THE Blues will be looking for redemption on Friday night against the Pies, according to midfielder Ed Curnow.
Following a disappointing showing against Gold Coast last weekend, Curnow said the playing group would be out there to respond when it faces traditional rival Collingwood at the MCG in the Richard Pratt Cup.
“We’re really excited to play tomorrow night and looking forward to redeeming ourselves,” Curnow said.
“Obviously both sides are zero and two and for us it was a bit of a disappointing start to the year. We set ourselves for Round 1 and thought we played some strong footy and then against Gold Coast we let ourselves down so we’re looking forward to this week to respond.
“Watching Collingwood, I know they’ll be wanting a response too so there’s no doubt it will be a big game.”
Curnow was one of the Blues’ stronger contributors in the 34-point loss against the Suns, but was confident his side’s season wouldn’t be defined by the performance.
“I thought in some areas our effort was poor, and as a playing group we were really disappointed with it,” Curnow said.
“We had a look at some of the vision and it’s not who we want to be, so we let ourselves down in that game but we think it’s a one-off and we don’t think that performance will define our year.
“Sometimes poor efforts can be contagious – especially if your leaders are performing that way. I think that’s what happened on the day. But this week is a new opportunity, we’re excited and we have a lot of belief within the group that we can turn it around.”
Speaking to SEN on Thursday morning, the 28-year-old also praised the early season contributions of defenders Lachie Plowman and Caleb Marchbank despite the loss of All-Australian defender Sam Docherty across the Blues’ backline in 2018.
“With Sam, I think he’s a great leader and perhaps his voice down back is being missed on-field in terms of setting up the back line, but we have a number of guys who are stepping up in that role now,” Curnow said.
“Ciaran Byrne, although he’s done a quad this week, he provides dash for us and we’ve also brought in Aaron Mullett this year, but guys like Cam O’Shea and David Cuningham too so I think if each of those players can step up a little bit it will help cover the loss of Docherty – along with Plowman, and Marchbank who are playing some great footy too.”
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