Playing Hurt Part 1: Corey McKernan ignored a busted PCL to star in the 1996 Grand Final

It was the knee draining that felt like it would never end. Nearly two full syringes later, Corey McKernan’s premiership dream looked shot. But finals are all about playing hurt. See how the eventual flag hero did it.

Corey McKernan was in a race against time to play in the 1996 grand final.

It was one of footy’s “where were you when” moments.

But when Tony Lockett roosted that thumping behind after the siren to thrust the Swans into the 1996 Grand Final, North Melbourne superstar Corey McKernan was in the last place he wanted to be.

“I remember being in a hyperbaric chamber looking out that little submarine-like window at a TV when ‘Plugger’ kicked that point to put Sydney through,” McKernan said.

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The Kangaroos had already advanced to the decider earlier that day courtesy of a comfortable win over the Brisbane Bears at the MCG, but McKernan was anything but comfortable.

He had been helped off the ground in agony.

“In the preliminary final Matty Clark took his eyes off the ball at the centre bounce and we went knee on knee,” McKernan said.

“I’d started like a f … ing train. I think that was part of the reason why Clarke (did what he did) … I was pretty aggressive and fired up.

Corey McKernan is carried from the field during the preliminary final.

“I went straight off the ground and sat out the rest of the game. It was your classic PCL-type injury, but at that point I had no idea how serious it was.

“A good friend of mine had a hyperbaric chamber in Moonee Ponds and that’s where I spent that Saturday night.”

Imagine being only 22 and the stress of fighting to be fit for your maiden Grand Final. Now picture tying for the Brownlow Medal with James Hird and Michael Voss in the same week, but being unable to claim it for the first time in history because you’re ineligible through suspension.

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“I think the reason why I had my tracksuit pants rolled up when Channel 7 came around was because I’d just been icing the knee non-stop at home,” McKernan said.

“But it’s funny, I don’t think I ever considered it an option that I wasn’t going to play.”

But more than a few others did.

North doctor Harry Unglik escorted McKernan to Vimy House in Kew on the Wednesday and was shocked to see nearly 50ml of fluid drained out of the big man’s right knee.

“I thought they were going to drain a little bit out, but it just kept going and going. We filled up one syringe and were a long way through filling up the second,” McKernan said.

“I remember Harry standing there and once he saw how much blood they had to drain out of it he said: ‘I actually don’t think this is the wisest idea to play’ and my response was, ‘F*** off Harry, I’m playing’,” McKernan said.

Corey McKernan suffered a serious knee injury against Brisbane.

McKernan had done nothing, but trained on Thursday in front of thousands at Arden Street and somehow ignored any discomfort he had to get through.

Come Grand Final day he was started forward, but one of the hottest players of ‘96 had a quiet first term.

Then, just before the quarter-time siren he got “smashed” on his dodgy knee.

“We walked into the huddle and Denis (Pagan) was a bit antsy because Troy Luff had kicked three goals in the first quarter, which wasn’t part of the plan,” he said.

“He comes up and says, ‘Harry (Unglik), if he’s not right get him off the ground.’

“I remember thinking ‘this will be remembered forever so you need to get going. This is the time’.

“From that moment on though, Denis put me back in the ruck and it’s funny, I should have done my PCL every game.”

McKernan proved critical in turning the Grand Final North Melbourne’s way and by the final siren he was a premiership player with 29 possessions — the most of any Kangaroo.

The rewards was worth the risk — and then some.

“It was only afterwards you realise. I went in and had the operation where they cut some of my hamstring and created a new posterior cruciate,” he said.

“But if you ask me, out of my entire footy career what the best thing I ever did was I would say the way I handled that Grand Final week as a 22-year-old.

Corey McKernan recovered to play in the Grand Final.

Corey McKernan celebrates with the 1996 premiership cup.

“When you hear people say now that big guys are still young and developing at 22, well, I was going into the biggest game of my life with the knee and the Brownlow stuff all thrown in.

“It’s why I look forward to watching grand finals, because I not only managed to get through, but I stood up as big as anyone in the biggest game of all.”

Originally published as Playing Hurt Part 1: Corey McKernan ignored a busted PCL to star in the 1996 Grand Final