‘Means the world’: Power couple Jeremy and Kellie Finlayson melt AFL

Jeremy Finlayson has starred once again as Port Adelaide’s remarkable streak continued but there was one fan much more special than the rest.

Jeremy Finlayson had a night out. Photo: Getty Images and Fox Footy

Port Adelaide’s Jeremy Finlayson put in another stirring performance, booting four goals in his side’s 16.14 (110) to 11.6 (72) win over the Cats.

But it was his wife Kellie who stole the show in beautiful scenes at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night.

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Finlayson has played like a man on a mission in 2023, helping his side to the top of the AFL ladder on the back of an 11th-straight win. He took himself up to 12th on the Coleman Medal leaderboard with a tally of 28 goals for the season.

And he’s doing it despite the awful pre-season diagnosis that Kellie has terminal cancer.

Sitting in the crowd for the game against the Cats, Kellie was seen celebrating wildly after each of her husband’s goals.

Speaking after the game on Seven, Finlayson was glad he could have turned on a performance like that, with presenter Abbey Holmes calling Kellie’s reactions “all-time”.

“That means the world to me,” Finlayson said. “I was walking back into the pocket after one of the goals and I could see her on the big screen and I got a bit emotional. But to see a smile on her face, it’s the best thing I can do.”

Finlayson's face lights up when talking about his wife. Photo: Channel 7

You couldn't have wiped the smile of Kellie's face if you tried. Photo: Fox Sports

His excellent performances even had the commentators wondering how he was able to keep playing at such a high level.

“Hard to think about how Jeremy compartmentalises what he’s going through with Kellie every week and is able to perform at all, let alone so extraordinarily well,” McLachlan said.

“I’m sure she inspires him. She must, she’d have to.”

Finlayson said Kellie starts radiotherapy next week but said the family would go away for a few days, “put our feet up and relax as a family, regroup and go from there”.

The AFL world was left in shock before the season when Kellie was diagnosed with the deadly disease just months after finishing her treatment for bowel cancer, which had emerged shortly after the birth of their first child Sophia in August 2021.

But over Christmas, a tightening in her chest led to the discovery of a mass “a bit bigger than a tennis ball” in her chest cavity, having metastasised from her colon.

How Finlayson has played so well despite that beggars belief. Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The journey of the couple has inspired the AFL community in 2023 and Kellie recently revealed the chemotherapy was working “unbelievably well”.

While still terminal, Kellie at least has hope of seeing the future.

“I’m one of the lucky unlucky ones. My chemotherapy is working so well that my last scan was actually clear,” she told The Project recently.

“So if it means that I’m here to see my daughter go to school for the first day or my daughter’s 21st, that’s something I didn’t think I would have three months ago.

“Until they tell me that you‘ve got three weeks, three months or whatever, make the most of it, I’m going to believe that I’m going to be here for years.

“I live for every day and try and make the most of every moment I have with my daughter and husband.”

At halftime in the football in a pre-taped interview, Kellie and Jeremy also kicked off a campaign in conjunction with the Jodi Lee Foundation to raise awareness of bowel cancer, the nation’s second-leading cancer killer, encouraging Australians to “trust your gut”.

Kellie Finlayson and Jeremy Finlayson share an important message on bowel cancer, following Kellie's diagnosis and treatment.

To take the bowel cancer symptom checker, head to https://t.co/qqAGyLCy9ppic.twitter.com/Sj0D9lO6AO

— 7AFL (@7AFL) June 15, 2023

“You have to trust your gut. Trust your gut and get checked if you think you need to. Don’t be afraid to go and get the help that you need. Even if it is nothing, you could get a polyp removed and save your life,” she said.

“I have a purpose, on a mission to raise this awareness of early detection, specifically.

“In a way I have become my own inspiration in terms of how I’ve dealt with it.”

Kellie with Jeremy and their daughter Sophia. Picture: Instagram

Jeremy said the situation has been “heartbreaking”.

“Seeing a 25-year-old, the love of your life, get that terrible news that she has got bowel cancer, and you think of the worst case scenario,” he said.

“What she is going through the last couple of years, it’s pretty brutal. She is truly inspirational. That is why I wake up every day and go do what I do and try to put a smile on her face.”

Kellie added there’s been more positive signs and that she sees a future ahead of her.

“Chemotherapy has worked perfectly and the cancer has responded really well to the chemotherapy, which is amazing,” she said.

“I also have a small lesion in my lung but we are working towards shrinking that with a couple of extra rounds of chemo.

“Until I’m told it is not going to be there, I think I’m going to be here when I’m 80 and what not.

“As long as I’m not given a reason not to think that, I’m going to continue to think that way. If I’m not living, what is the point of being alive?”

Originally published as ‘Means the world’: Power couple Jeremy and Kellie Finlayson melt AFL