Keegan Brooksby follows in his father Phil’s footsteps at South Adelaide
SOUTH Adelaide relying on the son of a gun to help it break a premiership drought dating back to 1964.
WHEN South Adelaide last appeared in the SANFL grand final in 1979, Phil Brooksby was a Panthers’ hero deep in their backline.
The former star defender established himself as one of the greats of the club, making 278 appearances and being named at full back in the 1984 The Advertiser Team of the Year. He also represented South Australia.
Phil’s twin brother Graham also played in the navy and white jumper for the Panthers.
Now it is another Brooksby making a name for himself at Noarlunga Oval.
Keegan has emerged as arguably the best ruckman in the state league and will co-captain the Panthers with Joel Cross in the elimination final battle against North Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
“As a kid I didn’t play football, I played basketball and followed South Adelaide because dad was there,” Keegan said.
“When I started playing it became more and more important to me, and for the family as well.
“The monkey is there with the club having not won a flag since 1964. Dad played in the last grand final the club was in so South Adelaide is an important part of our family.”
Phil is at every Panthers’ game, although unlike Keegan’s early days in football, he doesn’t offer too much advice.
The Panthers will go into the finals buoyed by an impressive month of football in which they accounted for the Roosters, Port Adelaide at Alberton, Woodville-West Torrens and Norwood, and seriously pushed Sturt.
The Redlegs had won 13 games in a row before going down to the Panthers at Noarlunga Oval on Sunday.
It has been an outstanding period given they went into that block of games still fighting for a finals berth.
“We had a down patch in the middle of the season when our performances were not at a level we wanted,” Brooksby said.
“The challenge of playing against those sides in the past month is what we wanted, we had to beat them to play finals.
“We have been confident in what we have been doing and the past six weeks confirms that.”
Brooksby, dual Magarey Medallist Joel Cross, four-times best and fairest Nick Liddle and defender Matt Rose are big names in the Panthers’ line-up.
But Brooksby mentions Joe Haines, Tyson Brown, Alex Cailotto and Ben Heaslip and their growing consistency as key factors.
“They were in and out of the side because of injury and form, but they have got their bodies right and have been consistent for a period of time,” he said.
“Their performances does not surprise us internally. Young blokes like Liam Fitt, Nathan Kreuger, Mark Noble and Cody Szust have done their part.
“There has been expectations on them and they have run with it.”