Football great Neil Kerley lost for words after induction into South Australian Sport Hall of Fame
Football legend Neil Kerley isn’t often lost for words but he was when he found out he was to be inducted into the South Australian Sport Hall of Fame.
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He was the tough man of South Australian football but Neil Kerley admits to being overcome with emotion when he was told he was to be inducted into the South Australian Sport Hall of Fame.
“Hearing that news, I was in a state of shock,’’ the SA football legend said.
“I thought, ‘gee, whiz, what’s going on here? What the hell is an 85-year-old bloke being inducted into the Hall of Fame for?
“It was a hell of a surprise for me but a great thrill. For a kid from the bush, from the scrub, who didn’t start with much and began playing footy for a bit of fun, it’s something I feel very good about.’’
Nicknamed “Knuckles’’ and “King’’, Australian Football Hall of Famer Kerley is a household name in Adelaide.
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Born in the Riverland town of Barmera, he made his mark on the SANFL for more than 40 years as a player and coach.
After a tough, country upbringing after his father died when he was a boy, the powerfully-built Kerley learnt to live off the land and left school at 14.
He moved to Adelaide in 1952 after being called up for national service and joined SANFL club West Adelaide.
A year later he returned to the country for work and, at 19, was appointed captain-coach of a team called Koolymilka, close to Woomera.
Kerley returned to the Bloods in 1957 and played 149 games and kicked 87 goals for them until 1963, captain-coaching them to the 1961 premiership.
He won four best and fairest awards at West and was All-Australian vice-captain in 1961.
Kerley moved to South Adelaide in 1964 and, as captain-coach, remarkably took it from bottom to top in his first season in charge.
He played 57 games in three years with the Panthers before taking on the challenge of trying to lift another bottom club, Glenelg.
Renowned as having a messiah-like ability to turn around struggling clubs, Kerley captain-coached the Tigers for three years, making the grand final in 1969, before retiring as a player after 59 games.
He coached Glenelg to eight finals series in his 10 years in charge, including five grand finals.
The Bays broke a 39-year flag drought in 1973 by beating North Adelaide by seven points in a grand final widely regarded as the greatest ever.
Kerley quit the Bays at the end of 1976, coaching West Torrens for four years before returning to West in 1981 and steering it to the 1983 flag.
He coached Central District from 1988-90 before being appointed Adelaide Crows football manager in their first year in the AFL in 1991 before a final stint at West from 1992-93.
Overall, Kerley played 265 games and kicked 123 goals from 1952-69, plus 32 State matches. He captained SA six times.
Kerley coached five clubs in 628 games, for 365 wins, and won four flags.
He was named in the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1997, was an inaugural inductee in the South Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2002 and was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2007.
“Looking back, you feel pretty good about what opportunities came your way,’’ said Kerley, who for the past 15 years has lived at Walker Flat on the River Murray.
The SA Sport Hall of Fame awards night will be held on November 22.
7NEWS would like to congratulate Neil Kerley who will be inducted into the South Australian Sport Hall of Fame. https://t.co/8ftPfFYTVQ #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/Saqp4pBauD
— 7NEWS Adelaide (@7NewsAdelaide) October 10, 2019