Talent, success, controversy: Inside Sam Kerr’s remarkable family tree

Until now, Sam Kerr has been primarily known for her exceptional deeds on the football field. The controversy of the last week has put her in a spotlight that some members of her extended family know well.

Sam Kerr belongs to one of the most remarkable sporting families in Australia.

And while some would call them blue bloods because of the athletic talent and achievement on the family tree, they are also blue collar – anchored by Millers, branching via blood and marriage into Neeshams, Regans, McManuses and eventually the Kerrs.

Many have been groundbreakers inside and outside of sporting achievement, and a few have been colourful and edgy.

Until now, Sam Kerr has, as one close family observer put it this week, “sat outside of all of that”. She has been known primarily for her deeds on the field and the explosion in her public profile which has driven the exponential rise of women’s soccer and the Matildas, arguably the country’s strongest sporting brand.

But she has certainly been no stranger to controversy.

Brother Daniel – a brilliant footballer, premiership player at West Coast and a runner up in the 2005 Brownlow Medal – was a central figure in the drug crisis that enveloped the Eagles between 2002 and 2007. He was last year sentenced to two years jail for setting fire to a house owned by his parents in 2021. His lawyer said at the time Kerr was suffering from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, possibly as a result of head injuries sustained during his football career.

Daniel Kerr was also involved in an ugly incident with a taxi driver at the height of West Coast’s drugs era during the summer of 2006-07, charged with jumping on the boot of a taxi and ripping off the rear aerial.

The Kerr family roots in Fremantle trace back to boxer Henry Miller and wife Margaret, who had 13 children, including Melbourne Cup winning jockey John “JJ” Miller, who rode more than 2,000 winners in between fights with stewards and racing authorities.

The 1961 Carnival WA team. Sam Kerr has family links to some of the best sportspeople in Australian history.

Sam Kerr’s mother is Roxanne Regan, the daughter of Harry Regan, one of several Regan brothers who starred for East Fremantle.

The brothers included Con, who became a high ranking member of the WA police force, a member of East Fremantle’s team of the 20th century and part of the victorious WA team from the 1961 national Australian rules carnival in Brisbane – the state’s most famous football team before State of Origin and the AFL.

One of the aforementioned 13 kids married into the Neeshams, whose offspring included inaugural Fremantle coach Gerard – also a five-time WAFL premiership star – and Olympic water polo player David, a fixture in Australian Olympic teams for more than 20 years.

And another married a McManus, where the grandkids included former Fremantle captain Shaun, who played 228 games for the Dockers, and multiple Logie winner and entertainer Rove.

TALENT AND CONTROVERSY

Sam Kerr grew up surrounded by sporting talent and controversy. Born in 1993, she was entering her teens when the off-field misadventures of Daniel, Ben Cousins and other West Coast players were dominating newspaper headlines in Perth.

“I didn’t speak to him for two years,” Sam told Fox Footy in 2019. “All our family’s close but me and Daniel are super-close — he always says, ‘That’s the thing that brought me back onto the road, that everyone spoke to me except you’.”

The Kerr family prior to Daniel’s debut for West Coast. Picture: Jody D'Arcy

She continued: “I had to watch Mum and Dad be stressed out about their 30-year-old son, which isn’t normal and it affected me. I don’t let things bother me but seeing my parents have to deal with it, that was probably the hardest thing.”

Daniel has previously stated that Sam’s “tough love” helped him on his journey from addiction to recovery.

A prodigy who represented Australia at 15, Sam Kerr was guided by supportive parents who were familiar with the highs and lows of the sporting spotlight.

Father Roger Kerr was a successful footballer and coach in his own right at WAFL and SANFL level. The son of a boxing champion from the state of Bengal in India, Roger was also a mercurial and colourful character off-field who was known to “gob off a bit”, as one friend put it this week.

Mother Roxanne (nee Regan) was described as “sensible, intelligent and grounded”. She was also formidable. Roxanne was known as a fierce and accomplished netballer and derby footballer.

Sources familiar with the Kerr family said Sam was initially happy to embrace the public adulation associated with her incredible talent, knowing it was good for her and her sport, but became increasingly reluctant and cautious as her profile exploded.

A former Football West employee said he understood the reluctance and said the incident involving a taxi in London, now the subject of a criminal charge and worldwide headlines, served as a cautionary tale.

Kerr’s main mistake here was being “pissed and stupid”.

“If you take away the first word none of the other stuff happens,” he said.

Former Glory media manager Peter Kapsanis, who worked closely with Kerr during her second stint with the club, said he saw a driven athlete and “a winner” and was surprised by the allegations.

“I never had any issues with her,” he said. “I would say, ‘Sam, we are doing this, this, this and this’, and she would have no objection.

“I remember her tweeting at me, ‘Thanks to Kapper for all the work blah, blah, blah, the girls appreciate it’. She didn’t have to do that and she did it publicly which for me was an exclamation mark on her character for me in my eyes.”

Kapsanis said Kerr had been the key figure in the emergence of what he regarded as Australia’s best and strongest sporting brand, the Matildas.

“Sam Kerr has played a significant role in that strong brand for the Matildas, with her goal scoring prowess, the acrobatic goal celebrations. Her performances at Chelsea, polling well at the Ballon d’Or and leading the nation. Being a proud West Aussie, she ticks the boxes.

“As far as what has surfaced in the last few days I think everyone is surprised.”

Originally published as Talent, success, controversy: Inside Sam Kerr’s remarkable family tree