Kerr, 29, has mysteriously been forced to delay his start to the season as the champion and veteran on-baller battles recovery from knee surgery late last year.
He has already been ruled out of contention to play in West Coast’s season opening blockbuster against staunch local rival Fremantle in Perth on Saturday, March 23.
Kerr is understood to often pull up sore from intensive training and running which continues to delay his playing comeback plans.
For much of the summer training schedule the 2006 premiership star and two-times Brownlow Medal runner-up has been declared as “on target” for a potentially bruising Round 1 premiership season opener against the Dockers.
Now, the dynamic ball-winner and courageous line-breaking follower is believed to have been ruled out of a playing return at local level with his WAFL club East Fremantle for vital match-conditioning after Kerr missed West Coast’s entire NAB Cup series through February and early March.
Kerr is on the sidelines alongside budding superstar ruck force Nic Naitanui, who will miss at the least the opening month of West Coast engagements and another veteran Andrew Embley.
Embley, 31, is racing to overcome a hamstring injury and be fit for the season opening shootout with the Dockers.
Newcomer Sharrod Wellingham with an ankle problem and veteran Mark Nicoski who is recovering from hamstring surgery will also miss the season launch.
It seems that late stages of Kerr’s recovery schedules incorporate WAFL exposure before pressing for selection at the highest level.
Western Australia’s second-tier WAFL launches on Saturday March 16, with Kerr not expected to be released.
Failure from the 210-game Eagles ace to get crucial match conditioning at WAFL level this week, almost certainly rules Kerr out of derby selection a week later.
West Coast then has Easter weekend without playing commitments as the extended AFL opening round concludes and Kerr’s local club has a bye.
The Eagles Round 2 engagement is against another raging early premiership contender Hawthorn in Perth on Sunday, April 7.
Kerr’s late entry into match conditioning as he concludes an unusually prolonged recovery is complicated with AFL and local Easter fixtures and appears destined to consign the star play-maker to a start potentially more well into April, than any time earlier.
The earliest it appears the highly regarded ball-magnet would start with East Fremantle is a week after Easter.
Even if Kerr turned in impressive enough form and fitness for an immediate AFL recall, his recovery requirements could hold a link of whether the gifted play-maker was considered for a Round 3 return against Melbourne at the MCG.
An outing against the Demons as West Coast’s starting substitute could round out the dashing Kerr’s recovery in time for a home game showdown with his close friend and former teammate Chris Judd when Carlton hit Perth for Round 4 on April 20.
Significantly, the creative Kerr was injury-free for the entire 2012 season when he played in all 24 West Coast engagements after 16 outings in 2011 when he had finally shrugged of three successive years of serious hamstring and groin problems.