He has the tools to be better.
Whether he does time will tell.
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Watching the replay, he did a hell of a lot better than I thought. I had him completely finished as an AFL footballer by the end of the game.
Funny that he seems to have lost his strength of kicking skills / attacking nouse, and has gotten much more reliable defensively. I am not completely sure what to make of that.
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I think by the end of the year, if he is ‘thinking’ less about how to drop the ball on his foot.
If his spatial game awareness has improved, and he improves the nuances of the game (ie: when to bump/tackle etc…) then he absolutely stays in the 1’s.
Because athletically he is very very gifted.
Improve the quickness of mind, and he has the potential to be a very damaging, line breaking flanker.
Might just happen as soon as McGrath goes into the middle Full-time.
I think maybe, you can make of it, that while applying himself to an additional aspect of his game, or having a particular focus on one he needs to improve in, others fall away initally, as that addition, / improvement is worked on.
It’s when all things are locked in the brain and on auto pilot, that everything, (hopefully) comes together.
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He is getting into more contested situations and consequently there is more pressure on him when he goes to kick.
This means he is starting to read the game better. This goes with his vastly improved aerial work as another improvement.
As he is exposed to more contested ball situations he will become more composed with ball in hand and choose the less risky option when giving off.
The skies the limit with him.
Whilst he didn’t kick that well last night I thought he defended air and ground balls really well.
With a touch of aggression too, which is always good to see.
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I had to watch the game again to see where the hate was coming from…because watching, I thought he was OK.
He did miss a few kicks though, but worth keeping in for mine.
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Must admit, I saw a couple of the clangers on TV and wondered if he’d hold his spot. But, the people in the know seem to think it was a good game and still just a few teething issues. Unless there’s someone smashing the door down as a runner at HBF I guess there’s no reason to drop him. Otherwise, it’s the ying/yang of letting him get used to the pace of the game or letting him get everything mint in the VFL. It’s probably better to let him get used to things with the AFL guys at this point. If his development starts going backwards then it’s time for a reset.
Are those that seen him in the VFL extracting the urine when they say he is a precision kick?
Cause I seen nothin but clambers til the early morn with this bloke.
Watching the replay takes the emotion out of it. Sometimes - that old trope is true. Winning covers a multitude of sins.
There were some absolute howlers by McKenna - and yes, he did so some good things, too. As I see it, the problem is not that he makes mistakes from time to time. The problem at the moment is that his best football and worst football are so far apart from each other, that I don’t think you can have any confidence in what you’re going to get from him on any given day. His VFL performances (which I haven’t seen many of, so I’m guessing) must be far more consistent to have him selected for the AFL. There’s the makings of a good player there - but it’s not there yet.
If we bag him out all week and declare him finished, he might turn it all around like Zaka, Hurley, Daniher, Ambrose…
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On the contrary, quite a bit of it is there, just not all of it - yet.
Look at Q2 when McKenna went to switch and uncharacteristically didn’t square the kick enough to Myers and found Dangerfield instead (note" something Zac Merrett managed to do when looking for a short pass to Heppell late in Q4 with a much, much easier kick).
Unlike Hurley’s horrendous switch to Zaharakis in Q3 this didn’t cost us a goal.
Why?
When the ball cam back into the hot spot in Geelong’s F50, McKenna timed his leap perfectly and executed a perfect defensive spoil with enough aggression that no Cat forward was going to crumb it “front and square”.
We got hold of the ball and Heppell starting running through the centre square on the Southern Stand side looking to release the ball.
Who should be running past to provide running support?
McKenna - who immediately ran right into the corridor , took a bounce and released a good handball, under some pressure, to a player in a better position.
The result - a few seconds later the ball is in Daniher’s hands and he does that beautiful side step for a classic goal on the 50m arc.
It’s not that McKenna doesn’t make mistakes - he does - it’s that he is then very determined to make up for it and turns what could have been a goal against us into a goal for us. First by defending well, then by rebounding well.
That’s why he needs to stay in the team.
And, by the way, the “stars” in our team like Zac Merrett & Hurley, make the same mistakes too.
In fact, all players do - it’s how they recover from it and what they then do that is good is what counts.
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Yep this, said the same when I was watching. Made up for that one and then some
Aren’t we pretty much saying the same thing?
I said the makings of a good player is there, but it’s not there yet.
You said “quite a bit of it is there, just not all of it - yet”
I take your point about all players making mistakes, but if you want to compare McKenna to Merrett and Hurley from this weekend’s game:
McKenna: 13 possessions, 4 clangers.
Zac Merrett 33 possessions, 4 clangers.
Hurley: 27 possessions, 1 clanger.
Nearly 1 out of 3 times McKenna got the footy, it resulted in a turnover. And that’s despite over 60% of his possessions being uncontested.
I’d much prefer Stanton having 15 possessions out of half back than McKenna at this point in time.
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Conor continues to get to the right and spots and attempts to break the game open.
Always presenting, always pressuring, always looking for angled kicks forward to break the game open.
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- McKenna only had 7!% (or thereabouts) game time which is the lowest in the team (along with Watson) - subsequently he is not going to get a lot of possessions.
- He gets a lot of possessions in “traffic” in general. One of the clangers was actually a smothered kick off his boot. In contrast, Zac Merrett gets a lot of outside ball and uncontested short passes - we are one of the highest uncontested ball teams in the league. By the way, it wasn’t MeKenna’s best kicking game; it looked slightly off in general.
- In the example I gave Hurley and Merrett’s mistakes were much worse than McKenna’s bceause they had taken marks, play had stopped, they had time to weigh up their options and both chose the wrong option AND didn’t execute well. and both led to scores for Geelong (Dangerfield had a flying shot from wide for a behind).
- No, we’re not saying the same thing. You see McKenna’s error on it’s own; I see the error and subsequent determination to recover.
- You have to be kidding yourself to want Stanton in ahead of McKenna. McKenna wins contested ball and Stanton generally doesn’t. Stanton has been flat-footed with slow reaction times all year. That’s why he is in the VFL and McKenna is in the AFL. One is our past, the other is potentially part of the what we all hope will be a great future. McKenna is all upside. Sadly, Stanton is right near the end (he has been a great servant of the club but Father Time catches up with us all).
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Robbo put him in the Likes in his Tackle column in the Hun this morning. At the game I thought he had a stinker, more because of his ball use and decision making. Personally I have someone else taking that spot in the back flank. If the rumpours about us chasing JJ and Zak Jones are true, then we obviously have identified that pacy rebounding HB type as an area of need. It would seem for the moment that spot is his and we’re just going to have to ride out the bad with the good, but I’d prefer us to be pumping games into Langford and Francis regardl;ess of form, etc than McKenna…
Pretty sure Conor actually kicked it to JD as he was being talcked but still got it to Joe’s advantage.
My single biggest concern with Conor is his tendency to fumble handball receives. He dropped one from hurls he shouldn’t have but it ended up with hurls throwing danger into the fence so ultimately it was worth it. He does it a lot and I’m not sure if it is a concentration thing, a touch thing, or a technique thing. I’d need to have a closer look but I reckon he’s fumbled a few this year because he takes his eye of it at the last second and doesn’t take a long stride just as he catches it.
I suspect his teammates don’t trust him for this reason. There were a number of times where he broke from half back at pace and presented as a very good hand ball receive option but was ignored. He needs to get it right and the trust will come.
I’m seeing steady improvement in all other areas of his game. Bags is cooked and just keeping his head above water at the moment so we need a replacement. That will not be Kelly or Stanton long term and McGrath has far too much class to be left to rot in the back pocket. McKenna seems as good an option as any at this point so persist.
There was a moment on the wing where danger threw a head feint and chingked away from him. Conor put his head down and closed on danger forcing him to kick rather than bouncing away down the wing which is what he would have done against most others out there. We need that pace and his mongrel in the back half. I think he’ll be a seriously improved player by the end of the year if we stick with him.
One of his ‘clangers’ was a 55 meter bomb off his left foot from the defensive goal square under serious pressure. It was a good clearance because the cats needed 2 kicks for goal rather than one. Plenty of guys would have left that clearance short and the opposition would have had a shot at 45. It also showed his awareness is improving, only a week ago he would have had an extra step and got caught.
He holds his place for mine
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Neither Langford it Francis are competing for McKenna’s spot though. Mcniece, Gleeson, Stanton on the other hand…
Conor is being groomed to replace bags at the moment. If jj or Jones comes in it will not change the fact that we’ll have an opening for a lock down shall defender very very soon.
He fumbles some handball receives because he wants to race off and run with the ball before he has actually taken the ball - he actually stops looking at the ball a fraction of a second before he actually has it safely in his hands because he has lifted his looking to where he wants to run to/pass the ball to. He has got to learn to be patient for the briefest of periods when receiving a handball to make sure he has the ball safely in hand and then accelerate away.
Yep, that “clanger” kick under serious pressure in Geelong’s goal square in Q4 was actually just what was needed in that situation. He kicked it so far with his left that it cleared Parish’s head and landed in Mackie’s arms 65m + from Geelong’s goal. It was a massive a kick and provided instant relief as we were under siege close to goal. It was such a long kick there was zero chance Mackie (I think it was him) could score from there.
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