Should Carlton look at the possibility and feasibility of trading Harry McKay to Sydney?
That is the idea being floated by AFL legend Jonathan Brown who feels the Blues could do worse than exploring such a concept.
The Swans have been able to lure marquee forwards to the SCG in recent history including Tony Lockett, Barry Hall and Lance Franklin.
Brown suggests they could do with the addition of 2021 Coleman Medallist McKay with a possible trade also being of great benefit to the Blues, who are currently struggling.
“Sydney have always had the big marquee forward, haven’t they,” Brown said on Fox Footy’s On The Couch.
“I think ‘Buddy’ is going to retire at the end of the year, they’ve had ‘Plugger’ (Lockett), Barry Hall and Buddy, a long line. I’m just looking at it going ‘where’s their next one coming from?’
“Knowing that Carlton has got a lot of deficiencies in all areas of the ground, if I was in charge at Carlton, I’d absolutely be open to picking up the phone to Sydney and saying, ‘Hey boys, would you like Harry McKay? Would you like your next big marquee up there?’
“It benefits both. You’d get maximum draft picks which Carlton need. I’d ask the question.
“Let’s say he’s on 900 (thousand dollars per year), it would give Carlton salary cap relief. If Buddy retires, they (the Swans) are certainly going to have that (salary cap space). They need it up there to help a Logan McDonald when he goes forward.
“I’d be open to it because the Curnow-McKay thing is not working. It may be an opportunity for young (Tom) De Koning to find a spot there in the Carlton forward line.
“I know it’s a big call. He’s certainly had a struggle. I think Harry McKay can get back to his best, but you’ve got to be inventive when it comes to fixing your team and Carlton is struggling at the moment.”
SEN Breakfast’s and V/AFL greats Garry Lyon and Tim Watson discussed Brown’s suggestion, wondering whether or not it would be something that Carlton would even entertain given that McKay is contracted until 2030.
They pondered if the Blues would be loathe to lose McKay which would split up one of the AFL’s most threatening forward line duos which is spearheaded by reigning Coleman Medal winner Charlie Curnow.
“That’s big and pretty aggressive from Browny,” said Lyon.
“I’m not saying it’s been followed up but it’s been written about in the Herald Sun today by Sammy Landsberger about the issues they’ve got with their list management, the fact that (CEO) Brian Cook has alluded to it that they’ve got a problem with their list, they’ve got one pick in the draft this year, they’ve paid a lot of money for a lot of players and now Jon Brown has come up with that, you go ‘Oh no surely not, he’s still got six years to go at $900k.
“In the end, it’s effectively what Collingwood ended up doing with Brodie Grundy when they offloaded him and made some room in their salary cap and allowed them to go elsewhere.
“Is it something they would be contemplating at all, do you think?”
Watson says if he were Carlton coach Michael Voss he wouldn’t be looking to trade McKay, rather working out a way where the key forward can work in perfect tandem with Curnow.
“No, I don’t think they’d be contemplating it,” he replied.
“I understand what he (Brown) is saying and about getting early draft picks in, but you’ve got to make it work. When you’ve got two players like that, I think they’re generational type, needle-moving players, Curnow and McKay.
“It worked better at times last year than what it has this year, so you’ve got to fix what’s wrong. We talk about this all the time with coaching, it’s about diagnosing the problem and going up with a remedy.”
Lyon and Watson went back and forth regarding the McKay idea and in particular how it would help or hinder Carlton’s overall playing list.
Watson simply can’t see a world where it would be a positive for the Blues to part with a player who has the ability to turn games off his own boot when he is fully up and firing.
Lyon: “They have long-term contracts out on players on big, big money and it impacts their ability to build a deeper list elsewhere.”
Watson: “I would think that putting the money into McKay and Curnow is not misguided and not misplaced.
“I would think that they are probably paying a lot of guys around the edges a lot more money than what they should be paying.”
Lyon: “So maybe a Zac Williams. Around $800k, they’re saying.”
Watson: “Well, he hasn’t played.
“And there’d be other contracts too that we’re not aware of that they probably need to reshape.
“If you’ve got too many midfielders, you can trade a midfielder for something you need, but I don’t see that they’ve got a ready-made replacement for Harry McKay.
“I said weeks ago that they should be playing Harry McKay as treat backup ruckman and giving him more freedom during the course of a game.
“You diagnose the problem and you fix it. The remedy may be McKay doing that as opposed to trying to find a place for De Koning as well as Pittonet and all these guys in their team. They’ve got to decide philosophically, ‘What it is that we want? And who do we want playing in those positions? How do we want ourselves to set up?’
“They’ve got to fix all those components. To me the problem right now is not their forward (line). They’re getting the ball there, so it’s the methodology, it’s the connection that they have and the way they’re playing and the way they’re instructing their players to play and the personnel they’ve got at the moment.
“I wouldn’t be giving up on Harry McKay now with where Carlton is at.”
Lyon: “I wouldn’t either.
“I liked him (Brown) throwing it up… but I wouldn’t do it either.
“If you were a coach and you were told you could have these two (McKay and Curnow), you’d go, ‘I’ll take them, let me get to work on making it work’.
“That’s the challenge.”
So far in 2023, McKay has kicked 14.16 from 11 games and is down on his usual scoring output compared to recent seasons, while Curnow leads the Coleman Medal race having kicked 37 goals.
The pair kicked 1.6 between them in Friday night’s loss to the Swans in Sydney.
The Blues find themselves in 13th position on the ladder on the back of four straight losses and six defeats in their last seven games.
They will look to recoil against Melbourne, who have lost two in a row, in a must-win match at the MCG on Friday night.