MPNFL: Paul Kennedy appointed Seaford football manager
Paul “PK’’ Kennedy is back at Seaford as football manager to help the Tigers become kings of the Mornington Peninsula footy jungle once again.
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Paul Kennedy helped Seaford become an MPNFL powerhouse in the 2000s, coaching the Tigers to a premiership and establishing a strong club culture.
Now he’s back at Tigerland, taking on the role of Seaford football manager.
“I mean, I’ve never really left the place,’’ Kennedy said.
Popular “PK’’ stressed his role would be ‘’very much behind the scenes’’, with his priority to support senior coach Zac Vansittart and club president Dale O’Neil.
But he is determined to help Seaford be “as good as it can be’’.
“My three boys are getting older as well,’’ Kennedy said.
“My older boy is 14 now so he will be in under 15s next year, my other is 12 and the other one is just starting playing footy.
“It won’t be too long until they’ll be pressing their claims for under 19s or seniors somewhere and they have said that they would like to come and play at Seaford when the time’s right, so I just want the place to be as good as it can be for my kids and everyone else’s to come and play and get the chance to play seniors.’’
Kennedy’s brother Steve, who has two sons playing at the club, will coach Seaford’s under 19s.
Seaford was the hottest team in the MPNFL when it went back-to-back-to-back from 2007 to 2009 — Kennedy coaching in ’07, Chris Fortnam in ‘08 and Anthony Agius in ’09.
The Tigers were the most feared and respected outfit on the Mornington Peninsula.
In recent years, Seaford has been rebuilding in Division 2 and Kennedy believes the club can climb the mountain again.
“Last year they played some good youngsters in the seniors,’’ he said.
“Zac’s a very good coach – he’s actually the PE teacher of my kids at primary school. So I’ve known Zac for years and he’s a good coach, he’s great with the youngsters and they played some kids in the ones last year, and I can see that continuing.
“We want to be a nursery for those young players and just get a whole lot of youth, enthusiasm and speed into the senior side and eventually when you’ve got enough games into those guys we will see if other sides can keep up with us.’’
Seaford has been through a couple of years of upheaval, forced to relocate to Belvedere Reserve because of the Level Crossing Removal Project.
But the Tigers will return home to RF Miles Reserve in 2021 and Kennedy says the “joint will be humming’’.
“It will be a place over that side of Seaford that people can walk to,’’ he said.
“I reckon we will have big crowds and we will have a young and exciting team and then we can really compete with the best of the best on the peninsula.’’
In other Seaford news, Andy Clarke has been reappointed as reserves coach for season 2021, with Paul “Noodles” Norton his assistant.
Former Seaford reserves three-time premiership coach Darren “Gooch” Godkin will be Steve Kennedy’s assistant in the under 19s.
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