Paul Curtis has drawn some press coverage this week for missing out on a representative side of players aged 22 or under. While he has missed a few games, including a lengthy suspension, his play in the matches he did appear in is very much at an elite level, in one of the hardest positions to play. Particularly in a bottom four side with only one recognised key forward, Curtis has shown that he has joined the top echelon of crumbing forwards, with natural goal sense and skills to match anyone in the league right now. He would star in a better team.
Paul Curtis has drawn some press coverage this week for missing out on a representative side of players aged 22 or under. While he has missed a few games, including a lengthy suspension, his play in the matches he did appear in is very much at an elite level, in one of the hardest positions to play. Particularly in a bottom four side with only one recognised key forward, Curtis has shown that he has joined the top echelon of crumbing forwards, with natural goal sense and skills to match anyone in the league right now. He would star in a better team.
Paul Curtis has been forced into one of the worst positions in football: the small key forward. The last bloke to make it work was Phil Matera, mainly because he had excellent leading patterns, but those would probably get cut off today in the modern game. It is also a long time since Leigh Matthews would kick bags as a deep marking target. The advent of Toby Pink and Brynn Teakle as second and third talls in the North Melbourne attack has released Curtis to be a crumbing forward, resulting in two scintillating goals against the Dees. This is his best game.
