charlie’s ticked a lot of boxes.”

Curnow is clearly uncomfortable. “This is pretty awkward,” he says sheepishly.

Carlton coach Brendon Bolton might not like the conversation because it feeds the Curnow hype, but he shouldn’t fret.

Charlie Curnow has every Carlton fan excited. Picture: Getty Images

Brereton was a ‘couldabeen’’ coach — Carlton once made inquiries — and a champion centre half-forward with the traits Bolton would love to see developing in Curnow: Ferocious competitor, strong work ethic, big-game player.

Curnow didn’t know that when Brereton was 21 — about the same age as Curnow now — he kicked 58 goals, including eight in the Grand Final, and won Hawthorn’s best and fairest. It was 1985.

He also didn’t know Brereton won five premierships, which is one game fewer than Curnow has won in his short career.

“Our journeys are different,” Brereton said.

“Because of my height, I grew to 187cm; you’re what, 194cm? I had really long arms which allowed me to play taller than what I was. But I had to fight and fight and fight. I always had pretty good talent but because of my size I had to fight.

“Do you have that fight, Charlie? “I don’t like losing,” he replies.

Brereton: “I tell my son, and I explain it to the really talented boys I coached, I say you’ve got to have a little bit more fight than you think you do.

Dermott Brereton is helped from the field after being cleaned up in the 1989 Grand Final.

“Because right now there’s a kid growing up in Broadmeadows with half your ability, growing up in Frankston with half your ability, and his parents are on bottom wage and he has struggled all his life to have anything he wants in childhood, and he will fight.

Curnow: “I’m not on that level. I got brought up in an awesome family, mum was a social worker, dad was a teacher, the chaplain at Geelong College, and they gave me everything.’’

Brereton: “And so did their parents (in Broadmeadows and Frankston).”

Curnow is the youngest of five brothers and sisters in a Torquay family of high sports achievers.

Charlotte, 29, competed as a modern pentathlete. Ed, 28, was a star junior runner and is renowned as a fitness beast at Carlton.

Eliza, 25, is an 800m runner. George, 24, also played at the Geelong Falcons, was a high jumper and was “the most athletic out of all us — he could run and jump like no one else”.

It was hectic for the olds. “There were the five of us and it was pretty hard for them because mum and dad had to rush around to different sporting events,” Curnow said.

“But we always came first. We got to do what we wanted to do with our sporting careers.”

Football was one of many sports Curnow enjoyed. There was surfing, basketball and afternoons at the skate park with mates, although Bolton put an end to that quickly enough.

He arrived at Carlton heavy. He weighs 93kg now, with muscle. He arrived at 94kg with too much puppy fat. “Yeah, I was a bit chubby,” he said.

In Year 10, he had a $100 bet with the siblings that by Year 11, he would run 2.05 in the 800m.

“I was terrible, I was running high 2.30s. I ran 2.05 and none of them paid up, although Ed gave me a New York Rangers jersey. I don’t think George was in on it, he would’ve been too stingy to be in it.’’

Brereton: “Can I ask a question — do you believe in destiny? When I was 21, my destiny was to be a great finals player. Do you have a belief in your own destiny?”

Curnow: “I probably dream about it every week, every night. I guess that can be believing (in) destiny, yeah.”

Whereas Brereton invited the hype as a footballer, as a self-motivating tool and not for the headlines, Curnow wants to avoid it.

Curnow at 21 is a far different character than Brereton was at 21. For one, Brereton was a star and Curnow has potential.

Dermott Brereton is certain Charlie Curnow can be the best player in the AFL. Picture: Mark Stewart

Curnow: “How many premierships did you win?”

Brereton smirked: “Only five.”

Curnow: “Only five. See, I would like to get us to finals as a team and play in a few finals. That’s the main goal for me right now. Five premierships? I’ve never met anyone who has won premierships. It’s pretty cool.”

Curnow is self-effacing, but confident. It might be a big forward’s trait, although in today’s game Curnow, at 194cm and 94kg and impressively athletic, could be an X factor midfielder.

“I always go out there wanting to be the best player, I never think I want to go out there and be the shittiest player, no one thinks like that,” he said.

“And I keep it pretty short term. So if people do say stuff like Dermie did, you just want to go on to your next short term goal and go from there.’’

He says he doesn’t feel pressure to perform.

“I just enjoy playing the game. To be honest, I don’t think about too much when I’m out there playing.

“Footy is fun, it always has been. You know that feeling you get when you’re younger, and it’s Friday night and you can’t sleep because you’re playing the next day in the under-14s, it’s kind of like that.”

Still, he was curious about Brereton and his achievements.

Curnow: “How did you win five premierships, Dermie? What did you guys do to push yourselves to make that happen?”

Brereton’s answer was out of the Hawthorn playbook. He spoke of the team, of great players, of legendary coach Allen Jean, of David Parkin, of culture and standards.

Curnow: “The culture at Carlton is going strong. We’ve been together for three years, we have some exciting players, and experienced players, and we’re starting to jell together.

Brereton: “There’s a distinction between culture and discipline required.

“I remember you guys on your draft camp. You jumped off the boat and they’re tiny things to stimulate culture. But to me, culture is what your players set as standards that don’t need to be said.

“If you have someone, like your brother Ed, who is uncompromising at the footy, that’s a culture, and that breeds into every other player on the ground. That’s culture. Too many people confuse culture with discipline or required discipline.”

The Kid and The Kid returned to the hype. Brereton spoke as if he could still taste those wondrous days. They go quickly, he said. “It is the best time of your life.”

But he stressed to enjoy that time and be the best in that time, work ethic was everything.

“Mentally, no one can control that except for yourself, Charlie,” he said.

Charlie Curnow has hit top fitness since being drafted. Picture: Getty Images

“But no matter what size, shape and physical attributes you have, if you can’t outrun most of your opponents, if you can’t out turn them, can’t out-sprint them, you’re back in the pack.

“No matter how much talent you’re born with, everyone’s working on theirs as well, so you have to do a bit more to get better.’’

In a season, Western Bulldog Marcus Bontempelli evolved from kid with potential to a top-20 player in the AFL.

Brereton doesn’t back away from his blue-sky dreaming on Curnow.

“He has every scope and right to be in the top three or four players at Carlton this year,” Brereton said.

And 12 months later the best in the competition?

“It’s not that big of a jump,” Brereton said. “Look at Bontempelli, it can happen quick.”