The Interview: Tadhg Kennelly
In his most revealing interview yet, The Irish star of the Sydney Swans opens up about losing his father, dealing with people back home who thought he was money hungry, running in November’s New York marathon, and going back to Ireland to play Gaelic football.
Please tell me you’re not serious about running this New York marathon…
Ha! The further-est I’ve ever run is 10k. I’ve run home from the pub a few times, probably ended up running 42k on a nice cold night! Perfect conditions for New York. I’ve just got to fill myself with a few.
Have you not heard of the City of Surf?
(pause) Geez. You got me there. That would have been good. Look, it’s a long, long way, but I guess I’ll worry about it in November.
Why a marathon?
My old man died of a heart attack, so I have a link with the Heart Foundation. He did a marathon about, um, six years ago - The Dublin City marathon. So I looked at that and thought it’s something I could do. I’m certainly not going to break any records.
As we’re speaking, it’s still winter and today in Sydney it’s 27 degrees.
Yeah, amazing, isn’t it?
Could you handle a day like this when you first got here?
Nuh. No way. It’s unbelievable. In Ireland you’d get people dying at 27 degrees, and I’m being serious! People just can’t handle it. It’s not as bad now. I head down to the beach and something about the heat brings out some, um, nice scenery.
Scenery? That’s a good way to put it. Still like the cold?
Love the cold. Love it.
I know the AFL grand final gets a run in Ireland, but does the family get to watch you on TV during the season?
They do now. It’s on Setanta there, so every Saturday night game is beamed in live, and the Sunday games are on delay. The game itself has grown massively in the last couple of years, and with more and more Irish kids coming over it’s only going to bet bigger.
Jimmy Stynes was here well before you obviously, but taking the modesty out of it, is that growth basically your influence?
Yeah. I think just me playing was big, but the club being successful was bigger. Everyone loves a winner and I’m the only Irishman to win a premiership.
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| > | The interview: Anthony Mundine |
| > | The interview: Mark Ricciuto |
| > | The interview: Tadhg Kennelly |
| > | The interview: Craig Bellamy |
| > | The interview: Brian Waldron |
| > | The interview: Mark Geyer |
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