THERE are days when the ball seems to follow you . . . and for Stephen Kernahan there were plenty of them. 

A case in point, Round 3, Saturday 15 April in the Premiership season of 1995, when the game’s longest-serving captain put 10 over the goal umpire’s hat in Carlton’s 98-point obliteration of the team formerly known as Footscray.

Had he kicked a tad straighter, ‘Sticks’ might have given Fred Fanning’s haul of 18 a fair old shake, as the record books show he actually booted 10.7 on that sunny Autumn day when the Bulldogs’ backs offered little resistance.

“The thing I remember about that match is that it was played at the MCG on a magnificent sunny day,” Kernahan recalled.

“I can remember playing on a couple of blokes that day - Matthew Croft, Barry Standfield and ‘Secko’s’ (Michael Sexton’s) brother Ben.”

Incredibly, Kernahan was returning from a worrisome groin injury, having been rested in the previous match with Fitzroy and named at James Cook’s expense for the Footscray fixture.

“I had a bit of a groin, so I took a week off. I felt a lot better going into the game and it did the trick I think,” Kernahan said this week.

“I had a few shots on goal and the main thing is that most of them went through.”

This was also the day in which Kernahan booted his 600th Carlton career goal – and his final career tally of 738 would ultimately take him past Harry ‘Soapy’ Vallence as the Club’s record goalkicker – a record that stood for almost 60 years after Vallence booted his 722nd and final career goal to get Carlton over the line against Collingwood in the 1938 Grand Final.

Not surprisingly, “King Kerna” earned three Brownlow votes for his Dog day out.