One of the AFL’s quiet retirees, Shaun McKernan would still take footy over a broken toilet

But for every ‘in’ to the league, there must be an ‘out’.

There is no designated day for the retirees or the delisted or the chronically injured. For an elite few, the spotlight continues to shine brightly as they take the lateral step into the commentary box or coaching panel. For the rest? It can be a challenging, and often confronting, transition into an entirely new career and mode of life.

For 13 seasons and 91 senior games with Adelaide, Essendon and St Kilda, Shaun McKernan was no stranger to the national stage. He was a back-up on most teams he played for – behind Sam Jacobs and Josh Jenkins at the Crows, and Tom Bellchambers and Jonathan Giles at the Bombers – but played with an energy and bravery that resonated with fans across the nation.

McKernan announced his retirement from footy in August, having not been offered a contract from St Kilda for 2022. The text message he sent when answering the request for this interview provided a telling insight into the professional pivot he is now undertaking:

Hey mate, I might have to reschedule to next week. Still out on a job and won’t be back until about 5ish.

These days, you’ll find McKernan on the jobsites of Melbourne working as an apprentice plumber with IRS International. With the career transition has come new skills, a very different schedule and a fresh perspective on the life of a professional footy player.

“The thing I’ve learned now is athletes – we think our days are so hard, but they’re not,” McKernan said. “We think it’s jam packed from getting up – doing training, weights, meeting, massage – we think it’s a lot to jam into a day and we are done by 1pm.

“(Compared to work now), those days are full on. I get into the office at 7:30 and then bounce around from job to job till about 3:30pm with half an hour to stop for lunch.

“For so long I would go to ‘work’, and everything was taken care of, everything was programmed. Now, I have to plan it. Do I go to the gym before work, or do I go after … but if I go after I might be tired from work. Actually, what gym do I go to? I’ve had to ask mates about gym prices and locations as this is stuff we hadn’t had to think about before.”

One in a hundred

McKernan is hardly alone in embarking on a career sea-change into his 30s. The average length of an AFL career is five-and-a-half years. There are 42 players on an AFL list each season and, according to Ben Smith, the AFL Players Association’s general manager of player development, “approximately one eighth of that list transitions out of the game year-on-year.”

That equates to roughly 100 players per season.

Smith notes that it can take some AFL players up to 36 months to find a meaningful career path at the end of their footy career.

“Some of the issues players face are restabilising social connections with their peers, and reintegrating into the community,” he said. “For us, it’s about instilling that confidence in our players when they transition. We want to teach the players the skills to self-navigate their journey when they finish.”

For the game’s elite, the challenge post-playing is often to identify which of the many inbound opportunities will define the next stage of their professional journeys. For the many others – those for whom the cameras and public adoration did not follow their every move – the period after retirement can prompt feelings of fear, anxiety and loss of identity as they seek a new direction.

McKernan, in some ways, was better prepared than many. A 91-game career spent largely on the edge led to inevitable thoughts as to what career move might follow footy. But the reality of the end, rather than the pondering of it, was still stark.

“For so long I was on one-year contracts,” he said. “I would lie awake thinking, ‘This is my last year, I have to start thinking about what career I want and how it’s going to look’. For a long time I had a good understanding that it could end tomorrow. But, still, the reality of life after football doesn’t sink in until you don’t go back to the club.

“(There were times) I thought I may have been behind the eight-ball. I wish I did my apprenticeship while I was playing football … (and now) I’ll be 31 at trade school with a bunch of 15 and 16 year olds and I’m looking forward to it, being in a classroom and learning something and furthering myself.

“Regardless of the time of your career, if you’ve been told you don’t have a contract and no one wants you – it’s a big thing to let go of the dream. I do know a few guys who are battling and trying to get another contract and weighing up their playing future as they’re still clinging to that dream. You wonder at what point do you move on with your life and shut that door.

“I knew at some point this was going to end, and I thought, ‘Well, do I just face reality now and end my career and focus on my personal growth instead of being just an athlete?”

A privilege, not a birthright

For McKernan, footy runs in the blood.

His brother, Corey, was a two-time premiership winner, an All-Australian in 1996 and the AFLPA’s Most Valuable Player in the same year. He polled as many Brownlow Medal votes as eventual winners Michael Voss and James Hird in 1996, but was ruled ineligible after a questionable one-match suspension for kneeing John Barnes.

The brothers are close, but their careers were contrasting. Corey was a star while Shaun walked the hard road. Still, Corey was there for Shaun in the tough times, such as when the younger brother was delisted by Adelaide. “He was rapt I got another chance,” Shaun recalls. “He just said to make sure you leave nothing unturned and give it everything you’ve got.”

Shaun’s AFL journey began in earnest when he was selected by Adelaide with the 28th pick of the 2008 Draft. Injuries and suspensions defined much of his time in Adelaide and he was delisted by the Crows in 2014. He was selected by Essendon in the 2016 Rookie Draft, delisted again, and selected once more by the Bombers in the 2017 Rookie Draft.

McKernan remembers well the unique pressures and emotions of the Draft. And he has a message for those emerging players about to learn their fate this week.

“For the new draftees coming into the system, I believe you have to put time into yourself as a person away from football – from work experience to getting an idea of what the real world is like,” he said.

“To be involved in meetings, and (exposing yourself to) different skills you wouldn’t encounter in a football club, is paramount. Put yourself in situations away from football. It will be better.”

McKernan describes his career highlight as having a career at all.

“After not being selected for Essendon’s final in 2017, (Bombers development coach) Mark (Corrigan) said the AFL coaches didn’t trust me, and if I wanted to be at the club to train hard and drop some weight,” he recalls. “It hit me right between the eyes but that conversation was the kick I needed to really switch back on.

“My best seasons in 2018, 2019 and 2020 came off the back of that conversation. I haven’t told him that before – but I am so thankful for Mark’s honesty. My career would’ve been finished a lot sooner if it wasn’t for that conversation.”

McKernan revealed earlier this year that his love for the game had waned in his final season at Essendon in 2020. There was a conversation about a potential shift to the eventual premiers, Melbourne, in 2021, but he was aware of the challenges of cracking the Demons’ best 22. He ultimately received a lifeline from St Kilda and played four senior games in 2021. His final match was a 111-point defeat to the Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium in Round 10.

Many players approach exit interviews with the coach and list manager with a sense of trepidation. McKernan, however, was more circumspect this year. He had a reasonable idea as to where the conversation was headed.

“I had an open conversation with my manager throughout the year, including a coffee where I told him ‘I am done.’ It was actually a good thing as it allowed me to think about my future, and enjoy my remaining matches – knowing the end was near. “Once you get to that point you can’t lie to yourself. As much as I wanted to be on the MCG or Marvel and play at the top level, once you know yourself – it can be harder to perform and train at the top level.

“I know that when the AFL season rolls around in 2022, there will be a part of me that wishes I was training and getting ready for games, but you have to be honest with yourself, and understand why you’re in the position you are in now.”

Retirement transition is ‘daunting’

A new apprentice, in a new environment and experiencing trade school with people half his age, McKernan knows he is starting from a long way back as he enters the next phase of his life.

His old under-16s coach, Peter Labbad, is the managing director at IRS and they’ve stayed in touch through the years. Labbad spotted McKernan’s leadership qualities long ago. He believes they will translate positively within the business.

“I’m amped about learning a skill,” he said. “I’m not great with tools as of now. I’m renovating our house and I’m useless. I like the idea of learning skills and being able to chop my mates out in the future.

“The last six weeks, I can see how guys can fall into the stress of making decisions. It’s daunting. I can see how they spiral out of control and make poor decisions that impact the rest of their lives and they don’t get that time back.

“I’ve been lucky to have people around me that can guide me through.”

McKernan won’t be entirely lost to footy. He plans to rejoin his junior club, Tullamarine, this season – “my best mate is the captain of the club and in his last year, and I wanted the chance to have one last kick with him” – and will follow the AFL when work allows.

But footy comes second to work these days. And, fittingly, the interview ends with McKernan needing to return to the jobsite.

That left room for one more question.

Would he feel more comfortable kicking a goal after the siren in a grand final, or fixing a broken toilet?

“At this stage, I’d take the footy any day of the week,” he said. “But soon enough I hope to be confident enough to fix your broken toilet. If we have this chat in a year’s time, we’re on.”