In just 11 career games, Curren has spent time on Dan Hannebery, Sam Mitchell, Bernie Vince and Patrick Dangerfield. Without exception, the 21-year-old’s held his own against some competition heavyweights, but despite a promising individual start to the year, the midfielder was disappointed with the general endeavour shown against Adelaide on Sunday.
“Ultimately we just went away from what we bought into the contest over the first three rounds: Contested ball, tackling, hunting the opposition,” Curren told SAINTS.com.au.
“And that’s ultimately the result we deserved. We just went away from what we began the year with.”
VIDEO: Round 4 recap
Curren was adamant that the Saints didn’t underestimate the Crows, who were 0-3 prior to Sunday’s emphatic win, rather they simply couldn’t match it with them on the day.“Obviously they had a poor start to the season so we were expecting them to come out pretty hard and be aggressive and we just didn’t combat that as well as what we needed to.”
“We were just a bit fumbly and waited for contact and didn’t really welcome it… We have to really embrace that contact and come with a clean set of hands - each and every one of us in the midfield.”
Curren has laid 14 tackles across the last three weeks, while his 21-disposal effort against Melbourne in round one was the fifth match in a row where he collected 20 or more possessions.
It’s been a steep learning curve for the ex-rookie, who toiled away in the VFL for two seasons before earning a senior opportunity against Port Adelaide last year.
“There is obviously highs and lows in footy and we’ve obviously started the year on a big high. But we will review it, recover in the right way, and attack Essendon next week… That’s the beauty of footy.”
“We have to work on our contested balls and tackles. We have to recover really well and contested ball and tackling will probably be the focus heading into Essendon next week.”
