the undermanned Swans fell to Hawthorn by 17 points<\/a>. <\/p>\nThe 29-year-old finished with 2.1 from seven disposals and two marks, having been well and truly blanketed by Hawthorn stopper Tom Barrass – who had 11 intercepts and 10 spoils – after earlier having his way with Josh Battle. <\/p>\n
\u201cCurnow was a really interesting one tonight \u2014 started the game well. He kicks two in the first term and you think \u2018oh he\u2019s up and about\u2019,\u201d Hall of Fame Legend Jason Dunstall said on Fox Footy post-game. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had an interesting duel with Josh Battle early, then Tom Barrass went to him in the second half and just destroyed him. He had one possession in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat made life really difficult for Sydney, when you\u2019ve haven\u2019t got a key forward that is giving you something or being that target you can kick to with confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saints great Leigh Montagna added: \u201cMaybe there were times \u2026 where Curnow just didn\u2019t will himself into the contest enough to bring it to ground, and allowed Barrass to do what he pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his post-match press conference, Cox was probed on what went wrong for the dual Coleman medallist as the game wore on. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the first half we had some speed on the ball that worked well (and) gave him some good looks inside 50,\u201d Cox told reporters on Thursday night. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the second half, our ability to execute centre-forward dropped away. I think at one stage we had 17 per cent scores-per-inside-50 in the last quarter, 38 in the first, nine in the second. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, some of our entries, method, execution didn\u2019t help – and he\u2019s playing on some really strong defenders. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019ve got to work through with him and the side as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Looks Dangerous’ – Joey on Chol | 01:01<\/p>\n
Asked if Curnow was still learning the Swans\u2019 system, Cox was quick to leap to his spearhead\u2019s defence, before admitting his fit in the side\u2019s new-look forward unit remains a \u201cwork in progress\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, definitely (he\u2019s still learning),\u201d Cox said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the hard part to do it is through the preseason – you\u2019re playing yourself. So, do you put your backs on your forwards? Do you try and get cohesion between backs, mids and forwards on one team?<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the ability for Charlie to perform consistently is still working his way through at our football club. One thing we try and say is, at all times, compete as hard as you possibly can, and try and read the cues up the ground when we are bringing the ball through. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some inconsistencies throughout that at times, and it\u2019ll be a work in progress that we\u2019re going to put time into.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was evident that Barrass read the play much better than Curnow in the second half, who at times needed to have more urgency in leading to the ball-carrier. <\/p>\n
‘Incredible contrast between Q1 & Q2’ | 01:35<\/p>\n
Asked how Cox should address Curnow\u2019s fadeout privately, Dunstall said: \u201c(Later on) you talk about how disappointed you are that he couldn\u2019t have any impact in the second half. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, once you get Barrass as an opponent, don\u2019t play to his strength. Don\u2019t just call it long in the air – get on your bike and start leading. Cover ground, take him out of his comfort zone. <\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe a little bit of that is limited because they weren\u2019t controlling the footy in transition. They weren\u2019t able to actually get some good looks going forward. Look, he\u2019d be disappointed with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Dean Cox is a forward enough coach to sit down and say \u2018mate, we needed more from you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Montagna added that Barrass was able to \u201coutwork\u201d Curnow, Dunstall said that was the one \u201cnon-negotiable\u201d for the Swans star. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the one thing you can\u2019t accept, if you\u2019re Charlie Curnow,\u201d Dunstall said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can get beaten on the day by a good player \u2014 no problems there. (But) you can\u2019t get outworked. That\u2019s the one non-negotiable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dean Cox said Charlie Curnow remains a \u201cwork in progress\u201d at the Swans after the superstar forward\u2019s second-half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,7488,1129,101486,272420,12148,12111,1119,2105,7492,3231,138110,3465,647,7198,677,4873,668,272419,85,272418,7200,69078,272421,660],"class_list":["post-550714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brad-johnson","tag-charlie-curnow","tag-comfort-zone","tag-cover-ground","tag-dean-cox","tag-dylan-moore","tag-football-club","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-james-jordon","tag-leigh-montagna","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-willson","tag-oceania","tag-post-match-press-conference","tag-press-conference","tag-second-half-disappearing","tag-sports","tag-start-leading","tag-sydney-swans","tag-tom-barrass","tag-two-goal-firestarter-opening","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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