Tadhg Kennelly meets the Irish Warriors, who are competing in the AFL International Cup. The Kerryman has been dropped by the Swans for this weekend's clash against St Kilda.

The Sydney Swans have dropped Irish veteran Tadhg Kennelly for the first time since his return from Ireland in 2009.

Swans coach John Longmire said the Kerryman, who celebrated his 30th birthday recently, was “very disappointed” to be relegated to the reserves but his recent performances displayed a lack of form and touch.

“Tadhg Kennelly has been struggling with a bit of form, and we’ve tried to keep working with it but we just had to break the cycle so he will go back to our reserves and hopefully get some form and touch there,’’ Longmire said.

“Tadhg is very disappointed. Naturally when you’ve played a lot of senior footy you’re disappointed. We’ve been speaking to him for a few weeks and trying different things to get some touch and some form back but sometimes the way to do it is to go to the reserves.’’

Longmire said they wanted to see him get his hands on the footy and take off for some “trademark Tadhg Kennelly runs’’.

In further bad news for the AFL’s Irish contingent, Carlton’s Zach Tuohy has also been dropped by his coach, Brett Ratten.

The Laoisman has made way for the highly-rated Michael Jamison but is named in the emergencies alongside compatriot Setanta O hAilpín who has been struggling to regain his spot in the team after recovering from injury.

The news is not all bad however with Jamie O’Reilly named among the emergencies by the Richmond Tigers. The Loughisland man has yet to play a senior match in 2011 having played three last year.

Lions have retained both of their Irish stars, Pearce Hanley and Niall McKeever, while St Kilda’s Tommy Walsh and Essendon’s Michael Quinn remain out of favour.

Meanwhile, coach Rodney Eade will have more time to prepare the Australian International Rules team after being sacked by the Western Bulldogs.

The former Sydney Swans coach will take charge of the Aussies in two tests against the touring Irish at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne and Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast.

Tadhg Kennelly has said he wants to continue playing in the AFL well beyond this season.

The 29-year-old Sydney Swans defender Tadhg Kennelly told afl.com.au he wants to begin new contract talks soon.

“My body’s feeling great, so as soon as we can I’ll start talking about the next couple of years,” said Kennelly.

“I want to be a Swan for the rest of my life and I can see myself playing for another couple of years no problem at all.

“So long as my body keeps going the way it’s going — you get a lot wiser when you get older about how to look after your body.

“I’d like to sit down with the club in the next few weeks and iron out a contract.”

Kennelly underwent knee surgery in early December 2010 and was forced to miss the Swans’ first four games of the new season.

The 2005 premiership medal-winning Kerryman also told the AFL website he is confident of the Swans’ chances this season

“This year we’ve got a really good blend.

“There’s a group of senior players who are leading by example, with Goodesy (Adam Goodes), Jude Bolton, Ryan O’Keefe, myself, Shawy (Rhyce Shaw) playing good footy.

“Back then we had Stuart Maxfield and Daryn Cresswell and those senior players and the likes of Ryan O’Keefe and myself were only starting off.

“There is a very similar feel.”

Carlton's 21-year-old Irishman Zach Tuohy

Laois native Zach Tuohy has been named on the emergency list for Carlton’s round six clash with Sydney at the SCG tonight.

His inclusion in the squad comes after Carlton elevated the 21-year-old to the senior list. He replaces Levi Casboult, who is currently recovering from a knee complaint and has been placed on the long-term injury list.

The former Gaelic footballer arrived in Sydney this morning with an extended Blues squad which includes his compatriot Setanta Ó hAilpín. Both Irish men have impressed for the Blues reserves’ side the Northern Bullants, with Tuohy racking up possessions in defence and Ó hAilpín bagging a recent haul of four goals in attack.

While it looks like the Blues’ Irish contingent will remain in the stands for this clash there will be one Irish man on the field. Tadhg Kennelly makes a long awaited return to the Sydney Swans senior ranks after spending the start of the season in the reserves.

The 2005 Premiership medalist played three games for the second rung side recovering from the knee injury he sustained in a training ‘mishap’ in Ireland at Christmas.

While Tuohy will get the chance to see the 2009 All-Ireland medalist in action the Blues have sung the praises of their recently promoted Irish signing.

“His improvement has been rapid. He’s had two intense years here,” Steven Icke, Carlton’s General Manager of football operations said.

“He’s been playing really well (in the reserves)… He has genuine speed and is an elite kick.”

Sydney Swans star Tadhg Kennelly has said it’s “touch and go” whether he’ll be fit to play in the Harbour city side’s round one clash with Melbourne at the MCG.

The 2005 Premiership medallist and 2009 All-Ireland winner is still recovering from the knee injury that caused him to have a very sharp exit from his Irish holiday. The 29-year-old was training with Listowel when the injury occurred.

“I went and got a scan and emailed it straight to Gibbsy (Nathan Gibbs, Swans team doctor) and he rang me and said, ‘You need to get back; you need surgery’,” Kennelly said.

“I ripped a piece of cartilage from my knee cap. It was very innocuous, just training with my brother’s team … the club booked a flight the next day.

I was supposed to spend another four weeks at home so my trip was cut short.”

The knee injury is the latest in a long line for the Kerry man and he admitted that the timing of it, and the fact that he was forced to miss Christmas at home, wasn’t ideal.

“I just didn’t need it. I had a good year last year and was very healthy but that’s life and that’s football.

“My mum had planned all this stuff for us to do at Christmas, then when it happened I tried to get her out here for Christmas but it just wasn’t happening. She wouldn’t have it. But what can you do, she’s used to injuries now between me and my brother so she wasn’t too bad. She’s coming out in July for my 30th with my sister, so that should be good.”

The surgery and subsequent stint out of action back in Sydney left the former Gaelic footballer ruing his bad luck.

“I’ve never worried that an injury is going to finish me. I just have the surgery, get it fixed and get back to it.

“I get frustrated more than anything else. I was thinking, ‘Why did I train with the team?’ You question yourself but I was doing it to better myself so I could come back fitter. These things happen.

“It could have happened here. I dwelled on it a little too much. When I got back here I was stuck on the couch for two weeks thinking about it. But it’s part and parcel of the game.”

One Irish player who’s had a big pre-season is Kennelly’s compatriot at the Swans, Chris McKaigue. Kennelly said the rookie is gagging to break into senior ranks at the club, having not played during the pre-season NAB cup.

“He’s had a massive pre-season. They really flogged him. I think he’s just a bit frustrated. He’s dying to get back into games and start developing because that’s the only place that you do.

“It’s been a long year and now a long pre-season so he’s going to have doubts. You can see that he just wants to play a game of senior football.” Kennelly said that whether McKaigue can don the senior jersey in season 2011 has a lot to do with timing.

“Who knows. There’s still a lot of learning [to do]. If you talk to Tommy Walsh he’d say the same, there’s still a lot of learning. A lot of things can happen; blokes can get injured or [be out of] form.

“I think the main thing is that he’s got to be able to take his opportunity when it does come. He’s got to be playing well, he’s got to be healthy… it’s just a case of if he’s ready to go when the opportunity comes.”

by Catherine Murphy

Tadhg Kennelly and the Sydney Swans have advanced to the next round of the finals after a dramatic five-point win over Carlton at ANZ stadium in Sydney.
The Swans now face the Western Bulldogs in the semi-final at the MCG on Saturday night (September 11, 7.40pm). A win would grant them a place in the preliminary final and a tilt at another Grand Final.

“It was a great win, we’re really happy with it,” Kennelly said. “It’s good for the confidence, especially for our young players. We have seven or eight players who have never played finals football. It’s good for them to get experience before we head down to the MCG to play the Doggies.”

Despite having both knees heavily iced in the change rooms after the game, Kennelly insisted that his body is in good condition for the finals. The 2005 Premiership medalist was left out of the Swans round 22 squad to face the Brisbane Lions due to soreness.

“It’s just the usual for after a game (ice). It was one of those games. The intensity in the last quarter was huge. Everyone was cramping up and just out on their feet.”

The win sees the Swans pitted as unlikely Premiership hopefuls in September despite being touted by some as a team who wouldn’t even make the top eight.

The Harbour city based club has now won five games in a row and in coach Paul Roos’ last year in the top job are still in the hunt to give him the ultimate leaving present – a Premiership.

“That’s a long way away but it’s just great to still be playing football in September…It was a good win because wins like that are great to grind out.”

It’s hard to believe that this time last year, Kennelly was at home in Kerry and preparing for an All-Ireland final.

“When I went home I tried not to think about Sydney. I just wanted to focus on Kerry. When I’m here I try not to think about home too much because I want to just throw myself into this and focus on what I’m doing here.

“I came back because I wanted to play finals football and because I want to win Premierships. That’s what every player wants to do. But I do keep track of what’s happening [at] home and I wish Martin Clarke and Down the best.”

While Kennelly is delighted that Clarke is in the decider, one thing he doesn’t envy is the former Collingwood player’s task of having to answer the never-ending questions about his future and whether he will return to Australia to re-join the Magpies.

“What I would say to Martin is that people are never happy. When you’re in Australia they want to know when you’re going home and when you’re in Ireland they want to know when you’re going back to Australia,” he said.

“We’re not wanted anywhere,” he laughed.

Kennelly said he believed Clarke’s experience in Australia will help him on All-Ireland football final day.

“He’s a big game player. He’s had a lot of experience playing big games with Collingwood here. But there’s a lot of weight on his shoulders because he’s from a county that hasn’t won an All-Ireland for so many years.

“They’ll be underdogs going in but Marty just has to do what he’s been doing all year. He’s worked his backside off. He’s taken what’s worked for him here and that’s his fitness. I’m sure his preparation will be fantastic because he’s such a professional.”

The Kerryman said he rates the successful resumption of Clarke’s Gaelic football career as a bigger achievement than his return home.

“Marty is like myself. He went home and wants to win an all-Ireland, in a sport he’s grown up doing and I hope he does. I was lucky because I went home and it was like going back to a Geelong (Premiership winners) type team because they (Kerry) had success and were favourites to win.

“What Martin has done is more than I ever have. He’s brought his county on in leaps and bounds. What he’s been able to do for Co Down is unbelievable, I just hope he can go one more step. Down as a team and as a county don’t accept just making the final, but I know Cork aren’t accepting just that either. Cork want to win it.”

One Australian Rules convert whose season hasn’t ended on a good note is that of former hurler Setanta Ó’hAilpín. The Corkman missed out on Carlton selection for the eighth week running and in doing so missed out on the opportunity to line out against Kennelly in the elimination final. His disappointing finish to the season follows an opening 10 rounds which saw him boot 24 goals.

“I really feel for him. It’s tough. It’s hard when you’re out of favour with a head coach and that’s probably what’s happened down there. I’ve talked to Setanta a bit in the last few weeks. He had a great start to the year and then he had a hamstring injury and he’s been playing reserves.

“It’s just hard because when you’re out of favour, it’s difficult to get back in no matter what you do and it can be really frustrating. He just needs to work really hard in the off season and try and get back in there because he’s got another year on his contract and another season. He wants to be playing first grade football and he’s not. He’ll have to reassess in the off season and decide what he wants to do.”

Last week saw the delisting of another Irish recruit with Laois’ Conor Meredith let go  by North Melbourne club not having managed a senior debut in his two years with the club.

by Catherine Murphy

Tadhg Kennelly has been named in the Swans' starting line-up ahead of their clash with Port Adelaide on Saturday night.

Tadhg Kennelly has made a shock return to the Sydney Swans’ starting line-up for Saturday night’s clash with Port Adelaide after recovering much more quickly than expected from a medial ligament injury he suffered against the Fremantle Dockers on May 22 at the SCG.

Kennelly was initially ruled out for at least four weeks with the injury, but has recovered far more rapidly than anyone expected and last night was named in the starting side to take the Power in Adelaide on Saturday night (7.10pm local time).

Elsewhere, Mayo youngster Pearce Hanley has been provisionally named on the Brisbane Lions’ interchange bench ahead of their clash with the Western Bulldogs in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon (2.10pm local time).

Hanley is one of seven players named on the provisional bench but will have to wait to find out whether or not he will get a run out against the Melbourne side at Etihad.

Meanwhile, in-form Cork star Setanta Ó hAilpín has been named at full forward for the Carlton Blues ahead of their clash with North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium tonight (7.40pm local time).

Tadhg Kennelly will miss at least three rounds with knee ligament damage.

Sydney Swans’ Irish defender Tadhg Kennelly will be out for at least three weeks as the result of a knee injury he picked up against the Fremantle Dockers on Saturday afternoon.

The Kerryman went off injured in the opening minutes of the Swans’ defeat at the SCG when he suffered a bang to the side of his left leg, and scans today revealed that he had suffered a medial ligament strain in his knee.

“The early indications are three weeks. Tadhg’s normally pretty good… at recovering so who knows, but at this stage we’d plan to not have him for the next three games,” Swans coach Paul Roos said today.

Elsewhere, Setanta Ó hAilpín’s Carlton Blues suffered a heavy loss at the hands of Hawthorn in Melbourne yesterday. The big Corkman had just three possessions as his side suffered their first defeat in three games.

Tadhg Kennelly is doubtful for the Swans clash with the Crows next weekend.

Tadhg Kennelly has admitted he is “sore all over” after a sickening clash saw him knocked unconscious during the Sydney Swans’ heartbreaking defeat to St Kilda in Homebush on Saturday night, and Swans coach Paul Roos has been left in disbelief by the match review committee’s decision yesterday not to look at the incident any further.

The Kerryman – who was playing his first AFL game since 2008 – was struck in back by the flying body of Saints’ defender Zac Dawson as he took a blind mark in the dying moments of the game, slamming Tadhg face first into the turf, and Roos vented his anger yesterday.

“‘It was made clear that any collisions to the head were going to be looked at seriously,” Roos said. ”I don’t know whether that’s changed or whether in that particular incident it was deemed that Dawson went to mark the ball, I’m not too sure. I think everyone was on notice that guys heads were to be protected but it’s more up to the match review panel to comment than me.”

The morning after the game, Kennelly admitted that he vomitted and that he was still suffering from nausea.

“I’m sore all over … I’ve got a big lump on my head,” said Tadhg, who is in doubt to play Adelaide on Sunday. “I saw him coming … so I tried to raise my leg and turn my body into him.”

But he could not avoid the collision and was off the field for the crucial final moments of Sydney’s eight-point loss. Swans coach Paul Roos was clearly upset about the challenge, but princiaplly by the umpiring decision not to award a 50-metre penalty.

“I was expecting a 50 metre penalty. In the box we were all expecting a 50m penalty. Unless I’ve got the rules wrong, which obviously I have,” Roos said.

Tadhg’s condition will be monitored although he is not expected to train again until at least the end of the week.

Former Derry star Chris McKaigue chats to CATHERINE MURPHY about his first few weeks with the Sydney Swans, learning to come to terms with the physicality of the AFL, and laying claim to a senior guernsey by season’s end.

While the Sydney Swans’ experience with nurturing Irish recruits means that Derry’s Chris McKaigue has been afforded all the trappings required to adapt to his new life in the Harbour City, training has been less comfortable for the young rookie.

Despite his AFL career being in its infancy, he hasn’t been spared any of the physical exchanges which go hand in hand with his new sporting code.

“I’ve taken a few knocks at training but that’s part and parcel of it,” McKaigue said. “Here, when players get a knock, their first instinct is to try to get straight up again.

“Their mentality is to be as tough and brave as they can. That’s how you earn respect off your 
team-mates here, there’s no room for complainers.”

The Derryman is certainly feeling the contrast between his new professional sport and his native code.

Sydney Swans new recruit Chris McKaigue is loving life as a full-time athlete.

“What I’ve learned so far is there’s a lot of pushing and shoving off the ball to make yourself available, a lot of body work, whereas at home that would be a free or even a yellow card. In Gaelic football there’s none of that before the ball comes in. It’s just so physical here.

“But then you do so much gym work here to prepare your body for it.”

Such is the level of “body work” off the ball, McKaigue admits that he can understand how differences in the physical approach in both codes can lead to conflict during international rules games.

The hybrid series is due to resume in October 2010 with the Australians planning to make the trip to Ireland. The Aussies pulled out of the 2009 series due to what they cited as financial reasons.

“The first time I played in a backs and forwards drill, the boys were pushing and shoving off the ball and I was getting frustrated with it but you get used to it. There’s no malice in it… mind you when it turns into full blown fighting that’s different.”

As big as the transition to the oval ball game’s more robust style is, the challenge is perceived even more difficult by Australians.

“When you talk to (Australian) reporters or even players, they consider Gaelic football to be non-contact, which it isn’t of course, but that’s the way they see it.”

With the Swans having missed out on finals action in 2009, and with a number of the club’s 2005 Premiership side hanging up their boots, the pre-season regime has been extra tough.

“The guys were saying that this pre-season is the most intense for a while. It’s a big change from just training in the evening at home and it definitely takes the body time to adjust.

“Because there are so many young new guys at the club, who’ve only done one or two pre-seasons or none at all, they’re trying to get miles into our legs so that we can cope with the season.

“I’m only now realising how long it is. It’s 22 games minimum, not counting finals, so you need those miles to get through it. As well as being long it’s tough and physical. You have to take the bumps and recover within a week.”

McKaigue has a big act to follow at the Swans. Tadhg Kennelly became the first ever Irish player to win a Premiership in 2005 and is now back in Sydney having added an 
All-Ireland medal to his collection. The pair actually spent some quality time together before this year’s Sydney pre-season meeting.

“I started the National league final and he came on for the last 20 minutes and was my direct opponent.”

But who came out best during the meeting which saw Kerry claim their 19th National league title with a three-point win over Derry?

“It was coming to the end so neither of us got many touches… he did go down dramatically and got a free for it though. He still gives me grief about that,” McKaigue laughs.

While Kennelly’s presence back in the Harbour City is certainly a bonus for the former Gaelic footballer, he says he chose the Swans, not just because of Kennelly’s experiences with the club, but because of the way they went about recruiting him.

“They (player development manager Stuart Maxfield and recruitment consultant Rick Barham) had seen me play a game but before they rang me, they sent me a letter first asking if it was okay to make contact. They were so respectful of the GAA and what it means to people in the way they went about it.

“At the start I was interested, but you’re always hesitant at the thought of moving to the other side of the world and leaving your family… but once they offered me a contract and I made my decision, my mindset completely changed. I’ve committed to playing AFL and making it is enough of a distraction to keep my mind off homesickness.”

Despite the challenge that lies ahead proving a big enough distraction, McKaigue admits that avoiding homesickness at all is probably impossible.

“Tadhg has said that once I start going out and making new friends things get easier. I think homesickness will always be there no matter how long you’re at the club but you just have to learn to cope with it.”

As well as Kennelly offering support, the rookie says senior players at the club have also been welcoming.

“The older guys on the team have been really good to me. Jude Bolton lives close to me and he gives me a lift to and from training every day. He’s almost 30 and has played nearly 250 games so we have great conversations to and from training.”

McKaigue also has a good network outside the club. He lives with his Australian first cousin Tom Dorrans and Tom’s girlfriend Fiona.

“He’s been home a good few times so he was pretty keen for me to come out here. I’m really lucky because his girlfriend Fiona has been really good to me and does all my cooking and washing. There are not many lads who get that done for them.”

Clearly focused on the task of playing the game at the top level, a challenge which has eluded many Irish recruits in the past, including former Swans rookies Kyle Coney and Brendan Murphy, McKaigue isn’t afraid to speak of his aim to don a senior jersey in season 2010.

“I was talking to Craig Bolton (club co-captain) and he was telling me about how much the team has changed. A lot of the really experienced veterans from the ’05 Premiership and ’06 final are gone.

“He said if I work hard there’s no reason why I can’t play towards the end of the season. I just want to work hard and learn the game and play for the reserves and then if I get the opportunity that’s all I can ask for.”

McKaigue, in the meantime, has been handed the No 36 guernsey for the season ahead.

Tadhg Kennelly performs his now customary jig after lifting the Sam Maguire in September. Now he’s back to do it all again with the Sydney Swans.

Tadhg Kennelly is back in Sydney after a fairytale year with Kerry.  He sat down with AARON DUNNE to discuss the year gone by, the controversy that engulfed him in mid-October, and to explain just why he decided to return to Australia.

The summer sun is beating down on Darling Harbour as a flurry of afternoon activity moseys its way past Dock’s waterside café.

It’s 30-odd degress, and certainly an idyllic scene. To those of us that live here, though, it’s become somewhat the norm at this time of year. Or so it sometimes feels. Nothing like a year in Kerry to give yourself some perspective though.

The only thing brighter than the unforgiving ball of fire in the sky is the smile on Tadhg Kennelly’s face. Not even the mention of a certain Hand of Gaul a few hours previously can make the slightest dent in his demeanor. He’s back in Sydney. And he couldn’t be happier.

“Not bad this, eh?” he says with a smile the width of the Gap of Dunloe in a pair of board shorts, thongs and a T-shirt. A far cry from the murky depths of a dirty Irish winter, and a country floundering in recession.

He’s a new man now. One no longer burdened with the nagging thoughts of ‘might have beens’. A man ready to take on his next challenge.

In the previous ten short months he’d lived a boyhood dream. Since his departure from the Swans in January he’d won a National League title, beaten Dublin by a cricket score and defeated Meath on the way to crushing arch rivals Cork in an All-Ireland final. He’d even won an All-Star award.
Mate, you just couldn’t make it up.

Now he’d returned an all-conquering hero to the life of a full-time sportsman in a city that adores him. Why wouldn’t he be smiling?

“The year was a fairytale for me,” he explains. “To do what I did in eight or nine months, it was unbelievable. But to be honest, if I hadn’t done it [won an All-Ireland] I wouldn’t be here now. I’d still be over there trying to win an All-Ireland, and that’s the honest truth.

“Winning the All-Ireland made the decision to come back an awful lot easier. If we hadn’t done I wouldn’t have contemplated coming back here at all.”

But he did. And he has. There’s a lot to catch up on. Firstly, that third Sunday in September. The culmination of it all. The endgame that justified the risk of leaving the Swans, the heartache of leaving his girlfriend behind. An unmatchable legacy dangling 70 minutes from his grasp.

“I was more nervous than when I played in the two Grand Finals here. I think it was because of the emotional attachment I have to Kerry with my father and brother. It’s something I’ve always wanted, and something I’d felt I’d waited my whole life to get to. So I wasn’t going to let the occasion pass me by too quickly. I wanted to soak it up.

“I remember one thing my dad always said about big games, and he said it to me before the 2005 Grand Final, ‘Don’t let the occasion pass you by, soak it up’.

“We were out on the field for about 20 minutes before the game started, and we were doing warm-ups and the parade, shaking hands with the President and all that. It felt like we were warming up for ages so I just called over the masseuse and I just lay down in the middle of the field and just chilled out and relaxed.

“I was looking up at the crowd and Hill 16 and I spotted my mother and the guys and I was so relaxed. I wanted to enjoy the moment.”

Another highlight had come with his side’s demolition job on Dublin in August. A moment he feels turned everything around.

“Yeah it was brilliant,” he laughs, seemingly none too displeased that a long-suffering Dub has chosen to mention the war.

“We were wrote off so much going into that game, I’ve never seen a Kerry team being wrote off quite like that. We were beaten before we’d even togged off.

“A lot of it is national media, Dublin media, which doesn’t help, and it certainly hasn’t helped the Dublin cause for the last few years.

“The same thing happened to Tyrone last year playing Dublin. It was the exact same situation, Tyrone knocked down and Dublin built up again. You could see it in training though, the lads just lifted knowing they were going into Croke Park.

“It was an ideal fixture for us as a team that had been splitting and splurting along all summer. To get Dublin in Croke Park, that really got us across the line towards an All-Ireland medal.”

It hadn’t all been sunshine and lollipops though. An ill-advised challenge on Cork midfielder Nicholas Murphy just 30 seconds into the final could have seen it all unravel.

The incident had caused uproar when recounted by Tadhg in his new book Unfinished Business. The backlash from the media and the public verging on unprecedented.

He had said in the week that followed that it had been the worst time he’d experienced since the passing of his father, Tim. Looking back on it now, Kennelly is more philosophical.

“I think it was a storm in a tea-cup to tell you the God’s honest truth. It was blown completely out of proportion. I was probably too honest in a way. I wanted to explain how it felt to be playing in an All-Ireland final for the first time.

“I said I wanted to lay down a marker, but for people to then say to me that I premeditatedly went out to deliberately injure another player is absolutely ridiculous.

“I was disappointed with the reaction I got. I didn’t come out and say anything about it for about three or four days. I did that deliberately because I wanted to see what people would say about me.

“A lot of people really hung themselves, people I thought were friends, and that’s good to know. I’ll remember the people that supported me, but I’ll remember more the people that put me down when it happened.”

Surely there are some regrets about how it was all handled?

“Not one bit. I thought I handled it spot on. I was probably too honest in the book. It’s not in the book that I intentionally went out to hurt Nicholas Murphy. I’ve never gone out to injure another player in my life.

“Yes I spoke to Paul Galvin about it before the game and about wanting to be physical, but I never said I was going out to knock Nicholas Murphy out.”

More than just controversy followed, however. Tadhg revealed how he had received threats to the family home in the aftermath. A sorry turn in an otherwise storybook tale of triumph.

“I’m still getting hate mail and some phone calls, but it’s mainly from Kerry people. There have been phone calls to my mother’s house phone, and that was hard to swallow.

“As I said at the time, those were probably the toughest few days I’ve had since my father died. I went into a hole for two or three days.

“It was disappointing to see it happen, but it’s water off a duck’s back to me. It still hurts my mum though, and that was probably the hardest pill to swallow. I’ve had comments thrown at me my whole life so it doesn’t bother me.”

He says his decision to come back to Sydney hadn’t been an easy one. Just looking at the facts it’s hard to see why that might be. He’d won his All-Ireland, and the choice was merely one of lifestyle.

Stay in Kerry through the winter working for thirty five grand a year, drowning in the bleakness of a country struggling to keep its head above water. Or come back to Sydney, and the sunshine, to the life of a full-time sportsman on somewhere around $500,000 a year. Seemed like a no-brainer.

“I was living in Ireland, and I wanted to be in Ireland to win an All Ireland medal. My whole year was driven towards that, and that was it.

“I didn’t think about it [coming back] until probably about two weeks afterwards. I was sitting around thinking maybe I should go back.

“There were murmurs around the place and I was talking to my brother, my sister and my uncle about it a fair bit.

“The country is on its knees at the moment over there. We’re in such a deep hole recession wise. It’s unbelievable. We need something drastic to get us out of it. The year I spent there watching people losing their houses and losing their jobs.

“I’ve had so many mates that are fully qualified and they’re all losing their jobs. They’re sitting around in Listowel doing absolutely nothing.
“When I saw that happening to people, it seemed crazy not to come back when I had such a great opportunity to do that. Why would I hang around?

“This decision in a way was a big one though. It was like, ‘will I ever go back and play for Kerry again?’. The answer is I probably won’t. That’s probably the hardest part.”

He’s back in Australia for the foreseeable future now, and he promises the Swans will see a new player when the 2010 season kicks off. A man happy with his lot, and ready to once again leave it all out there for the Bloods. Even if the club he has returned to bears little resemblence to the one that he left in January.

“The club has changed a lot, even just in the year I was gone. We’ve lost Barry Hall, Leo Barry, Mickey O’Loughlin, Jared Crouch, Darren Jolly, a lot of big name players.

“A lot of good, good mates of mine are gone now. The first day I walked in I was like, ‘this is different’. Especially when you lose characters.

“These are people you’d see all day every day, and it’s the craic around the club and in the dressing room that you’d have with them, it’s gone now.

“But at the same time it’s given big opportunities to young players. So it’s going to be about getting to know those guys now.

“It’s making me feel old!” he laughs. “I’m still only 28, so I’m not that old yet. There’s a lot of young kids there, but I’m excited by that.

“I’ve got to get my body up to scratch fitness wise, but physically my body is feeling unbelievable. I’m feeling great. In fact I’m probably feeling as good in the month of November as I have in a long, long time.

“I want to get my own house in order and go from there. I can’t be looking too far ahead. I’ve got a load of time up my sleeve.

“There’s plenty left for me to achieve – another Premiership for the Swans for starters. I felt while I was playing here [pre-2009] that I had a big monkey on my back and a big weight on my shoulders about going back and winning an All-Ireland.

“But I feel that’s off me now and that I can be a better footballer and express myself a lot better here now. I remember vividly going to games for the Swans at the MCG and thinking, ‘I wish on the bus on the way to Croke Park playing for Kerry’.

“That’s a big hang up for a player going to play a professional game. It’s not the right head space. But I can guarantee I won’t have that this year. I’ve done what I wanted to do.”

What waits around the corner for Tadhg is anybody’s guess. But at least this time we’ll all have ringside seats.