Kelly’s incredible journey to 400

Colac district football champion Andrew Kelly will tomorrow achieve what very few footballers do when he plays his 400th senior game. A career spanning almost a quarter of a century and includes multiple premierships, league medals, interleague appearances and countless other achievements. The Colac Herald’s Ben Martin spoke to Kelly and some of the coaches who’ve been a part of his incredible journey.

REFLECTING
Andrew Kelly admits a third premiership with Birregurra would be the perfect way to end his incredible career.

But even now at 40 years of age, after five premierships, two league medals and 399 games of senior football, Kelly still isn’t ready to declare this year is his last.

The Birre local admits he considered hanging up his boots after the effects of consecutive head knocks restricted him to just seven games last year.

But his son Jack kept him going. And I bet the Saints are pretty glad.

Kelly has even taken on the role of coaching Jack and Birregurra’s under-10 team on Friday nights.

“A Birregurra 2023 premiership would be a fairytale finish, but I just take each game as it comes now,” Kelly said of potential retirement.

“I did consider hanging the boots up last year, but my son Jack’s kept me playing.

“He inspires me to keep making great memories, and memories I can now enjoy with him.

“I’ve enjoyed seeing younger blokes develop over time and the great friendships made through football.

“It also helps that the oval is practically in my front yard.”

Kelly, who now has three children with wife Kirsty; Savannah, 10, Jack 8, and Indi, 7, said it took a lot more stretching to get up for games these days.

“Then maybe an ice bath, swim, or a bath depending on how I pull up,” he said.

“But the body’s not feeling as bad as you would expect for a 40-year-old.”

Kelly boasts one of the most decorated resumes in country football, with a 24-year career that started with Echuca in the Goulburn Valley league and includes stints at Geelong Football Netball League club
Colac, Nightcliff in the Northern Territory league, and Colac district league clubs Alvie and now Birregurra.

He won flags at Echuca, Colac and Birregurra, but said the breakthrough Tigers premiership in 2014 stood out as the highlight.

“All the premierships have been highlights but the Colac Tigers’ 2014 premiership was probably the best highlight,” he said.

“After a 23-year drought, no-one saw Colac as a contender in GFNL.

“To be a premiership captain in the GFNL is a very rare opportunity and one I value highly.”

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Echuca premiership coach Ash Byrne knew Kelly was destined for big things ever since his debut at 16.

Kelly remembers his first game well.

He snapped a goal from 50 metres out before “dirty Dave Williams”, a former Melbourne footballer, busted his nose.

“I got it taped up and said ‘send me back out there’ and I think I was his favourite player from then on.”

Byrne knew Kelly well having taught him at St Joseph’s College, before they became teammates.

“We played in premierships together in ‘01 and ‘02, and I coached him in ‘02, ‘03 and ‘04,” he said.

“There were a group of about eight really talented kids his age coming through, then a bunch of us old blokes.

“But Andrew was a ripper, he played interleague when he was pretty young too.

“Head down, he gave everything he had.

“He was a great athlete and a skilful little bugger too.”

Kelly, who was vice-captain of the Bombers in 2004, would part ways with the club a year later as he moved to Geelong to study architecture at Deakin University.

“I knew he was going to be a great player, there were no worries about that,” Byrne said.

“It wouldn’t matter where he played, he was going to be great,” he said.

TIGERLAND
Kelly said he spoke with multiple GFNL clubs having moved to the area in 2005.

But he said it was former Colac Tigers president Nick Lang who got him on board.

It was the start of a 154-game senior career with Colac, captaining the Tigers to their first GFNL flag in 2014, winning two Ted Parker Medals and earning selection in the Tigers’ Team of the GFL Era.

Colac premiership coach Paul Lynch said Kelly was so important to the Tigers’ success during the mid-2010s.

“As far as his playing goes, he’s the best I’ve coached at winning the footy or creating a stoppage,” he said.

“That was how I liked to play, if you’re not going to win the footy, get a stoppage, and Kelly was the best at that, and that is why he was so important to the successful era at Colac.”

Lynch said Kelly deserved to be a two-time Mathieson Medallist as the Geelong league’s best-and-fairest player.

In 2012 and ‘13 he polled the most votes in the league count but was ineligible both times due to suspension.

“He had a real competitive nature about him, that’s something you’re sort of born with,” Lynch said.

“He should have two Mathieson Medals but he played football on the edge and that was what was good about him.

“But I know he’d take the premiership over a league medal any day.”

Lynch’s coaching career has now spanned two decades with stints with multiple clubs in the Geelong, Colac district and now the Geelong district league with Thomson.

He said Kelly still ranks as one of the best.

“A couple of years ago (the Colac Herald) named the top Tigers of the modern era and I think there wasn’t much between the top eight or so,” he said.

“Carmody, Leersen, Veale, Kelly, any one of those could have been number one.

“But he’s certainly one of the better players I’ve coached.”

STAR SWAN
Kelly had two stints away from Colac between 2005 and 2015.

The first was relatively short, jetting up to the Northern Territory for a 10-game stint with Nightcliff in 2006.

The second was a three-year stretch at Alvie from 2008 to 2010 where he played alongside his younger brother and champion goalkicker Christian.

It was a relatively short but successful stint as Kelly won two Jack Mahoney Medals in 2008 and ‘10, as the Swans fell one game short of a grand final each year.

BIRRE BOUND
Kelly announced in early 2016 that he was set to step back from the rigours of GFL due to family and work commitments.

The dedicated family man and then-fiancé Kirsty Finnigan were expecting their third child Indi, while his work as a builder was also keeping him busy.

He this week revealed that he thought he only had a few years left in him at that point, but eight years on and he’s still going.

He showed no signs of slowing down, featuring in three straight grand finals for Birregurra with Christian, winning a flag in 2016 when he was named best in finals, and then again in ‘17.

In 2016 he earned best-on-ground honours in interleague, and was named interleague captain the following year.

While his days winning league medals might be behind him, to be playing at the level he is having just turned 40 on May 10 leaves plenty of people in awe, including new Birregurra coach and his former Colac teammate Kane Leersen.

“It is a major achievement, obviously credit to Andrew and his professionalism and resilience really over a 25-year journey,” Leersen said.

“He has had one of the best local football careers that anyone would have brought to the table around here,” he said.

“His ball-hunting ability, work rate, competitiveness, and underpinning all that has been his professionalism, the extra sessions and hard work is what has kept him at the top of his game for a long time.

“He just turned 40 and he is still able to turn up every week and contribute to our midfield, it just shows how good he is.”

FOUR HUNDRED
Tomorrow Kelly will play an incredible 400th senior game, fittingly when Birregurra hosts his old club Alvie.

It’s an achievement not lost on the people who’ve helped shape his football career.

“I only just found out that he’s 40,” Lynch said.

“To still be running around at that age, it doesn’t matter what level, is amazing,” he said.

“He’s 40 and it sounds like he’s still getting it done.”

Byrne said it was an unbelievable achievement.

“The resilience for him to keep bobbing up, to be playing at 40 and still playing good footy,” he said.

“It doesn’t surprise me, the attitude of the kid growing up, he was so determined with everything he did.

“He was always striving to do the best he could.

“I’m actually quite proud of the little bugger, having known him since he was 13, he’s achieved a lot, not just in footy but in life, you always have sense of pride for it all as his former teacher, teammate and coach.”
with Louis Darcy

ANDREW KELLY
CAREER SNAPSHOT
Echuca Bombers GVFL
98 games and two premierships ‘01 and ‘02

Colac Tigers GFNL
154 games and one premiership ‘14

Nightcliff Tigers NTFL
10 games

Alvie CDFNL
57 games

Birregurra CDFNL
80 games and two premierships ‘16 and ‘17

CAREER BY YEAR
ECHUCA
1998-00 Debuted with Echuca at 16.
2000 Nine senior games. Under-18 best-and-fairest in losing grand final. Player of finals and club champion.
2001 Pre-season with WAFL club East Perth. Premiership with Echuca.
2002 Back-to-back premierships with Echuca. Most improved player.
2003 Runner-up grand final to Tatura. Second best on ground.
2004 Named vice captain.

COLAC TIGERS/NIGHTCLIFFE
2005 Moved to Geelong to study architecture. Signed with Colac and played two interleague games.
2006 Runner-up Mathieson Medal for Colac. Played in the NTFL for Nightcliff over summer.
2007 Fifteen points short of a grand final. Third best-and-fairest.

ALVIE
2008 First Jack Mahoney Medal. Club best-and-fairest.
2009 Runner-up best-and-fairest for Alvie.
2010 Second Jack Mahoney Medal. Alvie best-and-fairest. Named ruck rover in Colac Tigers’ Team of the Decade.

COLAC TIGERS
2011 Ted Parker Medallist.
2012 Won GFL’s Mathieson Medal but denied due to suspension. Second Ted Parker Medal, tied with Lochie Veale.
2013 Won GFL’s Mathieson Medal but denied due to suspension for a second time. Named captain of Colac. Runner-up in Ted Parker Medal.
2014 Premiership captain.
2015 Runner-up in Ted Parker Medal.

BIRREGURRA
2016 Premiership with Birregurra. Named player of finals. Best-on-ground in interleague. Named in top 50 GFL players of all time.
2017 Back-to-back premierships. Best-and-fairest. Named interleague captain.
2018 Grand final runners-up.
2022 Named ruck rover in Colac Team of the GFL Era. Named Birregurra vice-captain.
2023 “Hopefully finish with a premiership.”