You can't keep Ken down

[Geoffa32]

ANDREW CAPEL
August 01, 2008 12:30am
HE'S been ousted by a novice, can't get a game in a side crying out for goalkickers and has been told to change his game at 27.
All this after rejecting approaches from at least two rival clubs to sign a new two-year contract at Adelaide.
If anyone had reason to be bitter at what appears to be a wasted season, it is Ken McGregor.
But he is not. Frustrated at his lack of game time, yes. Angry, no.
While McGregor has watched former Crows team-mates Ben Hudson and Scott Welsh flourish at the high-flying Western Bulldogs after walking out on Adelaide, he is not jealous.
And he won't say a bad word about anyone.
Instead key position player McGregor is philosophical about his journey.
He has vowed to continue to fight for his position at West Lakes and is working on becoming a better player - someone the Crows simply cannot overlook.
"Obviously I want to be playing AFL footy, that's my job, it's my career," McGregor said. "The fact that I'm not getting a game at the moment is certainly frustrating. But I'm not blaming anyone but myself.
"I've had chances to make my mark this year and I haven't taken them. I don't think I was terrible when I played but I also don't think I made a big enough stand in making sure that no one could take my spot. And I've paid for that."
In his 10th season, McGregor - who entered the year with 145 games under his belt - has played only seven matches and none since round 11.
In his seven games he has been benched 24 times and has played only 68 per cent of game time.
"It hasn't exactly been a year to remember but I don't have any regrets about staying here," McGregor, who kicked four goals in last year's elimination final against Hawthorn to seal a new deal, said.
"Sure, it's been frustrating, but I made a decision at the end of last year that this is my club, this is my town, my friends are here - many of whom are at the club - and I didn't want to walk away from that. Once that decision was made I decided to give 100 per cent at making it work and I'm still doing that. Obviously things haven't worked out as well as I would have liked but I'm not giving up.
"I'm going to continue to work hard and see where it takes me. I still think I've got a lot to offer."
McGregor is under no illusions as to why he hasn't been a regular in a year where the Crows have struggled for goals and gun forward Trent Hentschel hasn't played because of injury, Nick Gill and Luke Jericho have struggled for consistency and Brett Burton (knee) is now sidelined for the rest of the season.
Lifting the lid on where it's gone wrong, McGregor says coach Neil Craig has been up-front.
He wants to develop McGregor as a forward and has told him to add another key ingredient to his forward line play.
"Kurt (Tippett) is probably the guy who's taken my spot in attack," McGregor, who prefers to play in defence but can't crack a spot ahead of Ben Rutten, Nathan Bock, Nathan Bassett and Scott Stevens, said.
"He's the longer option, deeper-marking guy and I can see why they are going with him because he's a great young player and he's only going to get better.
"I guess we both play similar styles of games in that we're pretty comfortable with the ball coming in long where we can use our bodywork to take contested marks, so maybe there's not room for both of us.
"So Neil wants me to become more of a leading forward, to play like a Gill, Burton or Jericho where there are more spots available. The club wants to see me get a few more easy kicks, get away from my opponent and set up play a bit more rather than rely on a few contested marks a game."
McGregor says this does not come naturally to him but he is working hard on adding the string to his bow.
"It's something I've been working on at training for a couple of months," he said.

"I spend a fair bit of time working on my leading with Peter Jonas (development coach) and Paul Hamilton (forward coach) and I'm also trying to build up my leg power to get quicker.

"While it doesn't come naturally, I think I'm improving in that area and I'll continue to work at making it a big aspect of my game.

"It's certainly become a priority because if I don't get better at it I could find myself out of the (AFL) system."

McGregor, who has played the 11th-most games at Adelaide with 152, said learning a new skill-set had been made tougher by his SANFL club Woodville-West Torrens' insistence on playing him in the backlines.

"It definitely makes it a little bit harder but I don't blame the Eagles, that's just the situation I'm in at the moment," he said.

"Obviously it's easier for someone like Gilly, who can play the same position for both clubs (he remains a forward at North Adelaide), but the Crows have said they'll consider me for selection as long as I'm playing good, competitive footy."

McGregor, whose refreshingly positive attitude in tough times has endeared him to management, said he saw no point in getting angry.

"Getting upset and chucking the towel in is not going to help me, the club or the team," he said.

"Football's only a short career so I don't want to spend two years hating coming to the place.

"My attitude is that I want to stay upbeat and keep coming to training to enjoy it, give it everything I've got and make the most of every day I have at the club."

He is doing just that.

Is it just coincedence our 5 losses come after he was dropped (rightfully in regards to personal form) after round 11. There is a correlation between the two events.

 

[Cap]

I’d say no

However its interesting that he has been told to change his game and its clearly what has caused his massive change in perceived ability.

Personally I reckon it would be great to see him work it out and make a come back because I do believe he has the “talent” to play, just needs to find his niche

 

[IddyBiddy]

"Sure, it's been frustrating, but I made a decision at the end of last year that this is my club, this is my town, my friends are here - many of whom are at the club - and I didn't want to walk away from that."

Great quote. Good on him, obviously has the right attitude.

People forget how good he was for us down back a couple of years ago. I don't think we've seen the last of him.

 

[James23]

i think it was more of a case of no other club showing genuine interest in him

 

[lacrow]

The question on my mind for a while was why we weren't playing Kenny at CHF instead of down in the goal square?

He was obviously quick enough to handle CHB for a good while, and can take a grab, so why not try him at CHF? Is he too slow?

 

[Mismatched]

Is it just coincedence our 5 losses come after he was dropped (rightfully in regards to personal form) after round 11. There is a correlation between the two events.

I think it might have something to do with playing Hawthorn, Geelong, Brisbane in Brisbane, Collingwood at the G, and Port in their final game for the season, some of the toughest assignments in footy at the moment.

Great to see such a great attitude from Ken and good to see that he hasn't chucked the towel in and is working his hardest to get back into the side. Good luck to him.

 

[Geoffa32]

I think it might have something to do with playing Hawthorn, Geelong, Brisbane in Brisbane, Collingwood at the G, and Port in their final game for the season, some of the toughest assignments in footy at the moment.

Great to see such a great attitude from Ken and good to see that he hasn't chucked the towel in and is working his hardest to get back into the side. Good luck to him.

Or his on field "Vibe"

 

[SA Tricolours]

Is it just coincedence our 5 losses come after he was dropped (rightfully in regards to personal form) after round 11. There is a correlation between the two events.

If you look at rounds 7 to 10, Ken was also out of the team.
During that time the Crows won 3 out of 4.

So I don't think there is any correlation.
Statistics can be used to show pretty well anything, always depends on the range of data is considered.

By the way, I am a fan of Ken and would be nice to see him play again.

 

[macca23]

i think it was more of a case of no other club showing genuine interest in him

In fairness to Kenny I am sick and tired of this incorrect statement which originated from a Rucci article at the end of last year.

There were originally 3 clubs interested in Kenny which resulted in two of them making Kenny an offer (Fremantle and Western Bulldogs).

That is why the AFC offered Kenny a 2 year contract - because he DID have 2 other offers which he could have accepted, but his preference was to stay with Adelaide.

Even this article above confirms what I have said in its 2nd line.

"All this after rejecting approaches from at least two rival clubs to sign a new two-year contract at Adelaide. "

Yes, Kenny is not having the best of years, but let's at least stop this ill-based comment that no other club wanted him at the end of last year.

IMO he deserves that.

 

[TheLeftFist8]

In fairness to Kenny I am sick and tired of this incorrect statement which originated from a Rucci article at the end of last year.

There were originally 3 clubs interested in Kenny which resulted in two of them making Kenny an offer (Fremantle and Western Bulldogs).

That is why the AFC offered Kenny a 2 year contract - because he DID have 2 other offers which he could have accepted, but his preference was to stay with Adelaide.

Even this article above confirms what I have said in its 2nd line.

"All this after rejecting approaches from at least two rival clubs to sign a new two-year contract at Adelaide. "

Yes, Kenny is not having the best of years, but let's at least stop this ill-based comment that no other club wanted him at the end of last year.

IMO he deserves that.

Such a shame we must have felt we needed insurance re tall forwards given no-one else was without a ? of various kinds...any trade would have been great in hindsight.

Gotta admit, his attitude is brilliant and he sounds like a top bloke

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Such a shame we must have felt we needed insurance re tall forwards given no-one else was without a ? of various kinds...any trade would have been great in hindsight.

Gotta admit, his attitude is brilliant and he sounds like a top bloke

Kenny is a great bloke, AFC kept him an insurance ... but have both club & player honestly done the right thing by each other? ie. Would both have been better off if they parted ways at the end of last season?

 

[marvin]

I think the right call was made by both parties. Ken's heart is clearly with the club, so you'd have to question if he would have thrived elsewhere. And if nothing else, having a big solid experienced body up the front of the ground had to help Tippett's transition to AFL ranks.

 

[Valentino Dmitri]

Is it just coincedence our 5 losses come after he was dropped (rightfully in regards to personal form) after round 11. There is a correlation between the two events.

Yeah it is just a coincidence, Kenny wasn't exactly instrumental to our victory over richmond when he racked up 2 handballs and a turnover.

In all seriousness though, as others have said, he's a stalwart, he's been a great servant to the club (even if that is easy to forget given his most recent form) and it is sad that the game appears to have passed him by. It seems as though this year is a write off for him, but with another year on his contract hopefully something special can happen in the preseason, although I think that's wishful thinking.

It's easy to forget just how important to us he was just a few years ago, and I hope he's remembered for the good things when he does finally hang up the boots, rather than a hard trier who wasn't quite up to the standard.

 

[Vince Van Mackay]

He was a top of the line CHB at one stage.

 

[RealSlimShady]

Is it just coincedence our 5 losses come after he was dropped (rightfully in regards to personal form) after round 11. There is a correlation between the two events.

Are you for real? Ken was not the reason we lost to Geelong. There is absolutely no correlation between Ken being dropped and us losing 5 games in a row you fool. I cant believe I wasted my time responding to this post.

 

[Geoffa32]

Are you for real? Ken was not the reason we lost to Geelong. There is absolutely no correlation between Ken being dropped and us losing 5 games in a row you fool. I cant believe I wasted my time responding to this post.

There was an amount of tougue in my cheek....

 

[jackster83]

Let's hope that we haven't seen the last of Kenny: he's been too valuable a servant of the club to go out poorly. He's had a year to forget but so has Reilly, so it's not like Ken is the odd one out.

At this stage, he's competing with Bock, Rutten, Stevens, Bassett, Gill, Tippett, Moran, Sellar, Walker and Hentschel but with Gill and Bass unlikely to be around next year, doubts over Sellar and Hentschel, as well as Tippett and Walker likely to be inconsistent for the next year or 2, Ken may still get a go. Compare him to Thurstans for Port who is a contender for the coveted Mark Bolton award (the biggest hack to play AFL for 10 years, although McManus is a good contender) and you gotta admit that Ken is not the worst bloke running around out there.

 

[Kennyrocks]

There is absolutely no correlation between Ken being dropped and us losing 5 games in a row you fool.

Sorry to tell you this but i just ran some quick calcs and R^2 = 1.