Ed Curnow is entering the next bracket of his career, the one where he has moved from recycled rookie to fringe battler to, now, senior figure and team leader. It's also the one where he is preparing to become known as Charlie's brother not the other way around.
Ed knows that in the next stage of his career he will be constantly bracketed with – if not overshadowed by – his younger brother Charlie. That stage has begun.
![Senior figure: Carlton's Ed Curnow is moving into the next stage of his career.](/web/20170225130129im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/m/u/s/h/n/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gukljz.png/1487932065424.jpg)
Charlie's path to Carlton has been vastly different to Ed's. Where Ed arrived via the scenic route through Adelaide and Box Hill, Charlie swaggered in as a top draft pick (12).
"It was nice to have that bit of my own career before he arrived,' Ed says. "There is that age gap so I could develop my own path without comparisons to Charlie because we are completely different players and personalities, but we are brothers."
It is the job of big brothers to knock little brothers into place. It is also the job of football club leaders to let young players know the pecking order. When you are leader and older brother the messages can be, well, frank.
"We have a few more stern conversations, that's for sure … I am more forceful with my language with Charlie because I expect so much from him. Poor old Charlie at the club he can't get away with much because I know when he is on and if he is not on. And he knows that I know.
"The time will come soon when he starts dishing out the feedback my way too which I am not looking forward to."
The older brother is proudly enthusiastic of his younger brother and the scope he has as a player. Ed thinks Charlie was underrated in the draft. He would have taken him one or two but is not complaining that he slid through to Carlton.
Charlie was typical of a type that Carlton recruited. They are all striking, Ed said, in the strikingly similar swagger they have. It's a pleasing level of arrogance that they will succeed.
"The last two years the guys who have come into the club have those personalities that are super competitive and you can tell that straight away, but they are quite respectful.
"They want to learn but they have a slight swagger, which is what you want. If you don't have that you won't make it.
"Charlie has that swagger in spades. But it's not just him, they are drafting likes. They are not over-confident but you have to have a bit of 'I am going to beat you' about you to make it.
"Charlie has always had a natural confidence but it is a good confidence. It's not too over the top or else me and [brother] George and my sisters Charlotte and Eliza would bring him down a bit. But he works hard, he backs it up with hard work and he is honest."
Ed Curnow responds to the well-intended frank conversation. He doesn't like it (no-one likes it) but he respects it.
The art of coaching is said to be to understand the psychology of the player and what buttons to push. Brendon Bolton worked out that challenging conversations worked with Ed.
"Bolts has always challenged me and it creates situations that are uncomfortable and conversations that are never easy but in saying that he has got the best out of me as a player and rewarded me when I have shown I have deserved a position in the team.
"I love being put on the edge and I really respond well to honest conversations. Sometimes you can walk away feeling a bit edgy and a bit narky but you think about it and you now the conversations you have are thought out for individual and team success."
That success, he feels, is coming. Coaches preach patience but players don't. Players, like fans, want it now and Carlton players, like their fans, are as impatient as any.
"The players are driving each other ridiculously hard. We are not doing all this work in a pre-season around training and game plan and building relationships with each other so we can just go out there and be friends and be mediocre," Curnow said.
"We want success and we want it quickly. We recognise we have got a new football club – we have turned over 30 players in the last two years and brought in new draftees who are exciting – we want to get success pretty quick so we are driving it hard."