Peter McKenna (born 27 August 1946 in Brunswick West, Victoria) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented Collingwood and Carlton in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1960s and 1970s. He also represented Devonport in the North West Football Union (NWFU), and Northcote, Port Melbourne and Geelong West in the Victorian Football Association (VFA).
Regarded as one of the best full-forwards to ever play the game, McKenna holds the VFL/AFL record for the longest sequence of matches in which he scored at least one goal: 121 matches. A moptop hairstyle, genial grin, and a gift for taking chest-high marks won McKenna adulation in the 1960s and 1970s as the game's first multimedia star. He continued his involvement in the game as a commentator with the Seven Network during the 1980s and 1990s.
Playing career
McKenna was the second of five children to Winnie and Kevin McKenna. He grew up supporting and played soccer until he was 13.
Recruited from West Heidelberg YCW, McKenna credited Collingwood coach Bob Rose for patiently helping to shape him into the champion footballer he was to become. In the opening round of the 1966 VFL season against at Victoria Park, McKenna gave a glimpse of what was to come when he kicked 12 goals in a match-winning effort, the first of thirteen occasions when he would kick ten or more goals in a game. However, McKenna's form dropped away; and, after being held goalless against in Round 6, he was dropped for the remainder of the season.
McKenna kicked 47 goals in 1967, leading Collingwood's goalkicking for the first time. He went on to win that award for eight consecutive seasons, including in 1969 and 1971 when he kicked 143 and 134 goals respectively. From the start of the 1968 VFL season to Round 3, 1974, McKenna kicked at least one goal in 121 consecutive games, still a competition record.
Collingwood played in two grand finals during McKenna's career, 1966 and 1970, both of which Collingwood lost. McKenna did not play in the former match. In the latter game he was concussed in a collision with teammate Des Tuddenham before half time which contributed to Collingwood giving up a 44-point half time lead.
In 1972 and 1973 McKenna was the VFL leading goalkicker, kicking 130 in 1972 and 86 in 1973. In 1972 he was also named All-Australian for his performance in the 1972 Perth Carnival for Victoria.
At the end of Round 10, 1975, McKenna led Collingwood's goalkicking list with a modest total of 26 goals, but the following week he had a poor game in which he was held goalless in the Round 11 Queen's Birthday match against Melbourne Football Club. This performance saw him and a number of teammates in Round 12 dropped to the reserves against South Melbourne Football Club at VFL Park in which he suffered a kidney injury – he did not play for Collingwood again after that.
In 1976, McKenna played with the Devonport Magpies in Tasmania's North West Football Union (NWFU). He played a solitary season for Devonport and kicked 79 goals in 17 games.
McKenna returned to the VFL in 1977 to play for Collingwood's bitter rival, Carlton, kicking 36 goals in 11 games. He left Carlton after one season and then spent three years in the Victorian Football Association (VFA), playing one year with each of Geelong West (67 goals) and Port Melbourne (52 goals), where he was captain/coach, and Northcote (98 goals).
Altogether, McKenna's VFL record of 874 goals from 191 games was enough to place him as the league's fourth-highest goalkicker at the time of his retirement, behind only Gordon Coventry, Doug Wade and Jack Titus. As of the end of the 2021 AFL season, he sat tenth on the all-time league leaderboard; additionally, he has scored the most goals of any player to finish their career with fewer than 200 VFL/AFL games. His full senior and representative career yielded 1,213 goals.