Dean Moriarty
Bench
- Messages
- 4,331
Ireland's finest football export?
By Tim Watson
September 7, 2005
Tadhg Kennelly with his father Tim, mother Nuala, and sister Joe-Anne.
Photo: Peter Rae
Tadhg Kennelly, who had not kicked a football six years ago, is becoming a master of the art.
TADHG Kennelly is turning into a star of the game before our eyes. The defender was one of Sydney's best in last Friday night's losing final against West Coast. In the last quarter, he broke free and had the chance to nail what could have been a matchwinning goal, only to see it miss. The camera captured the tortured look of a footballer who has made a mistake.
Throughout the night it also captured the fluent movement of someone who was born to play the game. Someone who strikes the ball so cleanly that he is now trusted with the duties of kicking in.
The difficulty of this task should not be underestimated. From our lounge chairs, the spaces that open up appear large and easy to locate; at ground level, though, it's crowded. Coaches trust only the best kickers, the best decision-makers, with this task, which makes it all the more remarkable that the Swans' designated kicker did not play the game until 1999.
I defy anyone who didn't know the Tadhg Kennelly story to pick him out of Friday night's game as the Irish import. Not only does he kick the ball beautifully and hit targets, he handballs, backs up, tackles and runs to create. Somehow, somewhere along the journey, he has taught himself the instinctive things about the game, too.
Two years ago, he looked like an Irishman trying to master the complexities and vagaries of the game. Now he plays like any other young man who has grown up kicking a footy in the backyard of a suburban home in Melbourne.
No disrespect to Jim Stynes and his remarkable achievements in the AFL, but Kennelly has the ability to be a better and more rounded player. He may not match Stynes' Brownlow Medal but, on what we have seen and what improvement he has left, he is going to be a superstar of the game.
Kennelly is the prototype for the modern footballer. He is fast, tough, wiry, skilful and possesses a big engine. And like Stynes, he is incredibly durable, spending more time on the ground this year than any other Swan. He can play on small, quick, agile players or against taller opponents, making up for a lack of height with a great leap.
If the Swans make it past this weekend and he stays fit, Kennelly will play his 100th game against the Saints in the preliminary final. At 23, with just six years of AFL footy knowledge behind him, he hasn't fully developed yet what can the Swans look forward to for his next 100? Perhaps the captaincy beckons or maybe a permanent spot in the midfield.
George Stone, who recently returned to the Swans as an assistant coach, was given the job of teaching Kennelly AFL when he first arrived. Rodney Eade was the coach and the Irish kid had no idea what he was talking about. Football has its own language and, to an 18-year-old from Listowel in County Kerry, the language was as foreign as the city he found himself in.
Eade would talk about the fat and skinny side of the ground, contested ball and slipping into space, leaving the young Irishman totally bewildered. Stone then took him into the classroom, drew up a ground and went through all the names and terms used in football.
When they weren't inside, they were out kicking, marking, handballing, bouncing and getting the general feel of the oval-shaped ball. Kennelly had no bad habits to break as far as his kicking went so what has been produced and honed is a simple clean, fluent style.
Carlton's Setanta O'hAilpin is developing his kicking along a similar path.
Just as difficult for Kennelly was learning to use his body and to get used to it being cannoned into. On more than one occasion, Stone and Kennelly sat down and thought maybe it was just too hard and complicated. I suppose, though, anyone who has left a family in Ireland, a lifestyle and a game Gaelic football they already excelled in and chased a sporting dream across the world is not going to give up easily.
Consider the move in all this, too. In AFL, we talk of kids from the country moving to the city and getting homesick or of kids moving interstate. Kennelly came halfway around the world from a small town to live and play football in the biggest city in Australia.
On top of that, he came from a close-knit family and his father was the Gaelic football world's answer to Bobby Skilton and desperately wanted him to return home and play the local game.
This month, the chances are that, even if the Swans make the grand final, his parents will remain in Ireland to watch another son play in the All-Ireland Gaelic football championships.
In Tadhg's second year in Australia, his father, Tim, made an appointment to see Stone in his football office while visiting Sydney. He wasn't there to mince words and the sentences were liberally spiced with a commonly used Irish adjective.
Tadhg sat quietly in the corner listening to the animated discussion.
All his father wanted to know from Stone was one thing: did he think his son was going to make it? Because if he didn't think the boy was made of the right stuff, he was going to take him back to Ireland with him. In a thick Irish brogue, Stone was told not to bullsh*t him. Under pressure, and knowing the youngster wanted to stay and give it a go, Stone replied he thought he would make the grade.
But never could he have envisaged how good his Irish protege would one day become.
How Kennelly has dominated in 2005
DURABLE
Has played most minutes of any Swan averaging 119 minutes a game.
DEPENDABLE
Has lowest kick-in turnover rate of all AFL specialist kickers, although most kick-ins are short or to self (74 per cent). No.1 at Sydney in kicking to his team's advantage.
DYNAMIC
Leader in knock-ons at Sydney; No.2 in run and bounces (behind Leo Barry); No.3 in spoils and smothers.
Source: PROWESS SPORTS
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/articles/2005/09/06/1125772522797.html
******************************************************************
Big call to say he's going to be better than Jimmy Stynes, but he just keeps getting better for Sydney.
By Tim Watson
September 7, 2005
Photo: Peter Rae
Tadhg Kennelly, who had not kicked a football six years ago, is becoming a master of the art.
TADHG Kennelly is turning into a star of the game before our eyes. The defender was one of Sydney's best in last Friday night's losing final against West Coast. In the last quarter, he broke free and had the chance to nail what could have been a matchwinning goal, only to see it miss. The camera captured the tortured look of a footballer who has made a mistake.
Throughout the night it also captured the fluent movement of someone who was born to play the game. Someone who strikes the ball so cleanly that he is now trusted with the duties of kicking in.
The difficulty of this task should not be underestimated. From our lounge chairs, the spaces that open up appear large and easy to locate; at ground level, though, it's crowded. Coaches trust only the best kickers, the best decision-makers, with this task, which makes it all the more remarkable that the Swans' designated kicker did not play the game until 1999.
I defy anyone who didn't know the Tadhg Kennelly story to pick him out of Friday night's game as the Irish import. Not only does he kick the ball beautifully and hit targets, he handballs, backs up, tackles and runs to create. Somehow, somewhere along the journey, he has taught himself the instinctive things about the game, too.
Two years ago, he looked like an Irishman trying to master the complexities and vagaries of the game. Now he plays like any other young man who has grown up kicking a footy in the backyard of a suburban home in Melbourne.
No disrespect to Jim Stynes and his remarkable achievements in the AFL, but Kennelly has the ability to be a better and more rounded player. He may not match Stynes' Brownlow Medal but, on what we have seen and what improvement he has left, he is going to be a superstar of the game.
Kennelly is the prototype for the modern footballer. He is fast, tough, wiry, skilful and possesses a big engine. And like Stynes, he is incredibly durable, spending more time on the ground this year than any other Swan. He can play on small, quick, agile players or against taller opponents, making up for a lack of height with a great leap.
If the Swans make it past this weekend and he stays fit, Kennelly will play his 100th game against the Saints in the preliminary final. At 23, with just six years of AFL footy knowledge behind him, he hasn't fully developed yet what can the Swans look forward to for his next 100? Perhaps the captaincy beckons or maybe a permanent spot in the midfield.
George Stone, who recently returned to the Swans as an assistant coach, was given the job of teaching Kennelly AFL when he first arrived. Rodney Eade was the coach and the Irish kid had no idea what he was talking about. Football has its own language and, to an 18-year-old from Listowel in County Kerry, the language was as foreign as the city he found himself in.
Eade would talk about the fat and skinny side of the ground, contested ball and slipping into space, leaving the young Irishman totally bewildered. Stone then took him into the classroom, drew up a ground and went through all the names and terms used in football.
When they weren't inside, they were out kicking, marking, handballing, bouncing and getting the general feel of the oval-shaped ball. Kennelly had no bad habits to break as far as his kicking went so what has been produced and honed is a simple clean, fluent style.
Carlton's Setanta O'hAilpin is developing his kicking along a similar path.
Just as difficult for Kennelly was learning to use his body and to get used to it being cannoned into. On more than one occasion, Stone and Kennelly sat down and thought maybe it was just too hard and complicated. I suppose, though, anyone who has left a family in Ireland, a lifestyle and a game Gaelic football they already excelled in and chased a sporting dream across the world is not going to give up easily.
Consider the move in all this, too. In AFL, we talk of kids from the country moving to the city and getting homesick or of kids moving interstate. Kennelly came halfway around the world from a small town to live and play football in the biggest city in Australia.
On top of that, he came from a close-knit family and his father was the Gaelic football world's answer to Bobby Skilton and desperately wanted him to return home and play the local game.
This month, the chances are that, even if the Swans make the grand final, his parents will remain in Ireland to watch another son play in the All-Ireland Gaelic football championships.
In Tadhg's second year in Australia, his father, Tim, made an appointment to see Stone in his football office while visiting Sydney. He wasn't there to mince words and the sentences were liberally spiced with a commonly used Irish adjective.
Tadhg sat quietly in the corner listening to the animated discussion.
All his father wanted to know from Stone was one thing: did he think his son was going to make it? Because if he didn't think the boy was made of the right stuff, he was going to take him back to Ireland with him. In a thick Irish brogue, Stone was told not to bullsh*t him. Under pressure, and knowing the youngster wanted to stay and give it a go, Stone replied he thought he would make the grade.
But never could he have envisaged how good his Irish protege would one day become.
How Kennelly has dominated in 2005
DURABLE
Has played most minutes of any Swan averaging 119 minutes a game.
DEPENDABLE
Has lowest kick-in turnover rate of all AFL specialist kickers, although most kick-ins are short or to self (74 per cent). No.1 at Sydney in kicking to his team's advantage.
DYNAMIC
Leader in knock-ons at Sydney; No.2 in run and bounces (behind Leo Barry); No.3 in spoils and smothers.
Source: PROWESS SPORTS
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/articles/2005/09/06/1125772522797.html
******************************************************************
Big call to say he's going to be better than Jimmy Stynes, but he just keeps getting better for Sydney.
