This is the year Charlie Curnow can live up to the hype, writes Mark Robinson
The hype on Charlie Curnow has been mammoth and now it’s time to find out if that can be realised this season even if he’s still only 22, writes MARK ROBINSON.
Mark Robinson
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It’s a fine line between hype and realisation. For Carlton’s Charlie Curnow, the hype has been mammoth.
And now it’s time to find out if that hype can be realised.
We can continue to say he’s just 22 and played only 47 games, but for how long is a player young, especially with his assets?
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Stephen Kernahan captained his first game at Carlton at 23, and captained for the next 11 years, but that probably says more about Sticks than it does Curnow’s development.
Still, Kernahan arrived from South Australia in the mid-80s with hype, but nothing like the hype besieging Curnow.
Dermott Brereton first declared it, that Curnow would be the best player in the competition in “two years” — that’s the end of this year.
Jonathan Brown was equally impressed and this week, Matthew Lloyd clamoured aboard.
“I think Charlie (Curnow) could be the best player in the game,” Lloyd told 3AW.
“He reminds me a bit of Koutoufides in terms of the excitement he can bring to football.’’
So, are these titans of the game wrong or is Charlie going to deliver?
Coaching guru Paul Roos says it’s time to find out.
“We hype up players too quickly, there’s no question,’’ Roos said.
“They don’t have to do anywhere near as much as Carey did or Kernahan did or Greg Williams did. A quarter is good enough now to get everyone really excited.
“But there is a point where you become what you are and I think that’s 22 or 23. And then you are that player for the next seven, eight, nine, 10 years.”
One argument says Curnow needs a better team around him to take the league by storm. On the flip side, if he takes the league by storm he makes Carlton a better team.
It’s a combination of both individual and team performance, says Roos.
“Charlie now has to rise,’’ he said.
“What are you? What are you going to become? It’s time you have to deliver.’’
We ask Roos how a coach should deal with the hype and hope associated with Curnow.
“Internally, the good clubs ... have a clear understanding of what their team rules are and equally the strengths and weaknesses of their players and they don’t get too worried about external stuff,’’ he said.
“With Curnow, I suspect I would be going over his tapes, looking at areas where he can get better, at ground level, in the air. Fundamentally, it’s a great test of coaching.
“The kid’s got enormous talent but if he doesn’t have real direction, clear guidelines and real clarity about how he’s going to develop from his coaches, he can flounder.
“What you’ll see with Carlton now is a great test of their coaching structure.’’
From afar, Curnow appears a Anthony Koutoufides type, but more a forward-mid than mid-forward.
While multi-positional players are considered gold — and Roos used Jesse Hogan as an occasional midfielder — Roos wants Curnow to find his position.
“I think we can all outsmart ourselves as coaches,’’ he says.
“For me, when you get a player like that, you’ve got to find his role quickly and establish what you want him to do.
“If you don’t, he’s so talented you can end up with a player who’s neither your arse nor your elbow, if you know what I mean. The really good players have a real clarity around their roles.”
In Thursday’s scratch match against Hawthorn, Curnow started forward and had four opponents — James Frawley, James Sicily, Ben Stratton and Kaiden Brand — and played midfield. That was all in the first quarter.
His ground coverage is freakish. He has speed and endurance, and his athleticism separates him from regular forwards.
In his first play of the match, he jumped for a mark behind Stratton, the ball fell forward, Stratton was stranded, and Curnow skipped forward and gathered the ball and snapped it around the body for a behind.
It happened as quick as you just read it.
Last year, the Blues averaged 45 inside 50s a game — last in the competition and 15 behind league leaders Melbourne.
Koutoufides believes that the arrival of Mitch McGovern and the promise of Harry McKay means a role beckons further up the ground for Curnow.
“Charlie came into the league and his physique wasn’t probably the greatest, but he looks unbelievably fit now,” he said.
“He’s got the perfect shape as a footballer. And he has speed and endurance as well. How do you stop a footballer like that?’’
Koutoufides, who exploded as a player in his fourth season (1995), started his career at halfback, then went forward and settled on a wing for about six years, before becoming a starting and dominating midfielder.
He admitted that dealing with the expectation was “hard’’.
“When I went through it, it was difficult, but all I did was look to what I could do every day to get a little bit better, just focus on training and let it unfold,’’ he said.
For what it’s worth, he “100 per cent” agreed with Brereton, Lloyd and Brown that Curnow could become the best player in the game.
“He’s got presence and in full flight he’s incredible to watch.’’
So, as season 2019 dawns, it’s now up to Charlie.
And if he does develop from hype to the real thing, unquestionably it will be a hell of a spectator sport.
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