‘Dad dying made me hate Oz,’ says Tadhg Kennelly
Kennelly was a mainstay on the Sydney Swans team at the time of his father’s death and the former AFL player grew extremely bitter of the decision to leave Ireland as a teenager, adding that time spent in Australia had denied him the chance to develop a “real” relationship with the decorated Kerry footballer.
“You often hear stories telling you how good life is Down Under, but that is not always the case,” he told Newstalk’s Breakfast show.
“When you’re away there is always the fear of getting a call in the middle of the night. As it was, I got a call at 1.30am in the morning from my brother saying my father had passed away. It was an instant hatred towards Australia that I got. I was 18 years of age when I went over, I was now 24. I felt the country had taken away six or seven years of me getting to know my real father, hearing the real stories as you do over a couple of pints. That is when you really get to know your father. As a young bloke you don’t really get that connection.
“I felt an instant hatred towards Australia and it took me a couple of years to get over that. I had become anti-Australia. That was during the peak of my stardom and I did become very bitter. That hatred had taken over when I should have been blossoming as a footballer.”
The Listowel native channelled said anger onto the playing field and admits that 2006 was probably his finest season in the red of Sydney, even if the club failed to retain their AFL Premiership crown.
“A lot of it was emotion built-up in 2006. It was the emotions of being away from my father for so long. Only going home once a year and seeing him once a year in the six years I had moved over.
“At the time I was thinking Australia had taken me away from my father. They had given me an opportunity which I took so I was the only one to blame, but I wasn’t thinking like that at the time. It was all a case of ‘why did I come out here, why did the Sydney Swans ring me? Why am I over here playing a professional sport I didn’t even grow up with?’ I didn’t know if I wanted to do it and that was my mindset at that time. It took a couple of years to get my head around that.”
The 32-year-old took a sabbatical from the game in 2009 in a bid to realise his childhood dream.
“I had grown up idolising my father who had won five All-Ireland medals. I always thought I would play in All-Irelands and win All-Ireland medals like he did.
“I honestly don’t think I would have gone back to Australia at the end of 2009 had I not won an All-Ireland. Growing up, what I wanted to do was win an All-Ireland medal. Things changed when I went to Australia. I wanted to be the best footballer over there and win a Premiership medal with a club that hadn’t won one in 72 years.
“Certainly in 2009 I had built everything up towards my family, towards my father. If I wasn’t able to achieve the top level of success with Kerry that year I would have stayed as long as it would have taken. I have some Gods up there who helped me and I am sure my father played a part. It was 30 years to the day that he captained Kerry.”
