No early Swans-song for Kennelly, insist Sydney

SYDNEY SWANS officials have given short shrift to claims that Tadhg Kennelly is set to walk out on the AFL club and return to Kerry in the short term.

Sydney football operations manager Andrew Ireland said yesterday Kennelly was committed to playing out the final year of his contract — despite claims in the Kingdom that he was to return “within weeks”.

“He’s here. He signed a three-year contract a while ago and indicated this would be his last year,” he said.

“He came back after Christmas and he’s back into training and looking forward to the year ahead.”

Ireland said rumours of Kennelly heading home had become a fact of life for both parties. “He always heads home for Christmas and New Year and there’s always a bit of speculation about him. But he’s made no bones about the fact that he wants to get back to Kerry,” Ireland said.

Kennelly is working diligently with the Swans’ coaching staff to overcome a troublesome shoulder injury that restricted his influence last year.

“He had all the operations at the end of the year so he’s still coming back through the rehab group on a modified program, but he’s going well and feeling good,” Ireland said.