North Melbourne’s Ben McKay is having a breakout year in 2021.

In the absence of key figures Robbie Tarrant, Luke McDonald and Aidan Corr, McKay has stepped up to blanket the opposition’s most dangerous key forward on a weekly basis.

His latest challenge came in the form of Max King, with ‘Buckets’ restricting the St Kilda young gun to just 8 disposals and 2 behinds.

There has never been any doubts about McKay’s quality from within the walls at Arden Street, but the wider AFL community is slowly becoming accustomed to the top tier performances he’s putting in on a near weekly basis.

McKay stood up in a North defence under siege against the Saints, with Garry Lyon amongst those impressed by his performance.

“I think we underrate his (McKay’s) performance. They’ve had 51 inside 50s tonight St Kilda, and his direct opponent hasn’t scored a goal,” Lyon said.

“As a full back watching that footy come in and at times with not a heap of pressure, he’s stood up fantastically.”

Lyon was not the only member of the commentary team to be impressed with McKay’s performance, with veteran caller Anthony Hudson heaping praise on McKay for his improvement over the last few seasons.

“It took a little while for him to find his feet while his brother was playing senior footy, but the progress he’s made over the last couple of years has been tremendous,” Hudson said.

Having played with the likes of Scott Thompson, Sam Fisher and Robbie Tarrant, boundary rider Nick Dal Santo knows what a quality key defender looks like.

Dal Santo had arguably the best seat in the house to see McKay led the North defence and stop his direct opponent from influencing the game.

“He’s having a great year and developing really well,” he said.  

Three-time Coleman Medal winner Jason Dunstall agreed with Dal Santo, saying the recent development shown by McKay indicates a long and successful career to come from the key-defender.

"Every time you see him, he plays well. He's going to be a long-term key-position player for many years to come."