#45 Conor McKenna - the first six years

3rd or 4th senior game? 21 possesions, (6th most EFC player) and 8 clangers… I saw at least 3.
Reminds me of heath shaw, but with more mistakes… trys to charge from half back like him… but heath has been playing since he was born… and that is where the difference lies i think… he looks unsure if he should tackle or bump… or take on a tackle or handball… where as someone like heath just knows.
The Raw talent is there… keep going, even if it takes another 3 years of honing his understanding of the game.
The only other place for such raw talent is the draft and we lost 4 main picks over 2 years… we have to have faith and hope he becomes something to fill that talent hole, that is why he was bought in.

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Stuffed up a few kicks in the first half, cost us a few goals. So did Joe.

Takes one heck of a supporter to slag off the easy target. Lets not pretend we’re any better than the garbage that barrack for other clubs. What a fucken disgrace!

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Wow! So much hate.

When a game is gone, I look for players who still give everything, not those who go through the motions. Conor was one of MANY who made errors, but was one of few who stuck to the cause and played the game out all guns blazing. To me, he’s an automatic selection next week.

Keep in mind that having the ball in the back half today was a nightmare because often no-one forward was willing to work hard to present an option.

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I’m not one for the McKenna scapegoat but for the best kick in the club, he was putrid.

But it wasn’t just his disposal, it was his game awareness. Or lack of. A number of times he was completely unaware of where he should be or what role he should be playing in the structure if the team. One example happened right in front of me in the last. Beaten to a mark by his opponent on the back flank, a team mate that was close went and stood the mark. McKenna then looked completely lost. slowly backed off the mark a few meters (no looking around or filling space). His man then gave a simple handball to a player running right behind Mckenna leaving him flat footed, and they were off for another simple inside 50.

In the third, mckenna took a mark on the back flank, looked up field and was balanced for a kick. Hooker busted his gut from the deep forward flank for a receive in an open forward center wing. Conner ignores the run and stalled, Hooker in total frustraition let out an almighty ■■■■! And I didn’t blame him one bit.

He wasn’t alone in his awfulness, but he simply isn’t ready for senior footy. I want to see him dominating the 2nd’s and cleaning up his footy awareness before we start playing him in the seniors. Serve his apprenticeship. There’s something to work with and next year he’ll be a certain starter.

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I think maybe Conor is the sort of guy, that could at this point be dropped into a Hawthorn side circa 2014, where the full system is in place & adhered to by every player, be given a role, and likely perform it admirably, and stay week in week out, & get better at it & improve from there.

It must be hard for him with so much up in the air, with knowing exactly what to do & when. No one out there at the moment is settled yet,.but they will be soon.

Once we get our systems in place as a routine, he’ll be much more at ease and assured.

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Well BDS, Conor is not good enough to be in our best 22 and would be lucky to get a run in the Box Hill team in 2014.

He makes Michael Quinn look very good.

Nah mate, c’mon now…

Way better skills, faster and hard as a cats head. I think he’d go well in a well drilled team.

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I’m still waiting for this elite kick that gets mentioned.

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You haven’t seen it yet??

It’s definitely a string in his bow.

I think it’s definitely an asset and a weapon to his game but far from convinced he’s the best kick at the club.

What about Zerrett (yesterday aside), Myers and McNiece?

Myers gets corralled so easy it’s a joke.

Mcniece has a shout I think he needs confidence at afl level but that will come.

Zach is best for mine vision plus the kick itself is superior. I’d put Conor in the top handful though. But with our team that could be league average.

His kicking was ■■■■ yesterday and good against Adelaide. He didn’t play well against Adelaide, mind you, but his kicking was good.

Edit: someone mentioned Myers above so maybe I just have a different idea of what good kicking is.

I’d still have BJ well up there. Shanks one every now and then but has the best pin point pass in the side

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Absolutely. One of the very few (alongside Zach) whose instinct is to look for the attacking option in the corridor, which he more often than not nails.

Has been immense for us this year.

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How has no one mentioned Walla yet??

Maybe it’s because we don’t really get to see it that much now that he’s not streaming off the HB line putting holes in blokes chests … I do miss that.

It was well said earlier, the idea of relying on a kick back into the middle and it not being addressed by the opposition over a full season is a pipe dream. We looked better last year with Fantasia, Tippa and McKenna at times being the line breakers off half back…

Gleeson. Stanton and Kelly are not a line breakers. Neither is Goddard but he has been excellent this year and his kicking is much better than last year and a weapon. But none of these guys have pace and Kelly and Stanton are in their last years. Gleeson is slipping…

This year we have McGrath putting his hand up for this role and he is such a gun that he is really working into the role, but seriously, relying on one player and first year player to provide the spark for our slow and aging midfield? Ridiculous!

We should persist with McKenna. We really started growing into the role off half back in the 2nd half of last year.

We need to return to rotating Tippa, Fantasia, back on occasion. Coupled with McKenna and McGrath back and the quality of Goddard, Heppell (who is well down on form but will come back) and Zach will see us move the ball in exciting fashion without having to rely on the kick back into the middle.

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It wasn’t on display yesterday, but as it has already been said, he certainly wasn’t on his Pat Malone.

Correct.

tried to do a bit too much with the kicks early in the game, and it didn’t work. Based on yesterdays performance he has definitely improved his marking.
In the last quarter this guy basically generated most of our attacking moves.
I don’t think he is a natural HBF. I would prefer to see him up on a wing or even forward.
I think McKenna’s run and vision is something this team needs. I hope he doesn’t become the fall guy for an overall poor team performance.

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Plan on putting my self through the replay just to look more closely at his performance. I know he had a few howlers in there but generally I didn’t think he was as bad as people are making out.

Anyway I’m on record as liking what he has to offer so I’ll try and post an objective analysis of his game over the course of the week…

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