Australian Football Hall of Fame member and “proud and passionate South Australian” Neil Kerley has died in a car crash. He was 88.
Kerley made his mark on Australia’s home-grown football code as an outstanding player, coach, administrator and media figure.
Even long after his retirement as a player, Kerley’s passionate support for South Australia – especially in State of Origin clashes with arch-rival Victoria – was unrivalled.
Kerley – affectionately nicknamed “Knuckles” – played 276 games for West Adelaide, South Adelaide and Glenelg, and represented his state 32 times.
He also coached five SANFL clubs to a total of four premierships.
When the Adelaide Crows entered the AFL in 1991, Kerley was appointed their inaugural football manager as a key support figure to first-year coach Graham Cornes.
“Neil’s contribution to the game is immeasurable and he embodied what it means to be a proud and passionate South Australian,” Crows chairman John Olsen said in a statement.
“As a player and coach, he was tough and uncompromising and he commanded respect, and he will be remembered as one of football’s great characters.
“In the context of his overall career, his time at the Crows was brief but his impact is best described as significant given he helped build the club from the ground up.”
Kerley’s verbal stoushes before Victorian counterpart Ted Whitten during State of Origin fixtures were the stuff of legend.
He died on Wednesday afternoon in a car accident in the Murraylands region of SA.
(with AAP)
Neil Kerley addresses the room during the 2019 Australian Football Hall of Fame Dinner. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos)
Demon for life? Oliver inks monster deal
Melbourne star Clayton Oliver has signed a whopping seven-year contract extension, tying him to the Demons until the end of 2030.
Reported to be worth around $1 million per season, the deal has taken Oliver out of the market a year before his current contract was set to expire, at which point he would have become a restricted free agent.
It gives the 24-year old the longest deal in the AFL, with Dees teammate Christian Petracca’s contract expiring at the end of 2029, having signed his own seven-year extension earlier in the year.
Regarded as one of the game’s premier midfielders and among the favourites to claim this year’s Brownlow Medal, Melbourne list manager Tim Lamb said the news is ‘a huge endorsement of the culture we have built’.
“Clayton is an elite midfielder who has shown incredible consistency over his career, highlighted by the three Bluey Truscott Trophies already to his name. He is loved and respected by his teammates and coaches and is a key pillar of our ambitions to achieve sustained success,” Lamb said in a statement.
“His ability to perform at an extremely high-level week after week is a direct reflection of the amount of work and effort he puts into his training. His training standards are reflected in his performance come game time.
“At only 24-years of age, we are excited to see what Clayton can achieve in the future and we know our members and supporters will love watching him perform in the red and blue for the rest of his career.”
The Demons hope to lock in star out-of-contract pair Angus Brayshaw and Luke Jackson next, with the premiership pair hotly linked to rival clubs on massive deals.
(Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)
AFLW pick 1 to balance school in Melbourne with footy in Sydney
Fresh off the emotions of earning top billing at the AFLW draft, Montana Ham will juggle her year-12 studies in Melbourne with pre-season training in Sydney.
The gun midfielder could have remained in Victoria but instead nominated for the NSW draft, allowing the Swans to swoop with their prized No.1 pick.
With the upcoming season starting in August, Ham, 18, will have to get stuck into her first AFLW campaign, travelling back and forth across the border, while dealing with the toughest year of school.
“It’s been a flood of emotions, but I’m very excited for the future,” she said.
“I’m really looking forward to getting to Sydney and meeting my teammates.
“I’ve got to find the right balance with school and footy, but I’ll be heading up to Sydney for three weeks while I’m on school holidays and doing as much training as I can.”
Ham was confident she could juggle her competing commitments.
“Throughout the week I’ll be at school, and then on the weekends I’ll go and train as much with Sydney who have been awesome with their support around me and do everything they can to help me,” she said.
“They’ve got a great list … I’m really looking forward to getting down there and meeting them.”
Ham, who said her mother would stay in Melbourne while she travels, plans to study exercise and sport science at UTS next year but was particularly keen to live by the water in Sydney.
“The water’s a big part of who I was growing up, I always went down to the coast for surfing,” she said.
“Being able to live 20 minutes from the beach is something I’m really looking forward to.
“It’s a bit daunting [to move away] – a new challenge for me but I have a lot of good people around me and a good support network. I’m absolutely thrilled.”
(with AAP)
Willie
Roar Rookie
No, cant say I did. I think I slipped into Prospect Oval once.
Willie
Roar Rookie
That's funny. I went with a couple of mates, one who was / still is a Glenelg guy. I think he's still in disbelief!
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
Try telling my old man that. My mother was brought up a West Torrens, gal. You can imagine the fights in our house over that, along with my Gramps hating Norwood too.
Neville Roberts - the born and bred Eagles man who defected to Norwood for a year or so to win a flag! Still cant forgive him!
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
No, tell me please. I've probably heard the gist .... maybe?
Curmudgeon1961
Roar Rookie
Rowdy did you hear the famous anecdote about the VFL recruiters (Slug Jordan?) phone call to McIntosh....
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
https://m.facebook.com/sanflofficial/videos/youll-want-to-watch-this-one-norwood-fans-garry-mcintosh-reminds-everyone-just-h/280702460424587/
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Did you ever break into the Parade. The NE corner was into the Norwood Demonstration Primary rather like SA is into the corner of Qld. On both the north and east sides abutting that corner there were areas you could slip in between the fence wire and corrugated galv. And you got eats by collecting the deposit on discarded bottles.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
It was my last year of High School and my Tiges mate was P!$$€d as over that loss. He was like SA's "Robert the Bruce".
Willie
Roar Rookie
I'm also a Redlegs man, now in my sixties. I was at the 75 grand final which broke a very long premiership drought for the club. I was always impressed with the dignified way Kerls handled Glenelg's loss in that GF, simply congratulating Norwood and saying it was their turn. Beyond that I always admired his hard approach to the game, his spiritual leadership of the SA state sides, and his role in guiding the early years of the Crows. He and Teddy are probably up there right now in a scrimmage.
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
Just a guy who played 89 games for the Magpies and 19 for West Adelaide in the 90s. Not good enough for the Crows, unfortunately.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Macca and Aish weren't gonna go to the Dark Side for no amount of money. SOO against Vic with other SANFL greats was just the best. ------- Macca had the ability to hip n shoulder like a Land Cruiser, he hit targets hand or foot, left or right with the efficiency of a Porsche and ran beautiful lines like a Ducati whilst everyone else looked pedestrian on Hondas. -------- Interestingly both him and Leigh Mathews both Pisces. Nuggety tough outhouses but Lethal was scum.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
So who were you? Or even still are? I've only played in country footy in SA & NSW. I never played anything in my late teen years as Bob Marley was on high rotation.
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
Grantley Fielke for me. He taught me a lot as a junior. One of the best wingers of the 80's - the same position I played. Scott Hodges a close second, only because I hit him lace out on the lead a few times. What an honour.
Alchemist
Roar Rookie
Sad day for footy. I'm too young to know much about his playing and coaching days but grew up with him as a boundary rider. Loved the banter between him and Teddy Whitten too.
Clear as mud
Guest
McIntosh against the Irish. now THAT was something.
Boo
Guest
Vale Neil Kerley a legend in S A as a Vic won't forget his class and comments when Teddy Whitten passes on .
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
My fave if all time is Garry McIntosh, followed by Aish, the indomitable Johnny Wynne, Neil Button and the unflappable Phil 'Gags' Gallagher.
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
Redlegs man, hey. My old man was a one-eyed Norwood supporter too. You can imagine my father's disg#st when I ended up playing for the Magpies! Neville 'Rocky' Roberts and Michael Aish were his favourite players. I was very young when I got to have a few kick-to-kicks with them both.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I loved him and hated him. He coached a lot of the teams that weren’t Norwood. ——— This act here caused West Adelaide to beat Norwood in the 1961 SANFL GF “There was drama right from the opening bounce as Neil Kerley made a wholly unambiguous statement of intent by running right through his ‘shadow’, George Dellar, and sending him crashing to the turf.” Knocked out is the term l think. Hottest September day ever in Adelaide. 36°C ——– I sat next him on a plane between Gold Coast and Adelaide once. Halfway the stewardess asked the dozing Kerley. I said Knuckles is asleep. He woke and said that he thought that l didn’t know him. I said, “I know you alright but as a Redlegs man l wasn’t going to talk to you”. He burst out laughing. We talked after that as we both hated Victoria.