65% of Coaches Voted to Trade McKay Out When He Got Dropped. Here's Who Was Right.
65% voted to trade McKay out when he was dropped for Round 9. The registry called buy by Round 13 at $265k averaging 98. Here's what the trade-out crowd missed.
65% of Coaches Voted to Trade McKay Out When He Got Dropped. Here's Who Was Right.
The registry called sell at Round 8. By Round 13 it called buy — on a defender averaging 98 at $265k. The 25% who held are sitting pretty.
The community read wasn't unreasonable. Ben McKay posted 23 in a 64-point home belting by Brisbane in Round 8, then was dropped for Round 9. He'd scored 42 and 51 in the rounds before that. His price had drifted from $250k to $238k. The registry had called sell since Round 6.
When the community question landed — "Should I trade out Ben McKay given he's been dropped from Essendon for Round 9?" — 65% voted to move him on. The registry agreed.
The registry was wrong. The 65% were wrong. The 25% who held were right.
What the 65% Were Thinking
The trade-out case made sense on the data available. McKay wasn't in the side. His price was drifting. Cash gen had gone flat. "You cannot hold a $238k defender who is not in the team" — that was the registry's own language at R8.
The 25% who pushed back had a simpler argument: the drop was structural, not personal. The Ridley-shaped hole in Essendon's defensive six had been dragging McKay's body-on-body output for weeks. The VFL stint was a circuit-breaker, not a career decision.
Both reads had honest logic behind them. You just needed the right one.
What Came Back at Round 12
McKay returned for Round 12 and scored 67 in Essendon's 30-point loss to West Coast in Perth. Not a stat-padding effort in a blowout win — production in a losing side, away from home, under pressure. The registry called hold.
Round 13: 53 in a five-point home loss to Carlton, 18 above his 35 BE in a genuine contest. Season average: 98. Price: $265k.
Registry called buy.
"A defender averaging 98 at $265k is a gift" — that's the verdict text, verbatim.
What the Trade-Out Crowd Missed
The community question fired at the worst moment: the day after he got dropped, before the circuit-breaker had time to run. That's when the panic sets in — price drifting, name off the teamsheet, feels like more pain is incoming.
What the 65% missed was that the VFL drop was information about Essendon's structure, not McKay's ceiling. He plays better with Ridley alongside him structuring the six. Ridley's absence had been distorting his metrics — body-on-body struggles that looked like form decline but were a system problem, not a player problem.
The registry caught the same signal at R12 when it pivoted sell → hold → buy across three rounds. That speed of reversal is unusual. It happens when the ceiling was never in doubt — just the timing.
Where McKay Sits Now
$265k, averaging 98, BE 35. Cash gen has ticked mildly negative (-$591/wk) as the price tops out, but the scoring output is premium-grade return at a mid-tier price point.
If you traded him out at $238k in Round 9, you're now looking at buying back in at $265k — and you've missed the rounds he averaged 98. The 25% who held have a different problem: which upgrade are you targeting next.
The verdict says buy. At this price, that's hard to argue with.
Updated: 11 July 2026. Data sourced from RookieBible intel registry.
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