Tom, Charles and Harry

April 26, 2024, 08:33:32 pm

When Charlie Curnow calls “iso”, look out.

Much like how LeBron James may clear out the floor on an NBA court, telling his teammates to get their direct opponents away to let him go to work, Curnow does the same when he is feeling it.

Having kicked 165 goals in his last 54 matches, Curnow is the league’s scariest forward, and he knows when to tell others to scram.
“Charlie sometimes calls ‘iso’ for himself and we open up some space and let him have one on ones,” fellow forward Tom De Koning said.

“When he is on a roll he is hard to stop. I would hate to be a defender against him when he is on a roll, he can score so quickly and just the energy he brings is amazing.”

It hasn’t always been smooth forward of centre between Coleman medallists Curnow and Harry McKay, as well as giant De Koning.

But the Blues have found their mojo with their tall attack, as shown last weekend when their forwards took down the GWS Giants in the second half of a tight encounter.

All three talls kicked three goals in the win and De Koning said the focus upfront was to run “dual-threat patterns” to get the power forwards good looks.

That terminology generally means two forwards leading in different directions to create multiple options for kickers going forward, and to ensure they separate opposing defenders.

“We are trying to run those dual-threat patterns and give them looks one-on-one because we know how good they are in one on ones and we have seen time and time again what they can do and how much they can affect our team scoring,” De Koning said.

“Those two big boys have such a big presence and when they are playing well it is hard to beat us.”

When the three talls all share a forward line, the Blues score off an extremely good 62 per cent of their inside-50s, well above the league average of 43.5 per cent.
Carlton leads the competition in scores per inside-50, at a usual level of 49.1 per cent.

In past years when the three all shared one attack, the Blues battled, scoring with 36 per cent of entries last year and 35 per cent in 2022.

But this year, the taller they are the better, with Carlton scoring off 51 per cent of attacks with two talls and just 42 per cent with one big man inside-50.
Curnow has been in 20 attacking one-on-one situations this year and won 42.9 per cent of them, while McKay has won 44.4 per cent of his 18 isolated battles.

The league average winning rate is just 27 per cent.

Carlton’s forward line faces a stern test on Saturday against a miserly Geelong unit who boast the league’s best defence, even with All-Australian Cat Tom Stewart out.

The Cats are top of the AFL in losing just 14.1 per cent of their defensive one-on-one contests.

Carlton's score per inside-50 percentage when Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay and Tom De Koning play forward.

No. of talls playing forward
2022
One   38%
Two   43%
Three 35%

2023
One 38%
Two 45%
Three 36%

2024
One 42%
Two 51%
Three 62%

Re: Tom, Charles and Harry

Reply #1 – April 27, 2024, 07:03:41 am

The best thing about this scenario is that it's only one of our options.