AFL Player #32: Ben "Buckets" McKay

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32 - mckay.jpg

Contract: Unrestricted Free Agent 2029
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 30, Dave
 
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The other issue with Mckay is that he shows no leadership back there - when an opposition goal is scored, its invariably McGrath or Redman rallying the troops in defense. McKay just seems to stand there and contribute little at all.

On field talking and giving direction is a big part of footy. Reid is probably aching to get some on field advice from a fellow big man but McKay just seems very insular and intent on his matchup only.

I'd play him forward too. Need to try something different and maybe that will give him some confidence back. I'm not convinced he is a defender, Rarely goes the spoil and seems intent on intercept marking.
 
thebigboy said:
Because his career is longer than 2 games of footy. I get the frustration of how he’s played over the last 2 weeks - no question it hasn’t been good enough but in case people have forgotten, he finished 6th in the B&F. Do you do that “never beating an opponent 1-on-1” & can’t play?

Contract - Over the course of the 6 year agreement, the average annual value is approx $800k. That’s not too far off the average for a key defender in the market.

A dozen good contested marks in footy? He lead the team in contested marks in 2024 and had more than Jacob Weitering, Darcy Moore, Tom Stewart, Sam Collins, James Sicily & Callum Wilke.

Again - his career is more than the last 2 games. He’s playing in front of a midfield than mostly doesn’t work back, Merrett aside and is being hung out to dry. Has he looked bad? No question. Is he making errors, absolutely. But let’s not pretend that a) he can’t play, because the data shows he can & b) that any other full back would make us look miles better with the totality of what’s going on in front of him.
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He took 30 contested marks the entire year. That's not even 1.5 a game. Pretty average for a tall and athletic KPD.
Plus, he literally provides no upside at all, unlike a lot of the other players you listed there. Additionally, he's a net negative if you put together all of the other things a defender needs to do, such as second efforts, defensively spreading, providing an out, kicking long etc etc. He is VERY poor at all of these things.
He's a one trick pony that doesn't even do the trick particularly well, but is being paid as if he was Makybe Diva.
 
byronstjames said:
He took 30 contested marks the entire year. That's not even 1.5 a game. Pretty average for a tall and athletic KPD.
Plus, he literally provides no upside at all, unlike a lot of the other players you listed there. Additionally, he's a net negative if you put together all of the other things a defender needs to do, such as second efforts, defensively spreading, providing an out, kicking long etc etc. He is VERY poor at all of these things.
He's a one trick pony that doesn't even do the trick particularly well, but is being paid as if he was Makybe Diva.
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Career average for contest marks is 2.0 which is rated elite for the KPD in the AFL ratings. 1.5 is rated above average from memory. KPD tend to take more intercept marks or have more spoils.
Contested marks is not the best stat to rate them on.
But can not deny he has been pretty poor this year and the end of last year.
 
BomberManU said:
Wonder if whatever is wrong with Harry (out for personal reasons) is having/has had an effect on Ben?
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Was thinking the same. He looks mentally shot.
 
SpeckieMcVeigh said:
Much better second half.
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The problem is he's playing better cos we took him off Georgiades, we brought him in thinking his a lock down defender but he's actually a 3rd man intercepting backman like ridley (minus the assured disposal). It's not his fault, we didn't do our homework. Good thing is reid has done really well since going to georgiades
 
joey_jo_jo said:
The problem is he's playing better cos we took him off Georgiades, we brought him in thinking his a lock down defender but he's actually a 3rd man intercepting backman like ridley (minus the assured disposal). It's not his fault, we didn't do our homework. Good thing is reid has done really well since going to georgiades
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Not sure it was we didn’t do our homework. He was good enough for 3/4 of last season.
He had an average pre season. He is paying the price with some average form and confidence.
 
Petrify said:
The people Bronx cheering him are ****ing losers and fake fans. Dude needs confidence and you're not helping..
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Idiots being led around by the nose by the likes of Kane ****ing Cornes.

Our supporter base is full of morons.


joey_jo_jo said:
The problem is he's playing better cos we took him off Georgiades, we brought him in thinking his a lock down defender but he's actually a 3rd man intercepting backman like ridley (minus the assured disposal). It's not his fault, we didn't do our homework. Good thing is reid has done really well since going to georgiades
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He’s definitely more of an interceptor than a lockdown defender.

Another reason why I thought we should seriously test the waters to see what we could get for Ridley in a trade. Ridley is injury prone and if McKay can do 70% of the job he can do… it’d be interesting to see what we could get (would have to be worth it of course).
 
They're different types but someone at the club needs to show him tapes of peak Tom Stewart.

I cannot understand why he regularly follows opposition battlers when they lead up to the wing in situations he'll never impact, leaving him stuck 60-70m out when surely we'd rather he drop off and give us an outnumber to intercept or kill a contest.
 
Petrify said:
The people Bronx cheering him are ****ing losers and fake fans. Dude needs confidence and you're not helping..

He had a better second half when he moved off Georgi
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This made me embarrassed to be wearing my bombers gear at the game. Absolutely pathetic.
 
I wouldn't go as far as to say it was heartwarming, but I did notice after the early Bronx cheering the crowd seemed to realise how deep a mental hole he was actually in and almost started cheering along his possessions as he got more and more confident, might have been a turning point somewhere in there
 
justlookingaround said:
They keep saying he got booed tonight on SEN, I only heard Bronx cheers and felt more like relief cos he didn’t drop the mark
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They were definitely Bronxies, Draper on the other hand has been legitimately getting booed by his own supporter base and seems to love it. Very different personalities I guess.

McKay looks thoroughly rattled at the moment, and this is from someone that thinks he’s generally a really good contributor.
 
Zach Package said:
They were definitely Bronxies, Draper on the other hand has been legitimately getting booed by his own supporter base and seems to love it. Very different personalities I guess.

McKay looks thoroughly rattled at the moment, and this is from someone that thinks he’s generally a really good contributor.
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were people booing draper because of the set shot routine? If thats the case man some of our fanbase really suck.
 
Zach Package said:
They were definitely Bronxies, Draper on the other hand has been legitimately getting booed by his own supporter base and seems to love it. Very different personalities I guess.

McKay looks thoroughly rattled at the moment, and this is from someone that thinks he’s generally a really good contributor.
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I wasn't there in rd 2 but Draper's snap kicks got a full on ovation last night, I think everyone's worked out it quintuples his accuracy inside 50 lol
 
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AFL Player #32: Ben "Buckets" McKay


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