Harry McKay’s fourth worrying head knock in five years significantly dampened Carlton’s drought-breaking 71-point demolition of West Coast on Saturday.
McKay collided heads with opponent Tom Gross, who was attempting to lay a shepherd for teammate Tyrell Dewar, in the 17th minute of the opening term, before being helped off Adelaide Oval and ruled out of the remainder of the match.
It was a devastating blow for the star forward, who was back at the top level after taking a three-week break for personal reasons.
The Harry McKay incident.
McKay has an unfortunately long history of concussion injuries. He suffered concussions in the 2021 and 2023 seasons and was at the centre of a controversial call in round 19 last year when he suffered a head knock against North Melbourne but was not immediately taken from the ground for an assessment. He was later cleared of a head injury, but the AFL issued the Blues medics with a please explain over their delayed response to the incident.
“H [McKay] is OK,” Blues coach Michael Voss said after the game.
“But he’s obviously in concussion protocols, so it at least means he’ll be missing next week.”
And the injury news was even worse for Brodie Kemp, who came off in the final term clutching his lower left leg, which he felt go on him as he pushed off to run.
“Suspected Achilles,” Voss said simply of Kemp’s injury.
“When you see that action, it never looks great, does it?
“We’ll get scans to confirm, but he’s pretty sore at the moment.”
Carlton’s victory came at a cost, given the head knock to Harry McKay in his return game, and the suspected Achilles injury suffered by Brodie Kemp (pictured).Credit: AFL Photos
In searing 34-degree heat, the skill level of both winless sides was ice-cold for much of the afternoon.
This one will hardly go down as a Gather Round epic, but it won’t matter for Carlton, who are, at long last, off the mark.
Voss expressed neither relief nor elation at keeping the wolves momentarily at bay.
“I don’t know what I feel today,” he said.
“It’s not relief. It’s nice to get the win, but very quickly you can’t help but look to next week.
“I should be sitting here with a huge smile on my face, but I’m not.
“That might say something about it.”
The external noise surrounding the Blues’ 0-4 start to 2025 – and around Voss’ immediate coaching future – became deafening last week.
Former Collingwood president and long-time Carlton antagonist Eddie McGuire led the chorus by declaring another Blues loss would spell the end of Voss’ time as coach.
Voss did his best to ignore the conjecture, but couldn’t deny it had crept into his mind.
“When you’re locked in and you’ve got a really huge belief, I think it’s easy to keep your eyes in,” he said.
“That’s what we’ve tried to do throughout, and we’ve done it previously.
“I can’t sit here and say it doesn’t have a factor.
“I don’t know what scale though, other than to say we’ve been able to keep our eyes in and keep working away.
“We get the one win – I don’t want to make it any bigger than that. We needed it.”
Carlton could have racked up a cricket score if it weren’t for a slew of gettable misses in front of goal and a general lack of polish around the park.
But the Eagles were worse. Much, much worse. Their maiden victory of 2025 seems light years away.
The Blues man-handled West Coast around the contest, which they turned into a thorough dominance in every facet.
Sam Walsh was a class above the fumbling, bumbling and slew of errors which went on around him, particularly in the first half in which he matched his career-high with three goals.
The South Australia-born Corey Durdin helped himself to four majors in front of family and friends, and captain Patrick Cripps filled his boots with three after half-time.
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