I’ll be honest, I just miss watching McKenna play in the VFL. He and Edwards were damn exciting on their day, no one could get near either of them.
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Surely it’s better to watch McKenna do the same in the AFL? With Saad next to him.
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OH enjoy that too, I just wanna see it twice every weekend
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Funny that, they probably decided to follow Essendon, who played Conor as a goal square forward from his first game in the VFL. It worked very well. So much so, Conor scored a goal with his first kick in AFL footy.
In fact what is often forgotten is that Conor also has very very good goal sense and can snap goals from almost any angle. One day we will play him forward and he will kick a bag !
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Didn’t feel that Conor had a great last game for the year.
Looking forward to an even better version of Irish in 2019
Definitely not his best, but still ok.
Just didn’t hit targets by foot as reliably as he normally does.
As always though, his opponents don’t hit the scoreboard much either.
He knows how to defend as well as loving to attack.
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He was also quite a good contested mark, his forward ability will hold him in good stead when he is unleashed upon the AFL as a midfielder 
Conor showed his forward nous before he was drafted, kicked a bag against the AIS v European team.
But Conor was drafted as an 18yo, this guy was 22yo and had less time to develop and he’d have been better off in the backline imo
I love Conor.
But he was possibly our worst player Friday.
Excited for next year and some midfield time.
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McKenna showed heaps of promise in the forwardline, and it allowed him to develop his skills and understanding of the game in a position where it didn’t make his lack of game awareness a complete liability. Although if you go giving away consecutive 50m penalties, it doesn’t matter much where you play.
And yet The Age named him as in our best and no mention of Francis. Go figure.
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Did he?
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Half back is definitely his best position, but for a guy who had little understanding of the game at the time he got involved and kicked a few goals
In preseason training i observed both Saad and McKenna rotating from wing to attacking half back flank roles in match sim.
Saad in that role looked lost and was covered by Gleeson for positioning, while McKenna played an attacking wing position but was able to get back to support the defence and roll back to move the ball forward through the midfield.
I believe we have a potential low 20 ave possession midfielder next season who can hit the scoreboard 1 or 2 times a game.
Or
do we continue to build the chemistry between Saad and McKenna with Gleeson, Redman and Mcgrath and Guelfi as the small defenders.
I’m interested to see how they prepare him in pre season because his growth and development has been incredible.
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The midfield is overrated. Conor has the potential to be the best HBFer in the league (think Johanisen in his norm Smith performance). Leave him there.
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No way McG plays back.
McG is a midfielder who may play small defender if an injury happens on GameDay.
Watch him dominate next year!
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For those who don’t remember: when Conor started his first preseason at the club, they put him in the backline because that’s what you do. It’s the best way to teach a newbie; they can react rather than being forced to create.
Very shortly afterwards, they concluded he was way too good for that, and sent him forward.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they started rotating the half backs through the wing as part of their quest to get more numbers through the midfield.
There’s certainly no shortage of guys who could do both; Gleeson, McKenna, Redman, Ridley, Guelfi, McGrath. Heppell and Zaka and Merrett are all more than capable of playing HB as well if need be
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It’s an interesting strategy. Gets more rotations through the Center at the expense of defence stability.
Yeah it seems they’ve been reluctant to rotate players through the backline up until now, but you can see a scenario where all of those guys are deserving of senior games
I’m baffled by why Connor & Saad haven’t been used at times as mids or even up forward or as midfield rotations off the bench.
They’re potential is partially compromised. Especially since they both run both ways.
Saad’s run in particular would be much more damaging from midfield to deep forward line. Think this occured in tbe Geelong game.
Whereas most of his runs from backline to midfield are wasted in turnovers (despite being exviting to watch).