AlxFromNthNarra
Rarely does big posts worth reading....maybe
Best of luck to Curtis - cruelled by injuries when he should really be in his prime as a 2nd-rower, at his age. It was disappointing to see him miss so many games for us, but that is the modern game I guess. At least he won't move to a rival and have a breakout, injury-free year for someone else leaving any sense of regret.
It always bugs me to hear opinions claiming a team made a bad decision on a player when injuries are involved. That is the risk with any signing, and injury-prone or not it is simply a matter of bad luck most of the time. Jack Bird comes to mind - Brisbane are berated for him being a bad signing - the guy can play, has played origin, won a premiership, carried no major injury history. Maybe they paid overs to begin with? Maybe not, if he had not done his ACL twice in 2 years and stayed on the field. Regardless it's Brisbane so meh.
So on Curtis, he played a part getting us through the fruitless and now-fabled 'Barrett Years', and we simply attained better results when he played. Even if he drove me nuts always cutting against the grain in 2020 and stifling our edge attack, that was the only year we didn't win more games than lost with him on the field. Individual performance aside, he was good for the team's results until 2020.
He played something of a leadership role in his time here (in my view), and that undoubtedly helped retain the 'club culture' through what could have been a completely destructive period after Barrett's meek submission and potshots at the facilities etc. Players might have believed Barrett and thought 'yeah! grass is greener at another club with shinier weight machines and soft-bottom chairs'. Thankfully Barrett sodded off, Des came in, and in year-1 matched Barrett's best efforts with a far more depleted team to finish 6th. Curtis was huge for us in 2019 following that transition to Hasler.
I will always hold him in esteem, and thank him for his service to the club!
It always bugs me to hear opinions claiming a team made a bad decision on a player when injuries are involved. That is the risk with any signing, and injury-prone or not it is simply a matter of bad luck most of the time. Jack Bird comes to mind - Brisbane are berated for him being a bad signing - the guy can play, has played origin, won a premiership, carried no major injury history. Maybe they paid overs to begin with? Maybe not, if he had not done his ACL twice in 2 years and stayed on the field. Regardless it's Brisbane so meh.
So on Curtis, he played a part getting us through the fruitless and now-fabled 'Barrett Years', and we simply attained better results when he played. Even if he drove me nuts always cutting against the grain in 2020 and stifling our edge attack, that was the only year we didn't win more games than lost with him on the field. Individual performance aside, he was good for the team's results until 2020.
He played something of a leadership role in his time here (in my view), and that undoubtedly helped retain the 'club culture' through what could have been a completely destructive period after Barrett's meek submission and potshots at the facilities etc. Players might have believed Barrett and thought 'yeah! grass is greener at another club with shinier weight machines and soft-bottom chairs'. Thankfully Barrett sodded off, Des came in, and in year-1 matched Barrett's best efforts with a far more depleted team to finish 6th. Curtis was huge for us in 2019 following that transition to Hasler.
I will always hold him in esteem, and thank him for his service to the club!
