It was after a meeting in the lobby of the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle in February when Adelaide’s list manager Justin Reid and recruiter Shane Edwards came to two conclusions.

Having just spent the best part of an hour speaking with rising key position player Daniel Curtin, they were convinced he was on track to be a prized draft pick come November.

But they also knew that if the Crows were to continue to progress and climb the AFL ladder, then there was just no way they’d be a chance of landing him.

“The feeling was he was a top-five pick but we’d never get a look at him because if our team improves, we won’t be in that range,” Adelaide’s National Recruiting Manager Hamish Ogilvie explained.

With Adelaide’s entire playing list based in Fremantle for two weeks to play two pre-season games against West Coast and the Dockers, Reid flew from Melbourne and Edwards from Adelaide to interview Curtin – just in case.

Fast forward nine months to Tuesday morning this week and Reid and Edwards were sitting with Curtin again, only this time he was wearing a Crows polo shirt in the Club’s Melbourne office at Docklands.

The night before, Adelaide pulled off a bold live trade to move up three spots from Pick 11 to Pick 8 so they could nab the man widely considered the best defender in the National Draft. And one they’d been tracking since he was 15.

Joined by Curtin’s parents, his manager TLA’s Jason Dover and Adelaide’s CEO Tim Silvers, they dissected what had been a whirlwind 24 hours and outlined what the next week, month and year would look like.

The only one missing from the meeting was the man who had watched more of Curtin playing than any of them – Ogilvie, who spent time with Curtin and his family the night before, but had hit the road first thing Tuesday morning to drive to Bendigo to greet Adelaide’s second selection in the draft Charlie Edwards.

To have Curtin in Crows colours was the culmination of years of scouting, and three days of talks with rival clubs including the key piece of the puzzle – GWS.

So many of Adelaide’s recruiting and coaching staff had had a touchpoint with Curtin over the journey. In addition to Ogilvie, Reid and Edwards, others like Richard Taylor, Phil Harper, on the ground team Fraser McInnes and Jimmy Parsons had been watching him play, Katrina Gill had spoken to his school, Senior Coach Matthew Nicks and Senior Assistant Coach Scott Burns had reviewed footage, while data scientist Dean Dagan had all analytics in order.

His football attributes were obvious, but they also knew he was into basketball, kite surfing and learnt some jiu jitsu, that he’d grown 10cm between Year 10-11, and had started university in 2023.

Curtin had been on the radar of recruiters since 2020 when despite Covid interrupting junior footy, he was showing plenty of promise as a forward.

In 2021 he played two under-16 games against South Australia including one where he took 10 marks and had 157 ranking points.

The following year as an under-17 he had a growth spurt and played as a defender in between injuries.

“His marking was really strong in his 17^th year, he had an excellent vertical leap and good balance between spoiling and intercepting,” Ogilvie said.

“He’s also been swung onto opponents and was able to lock them down which has been a feature of his game for WA and Claremont in the WAFL.

“He did a good job on Jed Walter in the under-18 nationals and at the WACA this year Archer Reid got hot early and Dan was moved onto him after that where he did a great job and started to attack himself.”

But it was AFL Grand Final day in September, 2022, when Curtin truly announced himself while playing in the invitational game of the best 17-year-olds in the country.

“We had him as BOG that day, he was outstanding,” Ogilvie said.

“He was equally as good at either end of the ground, strong positioning, great versatility and I loved his reflexes for a big kid.”

The Crows spoke to Curtin twice in December, 2022. Firstly in Perth with the Club’s WA recruiting manager McInnes and then in a hotel in Melbourne with Ogilvie and Taylor.

Ogilvie watched Curtin for WA in the under-18 national championships this year including against the Allies.

“He had a strong game, went head to head with the dynamic Jed Walter and had 18 disposals and seven spoils,” Ogilvie said.

“His best game of the championships was against Vic Country at the WACA, but the whole way along he was very good at when being pinned down on the goal line, being able to get out of trouble with a baulk or fend off and open up the play for the team.”

Adelaide’s Perth-based recruiting staff watched him for Claremont again in August where they noted his versatility as he began to be used all over the ground including in the midfield.

Then in September Ogilvie flew to Perth to watch him live in a league final against Subiaco.

“I thought he was their best player that day, he had six contested possessions as a utility defender,” Ogilvie said.

“His overall kicking efficiency in league footy is 84 per cent and he had two games at 100 per cent this season.”

Once Claremont was eliminated from the league finals, Curtin went back to the Colts (under-18s) where he captained the Tigers to a premiership.

In the grand final he had a game-high 23 disposals and took five marks.

By that stage, Adelaide’s recruiting office had 20 match reports on him, but it was still very much wishful thinking that they would get to pick him on draft night

“A lot of clubs hadn’t put any hypotheticals forward until last Thursday,” Reid said.

“I spoke to Jason McCartney and Adrian Caruso at GWS and put some scenarios to them, they came back with some for me, and as a list management team we met on Monday morning.

“Firstly we discussed what the trade might look like, and then we made the decision that if we got that pick then we were taking the player (Curtin).”

Seven hours later and six selections into the draft, the phone in Adelaide’s box at Marvel Stadium rang.

It was GWS. The trade was on and minutes later, Curtin became a Crow.

Presented with his guernsey on stage by the Club’s two-time premiership captain Mark Bickley, the next person Curtin met was the current captain Jordan Dawson who had quickly made his way from Adelaide’s war-room at Marvel Stadium to behind the stage.

At 197cm, Curtin appeared to tower over Dawson who at 191cm is far from small.

But his smile was just as big.

“Congrats mate, we’re pumped to have you,” Dawson said as they shook hands.