#45 Conor McKenna - the first six years

He’ll probably be the “big fish” that we’ll trade for so I wouldn’t lay the boots in too hard.

You obviously didn’t see McKenna run down Darling as Darling was waltzing in to an open goal.

He also won a hard ball on the back flank knowing he was to get tackled. He gathered cleanly, got his arms above the tackle and handballed in front and the bounce took the ball out. If he’d handballed side ways to the boundary he would have got pinged. Thought it showed real game sense and a clean pair of hands that colyer would kill for.

He also straight up schooled Levi in two one on one marking contests that he had no right to split let alone win and took a ripping contested intercept mark himself

This guy’s greatest feature is his ability to work on his weaknesses. Last week he had 3 poor marking contests; not spoiling JJ, free to bont, and one where he flew one handed. Corrected those errors this week.

I still think we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg with this guy. He is still making a lot of good runs which his teammates aren’t honouring. Even that tap over the head in the last quarter, he caught up to Zaha who could have drawn the man and played Conor in for goal (it worked out ok though).

Can’t wait to see him get another full pre season of match SIM under his belt. Not because he’ll improve but because his teammates will learn his game better as a recognised senior player. Remember, he didn’t start the year as an automatic selection and only played in one preseason game. Jackson Merrett and Stanton played as back flanks.

Laughable then imo, ridiculous now.

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Conor’s running patterns are still too much like Gaelic Footy - He is often ignored because he runs within 2 or 3 metres from the player with the ball - Spread better and run 5+ metres from the player and he will receive more handball receives.

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Interesting observation.

Mckenna as a forward now compared to his first few games would be interesting. He is better one on one and he would get on the end of a fair few chains with his running and spped. He would be able to lock the ball with his speed to put pressure on.

Think he’d be wasted as a forward, a winger maybe. But really with the way football is currently played rebounding HB’s of his quality are extremely valuable, don’t see why you’d move him.

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I should’ve been more specific, i mean to replace Fantasia for rest of year.
Agree HB/wing is his best position.

Orazio says ■■■■ you!

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I know he made a some mistakes tonight, but christ he looks good when he gets it right. It’s clear he’s been working hard on the defensive side of his game. Really looking forward to see what he can produce next season. Convinced he’s going to be a star, to be sure.

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Most of his mistakes tonight were caused by him trying to take the game on despite no one presenting for him. Even when he got past a couple attempted tacklers he had no one present and he was forced to try almost impossible kicks

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Precisely right - this happened 2-3 times.

Absolutely no one would present and he had to try and invent passes to stationery players in tight spots.

Pity the rest of the team don’t have the energy of McKenna and McGrath.

Perhaps there’s a message in that for the coach - youth brings enthusiasm and energy…and run.

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Next year, McGrath starts as a mid… and stays there!

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Great call I reckon. Made some mistakes but took the game on. He’s going to be a great player in a few years.

I hope like hell we are pushing to sign him up!

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He could hit AA level in a few years… And then fark off back to Ireland.

Every week he seems to pick up another little AFL move or attribute.

Overhead marking has been notable in the past few, and last night took a couple of rippers under pressure he just wouldn’t have a month ago. By mid next year, he could almost be playing as if he had from childhood.

Just has to stop with the elongated time looking at the ball onto the boot, once that looks natural like any other bloke, he’ll be there.

Brought him unstuck a couple of times again last night.

he did a few things on Sat that we’re quickly getting used to - the break of a tackle and bounce at full speed. ability to change direction at v high speed, his defensive pressure, etc.
one thing that I hadn’t noticed previously which he added to his arsenal on Sat, which didn’t get the kudos it deserved - his goal on the non-preferred left foot - a perfect drop punt on the run from about 40 out. I can think of only a handfu of players at EFC that can execute it at that level, the obv ones being Tippa, Hurley, Raz, not too many others. quite remarkable for a player that’s been playing for only a couple of years.
For the record - I gotta admit he’s prob my biggest “I got it wrong” player. Kid could be anything.

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I got started watching the replay earlier, (haven’t got back to it yet) and that was something I noticed and was going to comment on.

Just went, …“Hang on, … he’s not a Lefty is he. .?? Nope, … & Wow!”

Was very good. I think the fact it looked SO natural is why it’s largely gone unmentioned. If you didn’t know it was his non-preffered, … you just wouldn’t know.

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Hey, I somehow completely failed to identify Jobe as kicking a goal, so some pissy left-foot farting around?

Yeah I missed that.

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