The dramatic announcement by Swan Tadhg Kennelly that he will forego the final year of his contract to return to Ireland must have the Swans’ inner sanctum cursing violently.
The timing of the announcement means the Swans are limited to promoting a rookie to the senior list rather than having the option to select a stopgap senior player from the drafting process.
One can only wonder what may have been the real reason. Perhaps THAT shoulder would not stand up to another season of high-impact AFL, but could handle the gentler Gaelic game?
It will be hard for anyone to make the case that Kennelly has displayed disloyalty to his club. Through no fault of their own, clubs in the modern era have foresworn loyalty to all but a handful of ‘untouchables’, with everyone else fair game. In this context, neither club, fans nor media can censure Kennelly whatever their view of the moral position may be.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Swan dive?
The timing of the announcement means the Swans are limited to promoting a rookie to the senior list rather than having the option to select a stopgap senior player from the drafting process.
One can only wonder what may have been the real reason. Perhaps THAT shoulder would not stand up to another season of high-impact AFL, but could handle the gentler Gaelic game?
It will be hard for anyone to make the case that Kennelly has displayed disloyalty to his club. Through no fault of their own, clubs in the modern era have foresworn loyalty to all but a handful of ‘untouchables’, with everyone else fair game. In this context, neither club, fans nor media can censure Kennelly whatever their view of the moral position may be.
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4 comments:
Can't help but feel this is still a little low, it is just a personal view and one that is based out of the 'if I say I'm going to do something, I'll do it' ethic.
I would think its obvious he showed a lot of disloyalty...
He gave them the idea (more than once) that he would see out his contract and to do the dirty on them (only able to replace Kennelly with rookies) was a poor move by him.
If you look at Sydney's rookies, most of them are development players who would be lucky to even get a game. So the way I see it, Sydney are now playing with one less man for the whole season...
From a purely moral perspective, you're right Jermayn. Sadly, the game doesn't work that way anymore. Clubs routinely delist or trade contracted players, so they (and we) can hardly cry foul when it occasionally happens the other way.
I've already noted that it is a blow for Sydney’s on-field prospects.
@Contested Footy: I really think there's more to this than we've been told and I think the shoulder is the problem. Recall those last few games? The damned thing was popping out three or four times game! Remember that there's no tackling in the Irish game, so much less chance of the shoulder popping.
Having achieved what he has in AFL, against the odds, I don't see Kennelly as the sort of bloke who would renege on a deal or on his team and mates.
BUT, imagine that a medico told you you could lose a major % of the use of your arm if you played another season of high-contact sport . . . What decision would you make?
IF I'm right, I can't understand why they wouldn't give that as a reason, but there's no other explanation that makes sense to me.
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