Peter “Milky” Vivian, Darren Smith and Harry Kernahan make up the Class of 2018 in the SA Football Hall of Fame
SA football hailed three new inductees - Peter Vivian, Darren Smith and Harry Kernahan - to the state’s football Hall of Fame at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday night.
SA football hailed three new inductees - Peter Vivian, Darren Smith and Harry Kernahan - to the state’s football Hall of Fame at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday night.
DARREN SMITH
DARREN Smith remains the modest, ultimate team man on whom Port Adelaide built its grand SANFL premiership runs in the 1980sand 1990s to gain AFL entry.
Smith, 53, is still paying tribute to his premiership team-mates rather than basking in the glory of joining the SA FootballHall of Fame.
“I didn’t play footy for the personal accolades,” said Smith, the centre half-forward in seven Magpies league premiershipteams after moving to Alberton from the Eyre Peninsula in the early 1980s.
“It was always about the team,” added Smith who retired at the end of 1996, the eve of Port Adelaide’s entry to the AFL. “But this is a nice recognition of the work I put in over the years.”
“I never expected to get nominated, let alone in the Hall of Fame,” Smith said. “So it was very much a surprise. It took meaback at bit - and a little while to get my head around it.
“It brings back so many memories of coming over from Eyre Peninsula to playing against some great players of the SANFL - Malcolm Blight, Rick Davies - and playing with greats who made it from the SANFL to AFL, such as Nathan Buckley, Gavin Wanganeen and Andrew McLeod.
“And those State games ...”
Smith did make it to the AFL with the advent of the Crows, playing nine games in the Adelaide Football Club’s two seasons. His Port Adelaide background did make this challenging.
“The SANFL meant more to me because of Port Adelaide was my family,” Smith said. “The Crows were thrown together and it wasn’ta cohesive scene in the first two years with animosity towards Port Adelaide - and that showed, unfortunately.
“But I made some good friends - life-time friends - out of the Crows as well.”
A father of two daughters and with two grand-daughters, Smith is now tied to netball rather than football.
Smith joined Central District 308-game wingman Peter Vivian and the late Harry Kernahan in the Hall of Fame in the 17th inductionceremony at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday night.
And while Smith would rather reflect on the team honours at Alberton, he accepted his Hall of Fame induction with the modestythat defined his 343-game stint at Port Adelaide.
“It is a great honour,” Smith said. “To see my name there with the great players, some I played with and some against, isjust a huge honour. I’m very proud.”
“To be recognised along with those men is not something I expected.”
Smith has returned to the Eyre Peninsula - to Port Lincoln - where his Hall of Fame certificate will be surrounded by thepremiership medals.
“The premierships are the reason you play football,” Smith said. “You achieve that success with your mates.
“I always enjoyed sharing the celebration with my team-mates than having it all to myself.”
Smith admits the notification of his Hall of Fame selection was met with surprise.
PETER VIVIAN
PETER Vivian was living the “fame game” from SA league football long before his grand achievements at Central District were read into the SA Football Hall of Fame on Wednesday night.
Even three decades after being part of SA football’s golden era from the 1960s-80s, “Milky” Vivian’s mark on the pioneer Bulldogs is still being acknowledged by those stepping into his insurance broking offices at Salisbury.
“People still come in saying they remember watching me play (league) footy ... and I say, they have good memories because it was a long time ago,” Vivian said.
Wingman Vivian, Port Adelaide’s seven-premiership forward Darren Smith and much-admired Glenelg administrator and former ruckman Harry Kernahan joined the SA Football Hall of Fame on Wednesday night in the 17th inductions to SA football’s grandest assembly of the game’s greats.
Vivian is the only Central District player to have reached 300 SANFL league games (308 from 1969-1985) - and it might never have been. He had to be coaxed into putting on the Bulldogs jumper by one of his country mates, 104-game Ian Kroehn, who had already made the journey from Mount Pleasant to league football at Elizabeth.
“I was a country boy who was happy to stay with my country mates at a country football club,” Vivian said. “If I didn’t go to Central, I probably would have played at Mount Pleasant until I was 45 ... and I would have had a ball.”
On the same theme, Vivian notes his preference to stay with his mates made him a “reluctant” State representative. He played for SA twice - against WA in the first State game at Football Park and against Victoria in the mud at the SCG - both times in 1974 with significant form against Sandover Medallist Brian Peake and Brownlow Medallist Keith Greig.
After playing a major role in putting down the foundation stone at Central District, Vivian had planned to retire with the memories of the Bulldogs’ first SANFL finals series in 1971-72 and the club’s first SANFL minor premiership at the end of the 1970s under coach Daryl Hicks.
“I thought that was it (in 1985) - and I’d never been involved again,” Vivian said.
Instead, in repeating answer SOS calls from country clubs starting at Angaston, Vivian has been a major contributor to SA football away from the league scene. He did return to Central District to coach its reserves team.
“I never did it for money,” Vivian said. “It was for the fun of being at a footy club. They are all made up of great people. No matter where you go, there will be a footy club with good people.”
Vivian paid tribute to Hicks for being more than a football coach but also a life coach at Central District - and long-time Bulldogs administrator Kris Grant. “He has been the strength and backbone of the club for a long time, in good times and bad,” Vivian said.
HARRY KERNAHAN
STEPHEN Kernahan notes his father Harry’s greatest triumph was not fashioning a group of eager kids at Glenelg into the Tigers’ only back-to-back SANFL premiership teams in 1985-86.
“It was being able to put up with all we put him through off the field - and we put him through a fair bit,” recalled Stephen Kernahan as his late father had his achievements - as player both in league and country football and as administrator at two SANFL clubs - recognised with induction to the SA Football Hall of Fame.
“Dad loved the footy side of the game. So even when he was in the office at the Glenelg Football Club, he had his mind on the field by setting up those junior squads that became league premiership teams.
“Today, you would call him a ‘footballing chief executive’ where we have ‘corporate chief executives’ at football clubs.
“When he stopped playing (176 league games with Glenelg), the perfect job for Dad was not only running the footy club but also doing everything to give the coach the best team Glenelg could have.
“But did we put him through a lot,” added Kernahan, who played 136 SANFL league games with the Tigers before becoming a great on and off the field at VFL-AFL club Carlton.
Harry Kernahan, who also established a grand resume in 10 State teams and country football at Whyalla, was the master as Glenelg’s general manager during all three Tiger premiership teams in 1973, 1985 and 1986.
“He was a good football bloke,” Stephen recalled. “Everyone wanted to have a beer with Dad after a game because they knew he had footy in his heart. He held respect from his peers here in Adelaide and Victoria because they knew he loved the game.
“He did it his way. And he enjoyed every day in his life in football. It wasn’t always easy, but he always enjoyed it.
“Whether it was playing - and beating - the Vics at the MCG in 1963 or taking on the Vics off the field, Dad always did what was best for SA football. He fought his heart out against the Vics - and that is why they respected him.”
Kernahan died at age 74 in January 2012. Stephen Kernahan notes his father was “not one for accolades”. “So he would be humbled, but proud to be in the Hall of Fame,” he said.
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SA FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME
HONOUR ROLL
HARRY KERNAHAN
Played: 176 SANFL league games (kicked 149 goals) for Glenelg, 1959-1965 and 1969-1971.
Represented SA 10 times.
Administration: Glenelg general manager, 1973-1986; South Adelaide general manager, 1990-1994.
Country football: South Whyalla captain-coach, 1966-1968.
Honours: Glenelg captain, 1964-65; Glenelg leading goalkicker, 1960.
DARREN SMITH
Played: 343 SANFL league games (kicked 497 goals) for Port Adelaide, 1984-1996.
Nine AFL games (kicked 10 goals) for Adelaide, 1991-1992.
Represented SA seven times.
Honours: Seven SANFL premierships with Port Adelaide (1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995 and 1996). Port Adelaide leading goalkicker, 1986 (49 goals) and 1987 (71 goals). Fos Williams Trophy (as Port Adelaide’s most-dedicated player), 1989.
PETER VIVIAN
Played: 308 SANFL games (kicked 102 goals) for Central District, 1969-1985.
Represented SA twice, 1974.
Country football: Premiership player with Pleasant Valley, 1967-68; premiership coach with Gawler Central, 2001; also coached Angaston and the Barossa Light and Gawler Association team.
Honours: Central District best-and-fairest, 1978; Central District all-time team selection on wing.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au