Winning an All-Ireland medal is something of a family tradition in Tadhg Kennelly’s clan. His father Tim won five between 1975 and 1981, while brother Noel won the highest honour in football in 2000.
And after an all-action display in today’s All-Ireland final, an emotional Tadhg was overjoyed at becoming the latest in his family to taste All-Ireland glory.
‘I thought I would have been here well before now at the age of 28,’ Kennelly told RTÉ’s Marty Morrissey after the match.
‘I’m very, very lucky to come back in my first year and to reach an All-Ireland final. Personally, the years haven’t been too easy over there.’
Tadhg left Ireland in 1999 to play professional Australian Rules with the Sydney Swans. He became the first Irish player to earn the biggest prize in the game – the AFL Premiership title – in 2005. To combine that success with an All-Ireland medal four years later is a unique achievement.
‘I haven’t really thought about it – I’ve just been thinking about my father to tell you the truth.’
Kennelly’s father passed away in December 2005 at the age of 51. He had witnessed Tadhg winning the AFL title in Melbourne in September that year.
Tadhg produced a powerful display for Kerry today, snuffing out Graham Canty’s attacking instincts and adding two points himself. Asked if he was surprised at his substitution when playing so well, he replied: ‘You’ll have to ask Jack! No, I’d spent my money. I wasn’t going to leave anything in the tank. You can’t afford to on a player like Graham Canty.
‘If I went into the game trying to save my legs, Graham would have soaked me up in the first 20 minutes. I just played my heart out as hard as I could and I was quite happy. I did my day’s work and we’ve a lot of stars who came on and did their work and they were great.’
Cork produced a blistering start to the match, storming into a four point lead, but Kennelly revealed that he was not unduly concerned by his team’s slow start.
‘Not at all, we had a plan and we were going to stick to it no matter what happened. We knew Cork would come at us and whether we went one goal down or two goals down, we were going to stick to it. And that’s what happened - we were four points down and we ended up being three points up at half-time.
‘It’s the great character of the team. There’s great experience and a great bunch of lads out there. There’s an awful lot thrown at them. They were knocked so much throughout the years and again this year. To do what we have is absolutely unbelievable.’
