The Sydney Swans are big game hunters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They kind of embody the city in that way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They want stars, glitz and glamour. Often, they want to import it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019re like the Lakers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure, they home grow talent, but when they\u2019re looking for a cherry on top, since the mid 90s they\u2019ve gone with Demott Brereton, Tony Lockett, Barry Hall, Buddy Franklin, and now Charlie Curnow.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n While they\u2019ve not always turned into premiership glory, each of Lockett, Hall, and Franklin were stars for the Swans and made the Swans a name brand in the AFL. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But with Curnow, my fear is that they\u2019re barking up the wrong tree.<\/a> This player is not Lockett or Franklin. He\u2019s far closer to the broken down version of Brereton that the Swans got. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Curnow is a gifted player that had a chance to vault himself into the league\u2019s upper echelon, but he didn\u2019t do it and is now injured beyond repair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Charlie Curnow is what would have happened if Will Hunting never took a job but kept on relying on obscure precedents to get out of criminal charges.<\/a> Will would have been a legend in the Boston courts and not much else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Curnow\u2019s career will be remembered the same way. He\u2019s a \u201cthe best athlete at your high school\u201d type. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can reasonably categorise him that way because every athlete that has the potential to be great gets a moment where they can stamp their greatness with certainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some rise to it and some don\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Take Buddy Franklin in 2007. 2007 was Buddy\u2019s breakout year where he kicked 73 goals and looked set to become a superstar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The game to catapult him into superstardom was that first elimination final he played against Adelaide. Nobody who watched it will forget how he played in that game, kicking 7. Beyond that, he kicked one of the most clutch, high difficulty goals in living memory to win the game (non-Dom Sheed edition).<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The year after he kicked 100 goals and we\u2019re off to the races with one of the greatest players that\u2019s ever lived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dustin Martin 2017 finals series did a similar thing. It minted him.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n But players don\u2019t always rise to the moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Take Tex Walker, the toast of the AFL in 2017 after dragging Adelaide from tragedy to triumph, leading to a would-be coronation in the 2017 Grand Final. Winning that game would have cemented him as one of the seminal captains of the era. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Tex had just 10 disposals and kicked 2 goals, only one when the game was there to be won, and then proceeded to embarrass himself and the club for years after. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He didn\u2019t take his moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Charlie Curnow didn\u2019t either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The moment that he could have done it was the 2023 finals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After a career beset by injuries, 2022 was the year he got his legs back under him and 2023 was the year that it all came together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He was the springy, freak athlete we thought he was and he had end product too. He kicked 81 goals and his pairing with Harry McKay was the best that it ever looked, as a second half surge drove the Blues to fifth on the ladder.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The finals series, even just one great final, was the time to mint him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He kicked a single goal in all three of Carlton\u2019s finals that year and never had more than 10 disposals in a game. He had a chance to grab a season by the scruff of the neck and just\u2026didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He was blanketed by defences that were keyed in on him and, unlike the great ones, couldn\u2019t work out how to take over a different way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n