At a critical juncture at Marvel Stadium last Saturday, Charlie Curnow flipped the script.
With Carlton leading Adelaide by ten points with less than nine minutes remaining, the champion key forward was edged away from a marking contest but still proved too good.
Showing the wares of a small forward, the dual-Coleman Medallist roved the pack perfectly and, despite heavy traffic, wheeled onto his left foot to snap a superb goal.
As Carlton fans erupted in the stands, Fox Footy broadcaster Anthony Hudson bellowed; “CURNOW! You can’t keep a good man down.”
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It prompted former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon to describe Curnow, who finished with four goals, as the “most exciting forward” in the competition.
“It is why (Carlton) are going to be awfully hard to beat at any stage this year, because regardless of what is going on, they have got two massive, dominant forwards,” Lyon said.
“Harry McKay is playing career best football. Charlie Curnow (is) the most exciting forward (in the game) and Carlton has the beauty of having both of them inside their forward half. Geez, it makes them hard to beat.”
There is a crucial postscript.
Despite the heroics of Curnow and McKay, the Blues squandered an opportunity to remain unbeaten with the Crows, led by resurgent key forward Taylor Walker, making the most of a series of Carlton mistakes late in the match to snare their first win for the season.
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But that does not diminish the point made by Lyon, with Curnow and McKay kicking 30 of the Blues 70 goals this year as an outstanding double-act in attack for Carlton.
With effectively a quarter of the season complete, Carlton is averaging 96 points per game and boasts the fifth most potent attack behind the Giants (108 points per match), Geelong (102.4), Port Adelaide (101.6) and Sydney (100).
There is much to unfold and the scoring tends to slow as the season gets closer to winter, but at the moment the five highest-scoring sides are averaging more than reigning premiers Collingwood (93 points per game) and runners-up Brisbane (94) managed last year.
In a week where it was announced champion Hawthorn full forward Jason Dunstall will be elevated to legend status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, a super Saturday of matches serves as a showcase to some of the game’s champion key forwards.
In the space of five hours on Saturday afternoon, the Coleman Medal winners for the past five seasons and the man leading this year’s race feature in two fascinating matches.
Curnow, who has won the award for the past two seasons, and 2021 medallist McKay return to Marvel Stadium for the Blues’ clash with the Giants, which are led in attack by Jesse Hogan, who is this year’s leading goal kicker with 18 from five matches.
When the final siren sounds in Melbourne, Geelong stars Jeremy Cameron and Tom Hawkins, the Coleman Medallists in 2019 and 2020, will be in the final stages of their warm-up for the unbeaten Cats’ clash with a Brisbane side featuring footy’s best small forward Charlie Cameron and rangy key forward Joe Daniher.
VARIETY PROVIDES THE SPICE IN A FORWARD LINE
Giants coach Adam Kingsley is tasked with coming up with a solution to stop Carlton’s key forwards that does not include star defender Sam Taylor, who is recovering from concussion.
Quizzed on Thursday about his tactics, he stressed confidence in the Giants’ system as a whole and said it was not reliant on one player. The same is true when it comes to scoring.
While Hogan continues to flourish at his third club and is averaging a career-high 3.6 goals per match this season, Giants captain Toby Greene, Aaron Cadman, Brent Daniels and Callum Brown are also regular contributors to the scoreboard.
“(I’m) really satisfied. We are scoring well. We have a variety of scoring options. That makes us difficult to stop. It is not impossible, but difficult,” Kingsley said.
“Our ability to spread the load in all lines, not just the forward line, is an important attribute I think we have.”
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Hawkins, who was rested against North Melbourne last weekend, has kept a close eye on opposition attacks ahead of what is a big month for the Cats.
After Saturday’s clash with the Lions, Geelong will play Carlton and Melbourne at the MCG and then host Port Adelaide at home on May 10. They host the Giants on May 25 after a visit to Darwin to play the Suns in Rd 10.
With the days of key forwards the calibre of Dunstall kicking 100 goals in a season going the way of the dinosaurs, the champion Geelong forward highlighted variety as crucial facet of a functioning attack.
“I think it’s really important to have flexibility in your front half,” Hawkins told foxsports.com.au.
“With modern defence, and the way modern defenders defend, they are such high-end talent as one-on-one players, as interceptors, as running defenders. Have they never been more valuable? They are so important to how your team plays.
“So to counteract that, you’ve got to have variety. You need players who are more than stay-at-home forwards. They can’t all just be tall players. They can’t all be small players. To succeed against the modern defence, you need flexibility and be able to play multiple roles.”
THE MERITS OF THE ‘2.5’ RULE
Now in his 18th season of footy, Hawkins describes the ideal forward line structure as what he calls a “2.5” featuring two key forwards with contrasting but complementary skills, along with a teammate capable of serving as a marking option while also able to excel at ground level.
“I refer to it as the 2.5 rule because I feel like every side has got a player who can play tall but they are also so dynamic at ground level. Ours is Ollie Henry and I think those players are really important,” said Hawkins, a regular panellist on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“But having two key forwards, or taller forwards, who are different or multifaceted makes them harder to match up on. It gives defences and oppositions more things to think about. The harder you can make it for them, the easier your job is going to be.”
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Hawkins, who has kicked nine goals in four games this year, is playing deeper in attack this season.
Jeremy Cameron, who has kicked 14 goals this year including six against the Kangaroos last Sunday, is spending extra time up the ground including on a wing.
Geelong coach Chris Scott said the three-time All Australian was a “difficult match-up” given his capabilities.
“We’re always keen to explore how we can challenge the opposition with that,” Scott said.
“There’s no question in my mind, at least, that he could play as a deep forward and be a handful for any team and any individual match-up. But we think he’s able to complement the rest of our group by mixing it up a little bit.”
Henry, who is in his second season at Geelong after spending a couple of years with Collingwood, has kicked 51 goals in 27 games with the Cats.
Small forwards, too, are critical to a taller attack working given their ability to rove packs, kick goals, terrorise opposition defenders and help to lock the footy inside the forward 50m arc.
“For us, Tyson Stengle has been so good, Gryan (Miers) has been playing so well, and then with Closey (Brad Close), you see some of his numbers, the pressure points, he accumulates so well and the work he does in setting us up is phenomenal,” Hawkins said.
But the big Cat is also impressed with what he has seen in the opposition attacks of the pacesetters to date.
“You look at the Giants and you have (Aaron) Cadman who is almost playing that third forward and pinch-hitting in the ruck, Jesse (Hogan) has clearly been playing very well and Toby (Greene) is that overhead-marking mid-to-small forward who can also go into the midfield, so there is flexibility in a good side that sits on top of the ladder. They have the ‘2.5’ goalkickers,” Hawkins said.
“And I look at Charlie and Harry at Carlton (and) they’re obviously outstanding, and Jack Martin is usually that ‘2.5’ player – he was in last year’s finals series – who can mark overhead and then is good at ground level.
“And then you are supported by small forwards who can go unrecognised but are obviously so important to the forward line functioning well. It is really important, ultimately, to have that great flexibility in your forward line.”
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