Bush or Kerry? Kennelly scales heights home and away
THE tan is permanent. So too is the smile. Welcome to Tadhg Kennelly’s professional world.
There he was, a fresh-faced teenager off a plane not just onto a different continent but into a different world. Five years on, he is amongst the ruling classes of his new habitat, the Sydney Swans, and indeed the wider confines of the AFL.
“It was very, very different,” he recalls of his arrival in Australia.
“I was 18 and really excited and I felt I had the whole world at my feet. I was in one of the most beautiful cities on the planet, learning a new game and wanting to be a success.”
Youthful exuberance soon had a battle with harsh reality.
“I was taking up the game from scratch,” he recounts. “What made it more difficult was the fact that after making a name for myself as a footballer back at home I was arriving in Australia as a complete nobody. So I had to gain everyone’s respect.”
The transition was not restricted to the training pitches alongside Randwick. Sydney, for all its harbour-spanning bridges and oddly shaped opera houses, was no Listowel.
“For the first couple of months I did get homesick. It wasn’t like you could just get on a plane and come back. At times, I often had doubts and wondered if I had made a big mistake, but I just worked harder and harder and I got over it.”
Boasting tremendous natural fitness, he bypassed the usual training regimes and concentrated solely on mastering the oval ball for the first six months of his stay. It was frustrating. But the more difficult it became, the more varied the work was.
He learned drills, watched match tapes and practised, practised and practised.
Then he would practise some more.
“For the first nine of 12 months I put in a huge amount of work. All I wanted to do was to play for the senior team. It became an obsession.
“But I was always like that and my father and brother are the same. When it comes to sport we are very competitive. Once I set my mind on something, I will get it. I am never happy until I reach my goals.”
The moment arrived early in his second season with the Swans. Having spent a couple of weeks on the emergency players’ list (three or four players on stand-by in case of injury to the selected 22 man squad), he wondered if this was as good as his AFL career would get.
Forty-eight hours prior to a meeting with Carlton Blues (now home club to Setanta Ó hAilpín), Kennelly’s phone rang.
“I was in. It was incredible. I rang everyone I knew and said, ‘can you believe an Irishman is going playing in the AFL?’ There was a real sense of satisfaction, of achievement about that.”
Things got better. The Swans arranged for his mother Nuala to be flown out for the historic moment.
“After the game one of the coaches, George Stone, who had taught me everything I knew about the game, came out onto the field and gave me one big hug. For him and for me, it didn’t matter if I didn’t play again.”
Some chance. Kennelly’s performance had the fans, the management and the media applauding. He played every remaining game of the season, including the Grand Finals when the top eight teams play-off.
“That was something. After seven or eight games I was playing with the quality names and the quality players of the AFL in front of crowds of 70,000. Looking back now it was scary. At the time it was some rush.”
The debut season catapulted him into the big time. By 2003 he was an automatic selection and played all 22 league games before the Swans crashed out in the semi-finals to Brisbane. The image of a disconsolate Kennelly, head in hands sitting in an empty dressing room, was wired around the world, but the pain of defeat was only a partial reason for his rather agonised look.
“After the game we have a warm down area where the media come in, along with players’ friends and family. But because I had a lot of groin and hernia problems I needed to ice the area after every game. That meant I had to take off my togs. So I went into another room, took off my shorts and put on the ice. That’s when the picture was taken. I was a little worried and had a close look when I saw it for the first time!” he laughs.
ROY KEANE’S mantra - fail to prepare, prepare to fail - is a fact of life for Kennelly.
“I like taking care of my body. I like getting things right, taking the fluids, going for a swim or a massage. At the level we are at there is no excuse for not doing things right. If you fail to prepare properly, it is you that is going to hurt in the end.”
Off the field, Kennelly’s star continues to rise with a burgeoning media workload which includes radio, television and print. He has completed an arts degree which allows him to “keep the mind ticking over” and he is involving himself more and more in the Irish community in the city.
Already he is being talked of as a future captain with the club.
“I have learned so much from the older players and I love doing it myself now by helping the younger players. We are here for one reason at the club and I am trying to get the point across and I do that by voicing opinions and talking about what we should or shouldn’t be doing.”
He will be doing that again at Croke Park tomorrow as Pete McGrath’s Ireland bid to finish off the Australians in one of the most one-sided Tests in the Series history.
“I must admit to being a small bit surprised with how easily we won last week. Things worked really well for us, we played well and everything went our way but the Aussies had too many turnovers. That was crucial.
“There is a really close bond in this Irish squad that is really strange for a home team. Obviously, I’d have a good friendship with the Kerry lads but I’d know Ciaran McManus, Padraig Joyce, Joe Bergin really well too.”
Now that Tadhg and Setanta have taken the steps, should the GAA be preparing itself for an exodus of young talent? Affirmative, reports the Kerryman.
“Certainly they need to be more aware of the Aussies. More AFL clubs will take Irish players away and it is something that you cannot begrudge them. I only know Seán Óg and Setanta. They are two driven young fellows. You saw how well Seán Óg is doing in the Rules and he is concentrating on hurling.
“I know that people are talking about him going to Australia. He would definitely have the mind-set and the ability but his age may work against him because it would take at least two years before he would be fully in tune with the game.
“Setanta is very well regarded over in Melbourne. He has impressed them with his attitude and his willingness to learn as much as he can. He will continue to grow out there over the next few years.”
And Kerry?
“I would love to be part of it. When Kerry lose it hurts me more. It remains a big goal of mine to come back and play for the county.”
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