John Kennedy was one of the most revered figures in football, who died recently aged 91. He was a successful player for Hawthorn, coach, school teacher and administrator. He coached three premierships at Hawthorn and coached North Melbourne in the 1980s.
I played at Hawthorn and on the Glenferrie oval in 1966, under Peter O’Donohue and 1967 (John Kennedy and Maurie Considine ) in the Hawthorn Reserves. It was at a time when Kennedy was rebuilding the club, which took the premiership in 1971.
I was on the senior list so I trained or played with some of the greats like David Parkin, Peter Crimmins, Don Scott and Peter Hudson.
What were Kennedy’s special qualities? His motto was hard work, mental and physical toughness, resilience and effort. A few examples of my experiences may help to illustrate this.
Training was hard – he wanted you to push the pain barrier. This was why the 1961 team was known as 'Kennedy’s Commandos'. One of his sayings was "better to be carried off the oval than seen to be squibbing it".
After a vigorous training exercise one Tuesday evening some players were messing around in the changing room with a football, and smashed a ceiling light into pieces. The booming voice let fly – "do 20 laps of the oval… all". There was not a murmur – we knew who was boss!
The pre-season runs were near the Yarra River close to Scotch College and Gardiner Creek. We were amazed at Kennedy’s effort. Invariably, then in his early 40s, he would win the endurance runs. He wouldn’t ask his players to do things that he couldn’t do or hadn’t done. This was effort and resilience!
At training five key corridor players would line up in their positions and the plan was for the full back to let fly with a big torp kick to centre half back, and so on up the ground to the great Hudson at full forward, whom he would always call just Peter. At the same time, we were directed to run flat out around the flank to beat the ball. We would never win. This was the lesson - straight up the corridor, keep pushing the ball forward, rather than kicking backwards in defence that we see today.
He could be intimidating. During a game at Glenferrie oval he would sit in the small coaches box on the Mary St flank and often bang on the noisy galvanised roof in order to try and sway an umpire’s decision to Hawthorn, on a tackle or a free.
He was all about preparation and performance. One evening, in the dungeon, he spoke of a player out on Port Phillip Bay with a mate and two girls, late on the previous night before the Saturday game. We were all quiet. He released more details. Michael Porter a gifted player had been spotted. He remarked that Porter actually played quite well on the Saturday afternoon. There was some laughing – this was the moment Kennedy knew when the guard was down and he would pounce.. .. a powerful reprimand followed about doing the wrong thing by the team.
Kennedy’s inspirational and oratory skills: John Kennedy was a man of literature, an English teacher and head of a school. He was asked about his famous speech at half time in the 1975 Grand Final against North Melbourne “Don’t think, Do”. He replied that he had a lot of academics in the team like Ray Wilson and Des Meagher from University Blacks or Old Xavierians. They did a lot of thinking he said. These words were in exasperation or desperation when Hawthorn was down on the scoreboard. David Parkin remarked that his speeches were laced with quotes from Marx, Shakespeare, or Churchill. John Kennedy was well read. He would send his grandchildren weekly letters with puzzles and quizzes, often signed Aristotle, Pythagoras or Socrates.
I played at Hawthorn and on the Glenferrie oval in 1966, under Peter O’Donohue and 1967 (John Kennedy and Maurie Considine ) in the Hawthorn Reserves. It was at a time when Kennedy was rebuilding the club, which took the premiership in 1971.
I was on the senior list so I trained or played with some of the greats like David Parkin, Peter Crimmins, Don Scott and Peter Hudson.
What were Kennedy’s special qualities? His motto was hard work, mental and physical toughness, resilience and effort. A few examples of my experiences may help to illustrate this.
Training was hard – he wanted you to push the pain barrier. This was why the 1961 team was known as 'Kennedy’s Commandos'. One of his sayings was "better to be carried off the oval than seen to be squibbing it".
After a vigorous training exercise one Tuesday evening some players were messing around in the changing room with a football, and smashed a ceiling light into pieces. The booming voice let fly – "do 20 laps of the oval… all". There was not a murmur – we knew who was boss!
The pre-season runs were near the Yarra River close to Scotch College and Gardiner Creek. We were amazed at Kennedy’s effort. Invariably, then in his early 40s, he would win the endurance runs. He wouldn’t ask his players to do things that he couldn’t do or hadn’t done. This was effort and resilience!
At training five key corridor players would line up in their positions and the plan was for the full back to let fly with a big torp kick to centre half back, and so on up the ground to the great Hudson at full forward, whom he would always call just Peter. At the same time, we were directed to run flat out around the flank to beat the ball. We would never win. This was the lesson - straight up the corridor, keep pushing the ball forward, rather than kicking backwards in defence that we see today.
He could be intimidating. During a game at Glenferrie oval he would sit in the small coaches box on the Mary St flank and often bang on the noisy galvanised roof in order to try and sway an umpire’s decision to Hawthorn, on a tackle or a free.
He was all about preparation and performance. One evening, in the dungeon, he spoke of a player out on Port Phillip Bay with a mate and two girls, late on the previous night before the Saturday game. We were all quiet. He released more details. Michael Porter a gifted player had been spotted. He remarked that Porter actually played quite well on the Saturday afternoon. There was some laughing – this was the moment Kennedy knew when the guard was down and he would pounce.. .. a powerful reprimand followed about doing the wrong thing by the team.
Kennedy’s inspirational and oratory skills: John Kennedy was a man of literature, an English teacher and head of a school. He was asked about his famous speech at half time in the 1975 Grand Final against North Melbourne “Don’t think, Do”. He replied that he had a lot of academics in the team like Ray Wilson and Des Meagher from University Blacks or Old Xavierians. They did a lot of thinking he said. These words were in exasperation or desperation when Hawthorn was down on the scoreboard. David Parkin remarked that his speeches were laced with quotes from Marx, Shakespeare, or Churchill. John Kennedy was well read. He would send his grandchildren weekly letters with puzzles and quizzes, often signed Aristotle, Pythagoras or Socrates.
In conclusion, he was a great leader, the spiritual head of Australian Rules football. He developed players like Don Scott and Leigh Matthews and made them into great players and leaders at Hawthorn. He left a lasting legacy at Hawthorn and Australian Rules generally.
Greg Champion followed up with some memories of a Hawthorn function presided by Kennedy’s son, John Kennedy Jnr with his father also present.
Rotarian Dennis Booth informed us that he had John Kennedy Snr as his English teacher for two years at Coburg Technical College. If homework was not done, it was come out the front of the class for the ‘cuts or strap’. Dennis mentioned he received "six of the best", over two hands "a couple of times" from the master. In Dennis’ words, Kennedy was a stern but fair man in class.
Greg Champion followed up with some memories of a Hawthorn function presided by Kennedy’s son, John Kennedy Jnr with his father also present.
Rotarian Dennis Booth informed us that he had John Kennedy Snr as his English teacher for two years at Coburg Technical College. If homework was not done, it was come out the front of the class for the ‘cuts or strap’. Dennis mentioned he received "six of the best", over two hands "a couple of times" from the master. In Dennis’ words, Kennedy was a stern but fair man in class.
