#45 Conor McKenna - the first six years

Another good player who has gone backwards. Something seriously wrong at Essendon.

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Mckenna was fine tonight and has been consistent all season, except for his ‘mare’ last week.

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His kicking can let him down. It’s those worm burning bullet low passes that can go really wrong. Just needs to take it back a bit with those kicks.

Is he learning to play as a mid or am I watching a different game?

He is an absolute star.

I say this with a bit of tongue in cheek but also not.

If he was Australian, he would be spoken about as our next big thing.

He has probably played less than 100 games of footy in his life.
He has just turned 23.

Yet he reads the game better than anyone I’ve seen play footy. By the time he has played 120 AFL games he will be one of our best 3 players, and potentially in the top 20 players in the AFL.

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I just don’t see enough of him. He got 20 possessions yesterday apparently.

I think he has been really poor the last 3 games.

Prior to that he had been amazing.

Doesn’t look 100%.

Had a limited pre-season and didn’t join with main training until after XMAS.

He had a groin issue last year and missed a game late in the season. Seems like he is still trying to manage it.

Also, he now gets respect from opposition coaches who ware putting serious time into stopping his (and Saad’s) run off HB.

Seems to try too hard the last few weeks to create something when his teammates are stagnant up the ground. Just needs to wind back the risk taking 10%.

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He’s getting into trouble when there is no movement ahead of the ball to draw his kick and he tries to force something that isn’t really on.

As a team I don’t think we read the way he changes angles very well either. I think at times he just needs to be prepared to go onto his preferred and go long down the line. If sides are protecting the corridor well, and over the last month we’ve played sides that have, he can struggle to impact a bit. I wouldn’t mind if they threw him forward every so often just to throw things out a bit.

Regardless, v he’s ticking along well from an interrupted preseason and the opposition know they can’t afford to give him an inch.

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What was that bit of play on Saturday night where he had the ball at HBF, looked inside to an open team mate, ignored him, sold the dummy to the man on the mark and ran past him and burned him off. But then kicks the ball sideways around his body (possible even backwards) to the team mate he ignored in the first place. :crazy_face:

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Interesting how two of us can see things so differently.

I don’t think I could agree with this any less.

He’s got a huge amount of ability - a really good athlete, beautiful kick, competes hard, always looks to attack, and plenty more to like, but I think the one ■■■■■ in his armour is his ability to read the play.

Why is ■■■■■ blocked?

c h i n k

I’m guessing it could be used a racial slur?

ah right. thanks.

I always knew HAP was dodgy :stuck_out_tongue:

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Didn’t have a huge amount of the ball but thought he was really creative in possession and continued to take the game on.

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Still full of brain fades - first possession of the game, Laverde gets a free kick and he runs past on a bad angle in pouring rain, drops the ball and the tigers gain all the territory for the next five minutes. Why he runs pst for handballs on the left side of players I’ll never know.

At least he bounced the ball in the pouring rain just to remind everyone of what is normal weather conditions for Irishmen.

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I thought he was poor, and hasn’t been in decent form all year.

Certainly not his best form at the moment but he tried to take the game on and that allowed the players in front of him to get on their bikes and link up.

From where I was sitting he was an important factor in getting is going.

Only 16 touches but 6 score involvements and 500 meters gained is huge along with 81% DE.

I know stats can be misleading but being at the game I thought his preparedness to take the game on was important.

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Looks his development has stalled this year. Like he got into 3rd gear last year and he has NFI how to find 4th…