Ex-#44 Shaun McKernan

Not surprising re smack, he is fairly injury prone. A shame as he would’ve been riding high after that game.

Smack was brilliant and courageous v Ds. He was rubbish the 2 weeks prior. Maybe that, along with injury, will be what limits his career.

1 Like

100% there is, particularly with tendon involvement, which is why I said above. However, league wide recurrences have gone down 1 per team per season, so they are doing something right with hammies.

2 Likes

I wouldn’t say he was rubbish.

He was still marking the ball really well but he couldn’t finish off his good work.

Except for all the times the ball just bounced off his hands.

Normally a good mark, but not in those games.

What are his contractual arrangements? Is he on a 1 year contract?

2 year contract

1 Like

From 63 inside 50s. And we had 50% more scoring shots that them. It was one of those games.

You trust Clarke to be our marking tall forward next week? Hooker is the obvious option.

Because our medical staff have NFI.

Begley told us at Sandringham last week that they only plan on playing him for a half this week in his return game. It will be another 2 weeks before he plays a whole game, so won’t be up for senior selection for at least 3 weeks.

1 Like

Yep. Or hooker on that giant McInerney

He’s fourth for contested marks so must having been doing something ok.

He’s our best contested mark up forward, possibly in the team bar hooker

Serious dukes

Well this sucks

Don’t want to dance on his grave but if that’s true it’s an indictment on us and indicative of why we are a long way from a top 4 team. I think he’s rarely AFL standard. Occasionally like Friday night he is very good but too often has no influence at all. If he’s our second or third tall he might not get too many chances in a game and as our number 1 he’ll get beaten by good backs regularly.

Was very good against Dees and great effort to return to the ground injured.

1 Like

That wasnt any of my point though. I’m just saying hes our best contested mark up forward. Who takes a better grab than him up there?

1 Like

And without Smack our 2 hit up targets are Tippa and Raz - I love Smack and his passion and although he is not elite he is very important and if he plays well we normally play well.

2 Likes

Yep, hes important to structure

Brown and Clarke up forward makes me shudder

2 Likes

They are just completely different, I have to say Brown was good for large parts of last year but is more of gets loose rather than leading up player.

Dare I say it but if Hooker is back this week he should play forward in a like for like swap with Smack.

1 Like

I didn’t necessarily disagree with you. I just said that if true it shows why we are a long way off the good sides. I see Smack as dominant in about three games a year, ok in a handful and having no influence in the majority of games.

Pushed on your question I’d say Joe and Hooksy are better contested marks up fwd. If one of those is available (and assuming Cale is fwd) I’d play Brown as the agile hard working cover up both ends and not play Smack.

1 Like