Shinboner number: 830
Guernsey number: 31
Born: December 19, 1973
North Melbourne games: 196 (1993-2001, 2004)
Goals: 250
North Melbourne Hall of Fame inductee: 2026

At his peak, some good judges thought Corey McKernan was a better player than Wayne Carey.

For much of the first half of his career, McKernan, 197cm, roamed the ground with the raw athleticism of a brumby. He had the spring to match taller ruckmen at centre bounces and the pace to run them off their feet around the ground. When he went forward, he created chaos for opposition teams who already had their hands full trying to keep Carey and, in McKernan’s earlier days, John Longmire, grounded.

In 1996, McKernan’s peers voted him the most valuable player in the competition, the Westmeadows product taking the Leigh Matthews Trophy off Carey’s hands. He also tied with joint winners James Hird and Michael Voss in that year’s Brownlow Medal count, but was ineligible to win because of a one-match suspension for kneeing Geelong ruckman John Barnes in Round 6. He had also lost the AFL Rising Star in 1994 for a one-match suspension in Round 21.

The number 31 was one of North Melbourne’s best players in both the 1996 and 1999 Grand Final wins. He played like an old-fashioned follower in the 1996 triumph over the Sydney Swans, racking up a team-high 29 possessions, while he stood up as North’s main target in attack in 1999 against Carlton, kicking three goals and clunking five contested marks as Carey was well held by Stephen Silvagni.

As McKernan’s physique filled out, he lost some of his youthful athleticism, spending more and more time in the latter part of his career as a stay-at-home forward. He was a very effective one and, on his day, was still a match-winner — just not as consistently as before.

McKernan moved to Carlton in 2002, winning the Blues’ best and fairest award that season, but fittingly returned to North in 2004 for what would prove his final season.