Melbourne great and champion forward Garry Lyon has put the acid on Blues star Charlie Curnow to play with more demand after an incident in Sunday night’s defeat to Essendon.
In the third quarter of the King’s Birthday Eve clash, Jack Silvagni chips a ball inside 50 to the area of Curnow and Matt Owies, who’s standing in front, but neither player marks it in a horror mix up.
Referring to it as a “who should’ve marked it conundrum,” Lyon said the key forward in Curnow, who’s kicked the most goals of any player in the competition this season, simply had to seize the moment and mark his territory in attack over a small forward.
Watch every match of every round of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
‘It’s gone pear shaped!’: Carlton’s woes | 03:04
“(It was) 80 per cent fault of Curnow, 20 per cent fault of Owies,” Lyon said on Fox Footy. “Don’t go anywhere near the big fella’s space, for a start.”
Lyon then turned to triple-premiership winning Jonathan Brown and said: “If (former teammate) Craig McRae went and wondered into your area like that, you’d dock him on the head.
“There’s no premiership team in the history that has an unapologetic big key forward who defers to a midget. That is as simple as that and that is what has happened here.
“Charlie Curnow, it’s on your head. You mark that footy and then look down at him and say: ‘Don’t you ever get in my way again.’
“You go through every premiership team in history and will never find a big forward who will go: ‘Nah you go and get it little fella … don’t you wonder into that space again … ever!’
“Curnow should’ve marked it and he should’ve jump on Owies’ head and smothered him into the ground and said: ‘Don’t come here ever again’.”
For former Magpies coach Nathan Buckley, Owies had right of way to mark it and Curnow should’ve assisted him in doing so.
“I think Curnow should’ve called Owies in and allowed Owies to mark it. But that was a communication issue more than a positioning issue,” he told Fox Footy.
Curnow finished with 2.4 in the contest – the Blues’ only multiple goalkicker on the night – to move back out to outright first in the Coleman Medal leaderboard with 40 majors this season.
However the rest of Carlton’s forward line has struggled to fire in 2023 including ample criticism of the club’s ball movement and strategy in the attacking half.
Michael Voss’ side has just one win from its last nine games, which came over the last-placed Eagles, to slide all the way down to bottom four on the ladder.
The Blues face Gold Coast at the MCG next Sunday ahead of their mid-season bye.
‘It’s gone pear shaped!’: Carlton’s woes | 03:04