James Kelly thought it was over but that all changed with one phone call from Essendon
MOVING into retirement wasn’t easy for James Kelly but a second chance with Essendon and reaching 300 games has the classy defender in the promised land.
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JAMES Kelly is in the promised land.
It wasn’t always easy dealing with his retirement from Geelong, from the moment he first read an email in mid-2015 which signalled the end of an illustrious triple-premiership career.
Early last year, the new dad had begun working in the AFL’s football operations department, had been on a family holiday and enjoyed the occasional guilt-free beer.
His playing days, Kelly thought, were over.
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But three days into his new office job came the phone call that would change everything, and ultimately lead to one of the most satisfying seasons of a career that will hit 300 games, fittingly against his old team.
Kelly still shakes his head, thinking how he was meant to be pulling on the slacks and shirt every day, rather than his trusty size 13 boots.
“I thought I was done, completely,” Kelly said.
“Initially, I did a little bit of thinking about continuing to play on and really quietly I spoke to a few other clubs, but I wasn’t really in love with it and the clubs weren’t really in love with the idea either.
“So I pretty quickly put it to bed and was just moving on with life, but the day after the (supplement ban) decision came through for the guys, Essendon said they wanted to sit down and have a chat about where I was at, and within two or three days it all changed.
“Pretty quickly I thought it sounded pretty good and more than anything I realised I just wanted to help.”
Essendon was on its knees, in a way, and Kelly didn’t know many people at Tullamarine, aside from fellow ex-Cats’ recruit Mathew Stokes, who had also started work at the AFL, and assistant coach Matthew Egan.
Stokes thought Kelly still had the footy bug deep in him and could have a “huge impact” at Essendon.
“I remember when we first got the phone call and I walked into his office at the AFL and I think he had closed his laptop in about two minutes,” Stokes said.
“You knew he wanted to play on, but it was really weird in the first day at Essendon, really strange, because we probably didn’t recognise too many faces.
“I’m just so glad it’s worked out for him and he gets to play 300 games, because not many guys have been able to play with his level of consistency.
“He might not be one of the first names that bobs into people’s head when you think of that great Geelong team or get the same applause or recognition as others but I can tell you he was one of the most important guys there in terms of the off-field culture that we wanted to create and the on-field success we were able to enjoy.”
Former Geelong assistant coach Brendan McCartney said Kelly, now 33, was one of the best defensive decision-makers in the league.
“There was no one better in the competition at making off-ball decisions to go and help his teammate, when to open the ground up, and when to get back over to the contest,” McCartney said.
“His willingness to help the defenders was just superior and so many times he would just appear from nowhere to clean it up.
“So, he was uncomplicated, but he could do it all. He was brilliant around the footy, a really neat kick, he kicked goals and could do a job. He’s a fantastic person to have at your footy club.”
For Stokes, Kelly’s friendship helped save his career.
When Stokes served a two-month ban for drug possession in 2010, he was forced to train outside normal club hours. But Kelly was there almost every step of the way.
“I couldn’t do my normal weights at the club during the day so Kel wouldn’t do his weights then either, so could do them with me after everyone else had left,” Stokes said.
“And the early-morning running sessions before training with (assistant coach) Nigel Lappin as well.
“All that just sums him up as a person and I think he is an incredible human being.”
Still, Kelly’s departure from Geelong wasn’t without its hiccups either, as the club tried to transition its premiership champions as respectfully as it could.
Kelly knew mid-season that 2015 was his last year at Geelong, and the confirmation from coach Chris Scott, football general manager Steve Hocking and list chief Stephen Wells in about Round 14 lifted a weight off his shoulders.
“The moment the meeting request came through on my email I knew what was going to happen. It doesn’t take three people to deliver good news,” Kelly said.
“I came home and I was pretty emotional about it and even though I knew it was coming and it was still really civil and respectful, it is difficult, it is difficult for everyone involved.
“But pretty quickly I turned it around to just wanting to enjoy the time I had left. I have been there at Geelong for such a long time and things were changing and I could feel that changing and somethings I wasn’t necessarily happy with.
“But once that (meeting) sort of happened and I knew I was going to finish up that sort of eroded away.
“I was able to just think ‘I am only here for a little bit longer’, so I wanted to enjoy the things I liked about footy and being around the boys.”
On reflection, Kelly believes Geelong made the right call, and it was something Essendon coach John Worsfold said last year that helped crystallise his view.
“‘Woosha’ said that football clubs make decisions based on what you show them, and for me, it really hit home that the club made the decision that it was my time to retire because that’s what I was showing them,” Kelly said.
“I was showing them that I was ready to finish, my performance was a bit inconsistent. I probably wasn’t exactly the same person I had been before, so in a way I had showed them that I was ready to finish up.
“That’s what they had seen in me. They made the decision off that.”
The competitive juices still flow, however, now in his 16th AFL season, in red and black. And he admits the club which would have taken him with the next selection in the 2001 draft (Geelong took him pick 17, Essendon had pick 18), has brought the best out of him again.
He played 20 games last year, finishing second in the best-and-fairest and surprising even himself with his on-field performances, and discovered an interest in helping coach.
“I was probably more relaxed last year than I have been in my previous years at Geelong because maybe you felt like there wasn’t a lot of pressure around on my performance last year,” he said.
“Yes, I wanted to play well and we wanted to get a lot of things right, but the expectation wasn’t really there that we were going to have an 11 or 12-win season.”
There will be nerves coming up against his old club, and some old teammates.
Geelong, Kelly says two or three times in the interview, will always hold a special place in his heart.
His biggest influences, he said, were former senior coach Mark Thompson, development coach Ron Watt and assistant coach McCartney, who all taught the enduring utility the fundamentals of football and, in particular, a defence-first attitude.
Ex-teammate Steve Johnson said Kelly’s defensive skills and team ethos were among the best at Geelong.
“We had some pretty attacking weapons in that midfield and ‘Kel’ was always that player, along with probably Joel Corey, who was the hardest two-way runner,” Johnson said.
“He had the team’s best interest at heart every single time he went out there and that allowed the likes of (Gary) Ablett, (Jimmy) Bartel and (Paul) Chapman to go about their game, and be more attacking.
“While he wasn’t the most flamboyant player, Kel’s understanding of the game was as good as anyone’s and he was exactly what we needed around those other midfielders.”
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