Corey McKernan

Corey McKernan (born 19 December 1973) is a former Australian rules football player who played for the North Melbourne Kangaroos and Carlton Blues in the Australian Football League. A dual Premiership player an one time All Australian at North Melbourne and one time club best and fairest winner and leading goal kicker at Carlton, McKernan was, at one time considered to be one of very best players in the country.

Early years

McKernan grew up in Melbourne's western suburbs and was recruited to North Melbourne from Westmeadows Football Club in the Essendon District Football League as a 197cm, 105kg mobile ruckman, prior to the 1993 AFL season. In his first season at AFL level, he played just one game, a loss to St Kilda in round 17.

The North Melbourne Kangaroos

1994

The following year, 1994, McKernan had an impressive start to his AFL Career, after being elevated by coach Denis Pagan to the starting line up. He quickly gained a reputation as a mobile and agile ruckman who was a strong over head mark and potent part time forward. At seasons end he polled the most votes in the Norwich Rising Star award (effectively a rookie of the year award), but was ineligible to claim the award due to a suspension he was given earlier in the year.

1996

After another solid season in 1995, in which he continued to improve, McKernan took his game to new level in 1996. Alternating between the Ruck and forward line, McKernan was dominant, often turning games with his high leap, ability to regularly take contested marks and long kicking. Not to be overshadowed by his superstar captain Wayne Carey, at seasons end the AFL Players Association awarded him the Leigh Matthews Trophy as the AFL's Most Valuable Player that year. Disappointingly however for McKernan, history repeated itself in 1996 when he polled the equal most votes in the game's highest individual honor, the Brownlow Medal, yet was ineligible to claim his medal due to an earlier suspension that season. North Melbourne went on to win the 1996 AFL Premiership, with McKernan typically magnificent in the Grand Final against Sydney. His career high 29 disposals came in the Grand Final. To add to his list of honors, McKeranan was named first Ruckman in the All Australian team and some experts had him ahead of teammate Carey as the best player in the league.

1997 to 1999

In round 1 of 1997, Wayne Carey was seriously injured and missed the following 11 weeks. With Carey out, McKernan, in just his fourth full season, became the most important player at the club. Though consistent and effective, he could not repeat his inspirational efforts of the previous year. In North Melbourne's Preliminary Final against St Kilda, McKernan dislocated his shoulder in the opening minutes and watched from the sidelines as his team went down by 31 points. The following year was disappointing for both McKernan and the Kangaroos, however in 1999, another premiership year for North Melbourne, he returned to some good form, leading the team in marks and kicking 34 goals from his 24 games. He finished the season with three goals in North Melbourne's Grand Final win over Carlton.

2000 and 2001

Later in his career, McKernan became more of a forward and backup ruckman as Matthew Burton took on most of the ruck duties for North. McKernan was second in the Kangaroos' goal kicking in both 2000 and 2001, with 40 and 38 goals respectively. He kicked a career high 8 goals against Geelong in round 19 of 2000 - a game in which he also had 8 marks, 23 disposals and 11 hit outs.

Carlton

In 2002, McKernan was traded to Carlton where he played the next two seasons. His first season at Carlton was amongst his best since 1996. He lead the Blues in hit outs and goals and claimed his first and only club best and fairest award.

Back to North Melbourne

After a disappointing 2003 at Carlton, McKernan returned to the Kangaroos for one last season in 2004, after which he retired due to injury and poor form.

Career Statistics

Season	Team	No.	Games	Disposals	Kicks	Handballs	Marks	Tackles	Hit Outs	Goals	Behinds
1993	North Melbourne	2	1	6	5	1	1	2	3	0	0
1994	North Melbourne	31	21	294	181	113	110	12	183	22	19
1995	North Melbourne	31	25	332	202	130	116	6	198	19	14
1996	North Melbourne	31	24	423	312	111	154	17	284	33	30
1997	North Melbourne	31	22	316	237	79	134	13	143	22	14
1998	North Melbourne	31	21	257	185	72	91	18	240	25	15
1999	North Melbourne	31	24	351	253	98	151	14	324	34	22
2000	North Melbourne	31	23	311	231	80	135	15	150	40	22
2001	North Melbourne	31	21	212	160	52	99	11	98	38	15
2002	Carlton	2	22	239	170	69	94	27	214	40	26
2003	Carlton	2	19	154	110	44	61	12	163	20	16
2004	North Melbourne	5	14	117	89	28	55	23	146	17	9
Career Totals			237	3012	2135	877	1201	170	2146	310	202