Retired #45: Conor McKenna ☘️ - Returning to the AFL to play with Brisbane - 17/11

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JT_the_Man said:
Wait, people are saying he might be back round 1?

I read it as he’s gone with no guarantees of returning.
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Some article somewhere seems to imply that he'll be playing in the pre-season scratch matches. No idea where they got that from though, perhaps got the wires crossed with gossip from an earlier article about him playing forward in pre-season?
 
Let me ask you this....

(he asks rhetorically without actually specifically addressing anybody which generally leads to a stream of consciousness)

Our game has become professional, but more to the point the standards that players are held to have not only risen, but they are uninformed across the board. Teams have these ethics..these tag lines, one in all in, driving team standards, leadership groups shelling out penalties for non line towers.. lots is about optics, how the team looks to outsiders.

Last time i checked the individual was still a thing, i mean just because you join a team does that take away your sovereignty? does it take away your individual personality? - because my mind casts back only a generation to blokes in teams who each had differing styles on the field and off it, players had different ways of preparing to play.

Crucially you had coaches who were willing to work within these parameters and treated each player as they needed to be treated. Your paul van der haars of this world had a unique preparation of beer and cigarettes, nobody could argue he didn't turn up on match day. That was his way. Ablett sn wouldn't train a drum - no matter, leave him be, nobody could argue he didnt rock up on match day and tear the league apart.

The art of coaching and man management is lost, it was your skill to get the best out of each bloke knowing each was different in their own way and needed to be treated as such.

These days the coach walks in, gets his leaders to set some rule book of standards so they can lead by proxy while he addresses a mass of faces. Easy job.

Its too easy to forget each of these blokes has their own lives and issues and personalities and quirks - stop trying to mash them into a cube and call them a team!

If player a needs to spend time with his family in the OFF season, let it be.. if he turns up to play, if player b needs to micro brew beers and go to weird music festivals let it be, same goes.

Way to drain each bit of fun and life out of a players game then throw your hands in the air when they drop off left and right with mental health issues or want to try a new life in another state or want to go home sick
 
It is always going to suck when you lose a dynamic player like Conor, no matter how you sell it.
 
Lore said:
Yeah, and they might have got it from there. But the speed with which it's gone up, and McGowan's article on the AFL website which is similarly bereft of further details, implies that they got the news before it went to the club website. Might also be some sort of AFL official media mailing list. :shrug:
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I would not be surprised if major news outlets haven't purchased a membership to each of the AFL clubs in order to get member only emails.

I would if I was them.
 

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no issues with conor wanting to go home, i get it.

but this pre season is turning into an absolute ******* disaster...
 
Howard Moon said:
Let me ask you this....

(he asks rhetorically without actually specifically addressing anybody which generally leads to a stream of consciousness)

Our game has become professional, but more to the point the standards that players are held to have not only risen, but they are uninformed across the board. Teams have these ethics..these tag lines, one in all in, driving team standards, leadership groups shelling out penalties for non line towers.. lots is about optics, how the team looks to outsiders.

Last time i checked the individual was still a thing, i mean just because you join a team does that take away your sovereignty? does it take away your individual personality? - because my mind casts back only a generation to blokes in teams who each had differing styles on the field and off it, players had different ways of preparing to play.

Crucially you had coaches who were willing to work within these parameters and treated each player as they needed to be treated. Your paul van der haars of this world had a unique preparation of beer and cigarettes, nobody could argue he didn't turn up on match day. That was his way. Ablett sn wouldn't train a drum - no matter, leave him be, nobody could argue he didnt rock up on match day and tear the league apart.

The art of coaching and man management is lost, it was your skill to get the best out of each bloke knowing each was different in their own way and needed to be treated as such.

These days the coach walks in, gets his leaders to set some rule book of standards so they can lead by proxy while he addresses a mass of faces. Easy job.

Its too easy to forget each of these blokes has their own lives and issues and personalities and quirks - stop trying to mash them into a cube and call them a team!

If player a needs to spend time with his family in the OFF season, let it be.. if he turns up to play, if player b needs to micro brew beers and go to weird music festivals let it be, same goes.

Way to drain each bit of fun and life out of a players game then throw your hands in the air when they drop off left and right with mental health issues or want to try a new life in another state or want to go home sick
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I think you're drawing some false conclusions there; McKenna has been given a few opportunities to go back to Ireland and there's a lot of support staff around the club with the goal of working with players to help them in whatever way they need. I highly doubt individual man management is at all lost of forgotten, though the days of guys like Ablett Snr not training are obviously not going to happen anymore, and the expectations of a professional sport in terms of physical and mental fatigue are largely underestimated by many.
 
owen87 said:
I think you're drawing some false conclusions there; McKenna has been given a few opportunities to go back to Ireland and there's a lot of support staff around the club with the goal of working with players to help them in whatever way they need. I highly doubt individual man management is at all lost of forgotten, though the days of guys like Ablett Snr not training are obviously not going to happen anymore, and the expectations of a professional sport in terms of physical and mental fatigue are largely underestimated by many.
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I think plucking an Irish is the equivalent of taking some bloke from a division 2 metro footy league here on match payments and expecting the bloke who is a carpenter by day and on the pi55 weekends to adapt to professional afl life with a click of the fingers. But this bloke drempt of it all his life, they didn't.

We give the indigenous boys up north a differing set of expectations because we know they are trying to adapt to a new set of circumstances and are a flight risk. Not much different for the Irish, they come from a semi pro league but more crucially family and church are a big part of 'some' lives.

when i was over there i had a ball! best time of my life - but there was always a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach - i wouldnt call it homesickness but theres a feeling that everything you know and love is on the other side of the planet - very far away, can feel isolated

I look at it like Aussies going to the USA to punt, most come back empty handed and get on with their lives. Reckon the % of successful Irish to those who go back will probably end about the same.
 
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srobbo said:
View attachment 821492

It’s the bloody AFL/ESS membership cover curse. Last year Dev Smith was on it & look how his year turned out.

#curse
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he stayed specifically for the team photo, i reckon that's the sign hes still coming back

in other news, words are powerful - i reckon EFC carefully placed the term 'family reasons' in the statement to evoke the 'oh we better not probe too much into this one' - media clause
 
Howard Moon said:
I think plucking an Irish is the equivalent of taking some bloke from a division 2 metro footy league here on match payments and expecting the bloke who is a carpenter by day and on the pi55 weekends to adapt to professional afl life with a click of the fingers. But this bloke drempt of it all his life, they didn't.

We give the indigenous boys up north a differing set of expectations because we know they are trying to adapt to a new set of circumstances and are a flight risk. Not much different for the Irish, they come from a semi pro league but more crucially family and church are a big part of 'some' lives.

I look at it like Aussies going to the USA to punt, most come back empty handed and get on with their lives. Reckon the % of successful Irish to those who go back will probably end about the same.
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Oh I don't disagree that we need to ensure we're giving these guys the support they need to help in the transition from a different country and sport to living in Australia and playing AFL. Much like how certain clubs with strong senior indigenous players have a better track record of being able to bring in new guys from these communities with success.

I just disagree that we aren't already providing this support; Francis stayed despite his original struggles, we've had a pretty good track record with Indigenous players, and McKenna is one of the very few Irish guys who've stayed around for an extended period - something we appear to be doing even more to support him in returning home and seeing family when we can as he's become a genuinely good player.

There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes in regards to player welfare that we never hear about, but I'd suggest we're actually pretty decent with given despite the fairly disastrous decade we've had, very few players have actually sought trades elsewhere.
 
owen87 said:
Oh I don't disagree that we need to ensure we're giving these guys the support they need to help in the transition from a different country and sport to living in Australia and playing AFL. Much like how certain clubs with strong senior indigenous players have a better track record of being able to bring in new guys from these communities with success.

I just disagree that we aren't already providing this support; Francis stayed despite his original struggles, we've had a pretty good track record with Indigenous players, and McKenna is one of the very few Irish guys who've stayed around for an extended period - something we appear to be doing even more to support him in returning home and seeing family when we can as he's become a genuinely good player.

There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes in regards to player welfare that we never hear about, but I'd suggest we're actually pretty decent with given despite the fairly disastrous decade we've had, very few players have actually sought trades elsewhere.
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Fair call!

my rant was probably slightly misplaced - i just hope we can continue to cater to the fringe personality types, often they are the ones who bring something different

anyhow I think i recall seeing a video of our player support officer when the new draftees started their first day... nothing against him but he was the exact type of guy that rubs me the wrong way, seemed very patronizing yet overally utopic about everything. He had a bit of David Brent about him
 
I get it. Sinn Fein has just done what amounts to winning government (when you govern with a little over 1/4 of the vote) in the Republic. Add that to Breix and he probably wants to be home for the re-unification.

Have to say, I'd be overcome with pride too. I didn't think that the Irish, of all member peoples, would vote Euroskeptic. Having said that, they are said to have saved civilization once before...
 
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Howard Moon said:
he stayed specifically for the team photo, i reckon that's the sign hes still coming back

in other news, words are powerful - i reckon EFC carefully placed the term 'family reasons' in the statement to evoke the 'oh we better not probe too much into this one' - media clause
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Are you sure I didn’t seen him in any of the photos
 
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