Jack Heverin

The big news out of Bomberland is that Ben McKay is going to play in the VFL.

That's a massive call from Brad Scott.

He has come to the Bombers on a massive deal.

He's contracted to 2029.

It was all front-ended, so now he's in the back end of that deal.

But for a guy who came from North Melbourne with massive reps, with big responsibility, part of a back line with Reid...

With Mason Redman, who's back in the team as well, he was a huge pillar of that team.

For him to find himself out of the team and completely devoid of confidence, dare I say Brisbane might have got that one correct.

Isaac Cate, you've seen him recently.

He looked a shell of the player that he can be.

Well, it's a bit different in cricket.

Like you like to feel the ball and you make runs.

Whereas in footy, like Ben McKay going to the VFL, like would he be better off just going fishing or playing golf for a day or something?

I thought they might send him away for a couple of weeks, put him on a training block, go and do something else in a different state, get away from, obviously, the pressure that he's feeling around AFL football.

So I think if you, if you watch that game, you would have understood that he was slipping and, uh, Eston were probably going to make a decision, but I just hope for the young man that he can go back and find some confidence, uh, and get a good run at it because, uh, I know people like pulling teams apart and form of players, but you can genuinely say just a young man struggling at the moment.

As a component of a back six, Mackay, Ridley, Reid, Redman, they're four solid, experienced players.

That's something that Essendon can build off there, really.

So to have a guy like that devoid of confidence, that's a blow.

That is a blow.

And you want him back.