Unwieldy. Twitchy. Petrified of fan backlash. Frightened to act without knowing what Jeanne Pratt, current Blues’ vice-president and major benefactor, and Bruce Mathieson, ex-Blues director and long-time club money man, will say and do.
Those are some of the observations made in recent years of the Carlton board, of which Kernahan is president and currently contains a whopping 12 members.
Kernahan is amazingly passionate about all matters Carlton, and will regularly angrily disagree with any form of negative view on the club he loves seemingly only slightly less than family.
Which was why it was strange five weeks ago when he initially said nothing publicly when his coach Brett Ratten had his future virtually written off.
Belated support came only after a botched first attempt.
But even the support was conditional. Ratten, Kernahan said, would coach out season 2012. A decision beyond that point would be made later.
One can only imagine how Ratten felt, and continues to feel, given it was only 10 months ago Kernahan and his board re-contracted Ratten, unconditionally, to the end of 2013.
And one can only wonder how he feels right now, after he has led the Blues to three fantastic against-odds wins - versus Collingwood, Western Bulldogs and Richmond - and still no major public backing for beyond 2012 is coming from those who run the club.
The win against Collingwood was among the most surprising of the year, and right up there with Melbourne’s defeat of Essendon in Round 10. It was proof Ratten could rally his men in a crisis.
The win against Richmond was proof Carlton players were playing for their coach. It has been a virtual VFL outfit which Ratten has had at his disposal the past two weeks, and yet still he has steered his club to victories.
He is coaching amid awkward circumstances in his own football department, too, as his relationship with the Blues’ high performance manager Justin Cordy is far from ideal.
Kernahan and his board leave themselves wide open to this question: What was the point of signing Ratten to a further two years, if, 14 matches later - after the Blues were smashed by Hawthorn on June 29 - the club had decided internally that change was worth investigating?
Kernahan and Carlton chief executive Greg Swann have done very little, nothing in the eyes of some, to quell talk that Ratten will be sacked at the end of this year and be replaced by Mick Malthouse.
The Ratten camp has even asked powerbrokers at Carlton about the Malthouse matter.
Kernahan and Swann get oh-so angry when the Malthouse matter is raised. Yet neither has ever officially ruled it out.
They dance around the question, play on the semantics attached to it. And by doing so, they are almost giving licence to the critics to continue to criticise.
Of course, Kernahan could quash the issue in one minute. Wonder if he will.
Twitter: @barrettdamian, @AFL
