Kennelly looks to the future ahead of second Test
Refusing to rule out a return to Kerry colours, Tadhg Kennelly plays his final competitive game in Australia when he dons the Ireland jersey one final time.
There are offers Down Under to weigh up but there’s a grá in him to finish out his playing days with Listowel Emmets alongside his brother Noel and friends. With that, the possibility of wearing the green and gold is a live one while he knows his suspect right knee, bereft of cartilage and after three operations, wouldn’t be stretched in gaelic football as much as it would be in the AFL.
“It’ll be emotional,” he said about tomorrow’s second Test, “but I probably won’t miss it because my body has taken a battering. I was offered a contract by the (Sydney) Swans but I delayed it and delayed it and delayed it because I knew the game goes for 120 minutes and in the last 20 minutes it was really killing me.
“After last Friday, I felt fine because it’s a 72-minute game and it doesn’t bother me at all. A 120-minute game for 24 weeks — and you have to train hard during the week as well — is a big load.”
The first Test showed there’s still plenty left in the tank for Kennelly, at least in an abbreviated game like International Rules or gaelic football. Being able to cherish it also made things easier for him.
“Last Friday night and even over the last six weeks I’ve been more relaxed and just enjoying myself. I’m generally relaxed on the field but I just really soaked everything up, enjoyed myself and had a bit of a laugh on the field.
“Friday night’s game was one of the best games I’ve enjoyed myself, AFL or football-wise, in a long, long time.”
Kennelly’s AFL career, he says, has given him enough spoils to be able to do nothing for the next couple of years.
But his financial future is very much on his mind. “I have to get a job,” he said pointedly.
A lesser concern for him is the future of the International Rules.
About tomorrow’s attendance, he shrugged: “You don’t know what kind of crowd is going to be there. It’s made it very difficult for the AFL to sell the game.
“It’ll be great for all the knockers of the series out there. They’re going to be loving it. They’ll be saying it’s too favoured to an Irish game.
“It’s still tinkering with rules; it’s never going to be an end product. Eventually, some different rule might come in and that’s the evolution of the game.”
He suggests extending the length of the game may be one idea to appease the Australians “if it goes too far our way”.
But what was clear to him was the gulf in fitness between the Irish and the home side in Melbourne.
So bowled over were the Australians by it, some of their players even mentioned it to Kennelly during the game.
Last week, Kennelly defended Rodney Eade’s squad selection, which has come under fire in Australia.
But as the 30-year-old pointed out, the coach’s hands were tied by the clubs.
“I know that three of our (Swans) top players were asked to play — Adam Goodes, Ryan O’Keeffe and Rhyce Shaw and the three of them had surgery.
“Surgery is the big thing here after the season finishes. You can’t wait and take a chance that it might heal in six months when the season starts. If there’s any niggle at all the club will take precedence and they’ll get you to go in and get the surgery done.”
Kennelly was the victim of that in 2008 when he had to pull out of the series to get an operation on his shoulder.
On that topic of pain, he knows there was a lot of mental anguish for the Australians after Friday’s defeat.
He doubts they’ll go over-the-top in the onerous attempt to win the series. “There’s only so much they can do. If there’s a backlash it’s not going to win them the game. I’m sure they’ll say ‘let’s play with pride’. As long as we still go after the football, it doesn’t matter what they do.”
SETANTA Ó hAilpín will have a choice of offers from AFL clubs, according to Tadhg Kennelly. The 28-year-old Corkman was released by Carlton after seven years with the Melbourne club. However, Kennelly believes there will be plenty of market interest in the utility player when the draft opens later this month.
“The only thing going against him is his age but there’d be clubs out there who’ll be hanging to get hold of Setanta,” said Kennelly.
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