Son of a (53-year-old) gun: Remarkable roots and rise of surprise Dally M leader Will Kennedy

The running joke around Bathurst is the best way to know where Will Kennedy’s dad was would be to wait for the friendly acknowledgement from the back of the car down the main street.

“Kerrie (Kennedy’s mum) would drive him everywhere and he would sit in the back,” laughs local fitness trainer Dan George. “You’d see them driving down the street and there would be this arm waving from out the back. That was ‘Bubba’.”

William “Bubba” Kennedy has been getting more than a few backslaps around town of late. His son, Sharks fullback Will, is leading the Dally M count on the eve of State of Origin selection, an anomaly not even the most optimistic Cronulla fan could have predicted at the start of the season.

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But even that doesn’t make the 28-year-old the most remarkable member of his family.

To those familiar with Australian top grade rugby league, Bubba Kennedy is the former Balmain Tigers speedster who didn’t make his debut until 27 in the middle of the Super League war. He finished with 26 tries from 61 games. It was a career anyone would have been proud of.

To those familiar with bush footy circles, he’s so much more than those three years in the big smoke.

Up until a few years ago, the country rugby league legend was still lacing up the boots. He finally hung them up at 53, at a time when most are planning for retirement and looking forward to the pension. His hair was greying and the zip from his 20s had naturally diminished, but the passion for the game always remained, attending regular boot camp sessions with George until close to his retirement.

“He turned up at Bathurst with a bag and his footy boots in it,” George says. “I remember playing against him and he wasn’t big, but he was a brick when you got tackled by him. The longevity (was remarkable). Up until his 50s, Bubba would take his shirt off and his arms were huge. He would never really do any weights either. He was just a freak of nature with his athletic ability.”

And his career, covering tens of thousands of kilometres zig zagging across the NSW central west, was remarkably spent without ever holding a driving licence.

“But he eventually got it after he finished footy,” Will jokes.

If you want to understand how Will is carving out a season where he’s leading other rolled gold fullbacks such as James Tedesco, Kalyn Ponga, Tom Trbojevic, Reece Walsh and Dylan Edwards in the Dally Ms, it’s best to know family is what drives him.

Not only has his name been passed down through generations – both his grandfather and father were named Will – the character traits have too. Bubba is known as a man of few words, Will even more so. During this interview with foxsports.com.au, Sharks teammates Ronaldo Mulitalo, Toby Rudolf and even coach Craig Fitzgibbon joke Kennedy’s finally plucked up the courage to get some media.

“It’s taken a long time from SG Ball to come out of my shell and be the person you normally are around your family,” he says. “That’s what I love about this club. They don’t judge you. We’re all welcome. Fitzy has brought in this culture. We all look after each other and love each other.”

But it’s when he speaks about his dad that there’s a little sparkle in the eye.

He would often watch old VHS tapes of Bubba’s matches with the Tigers, but perhaps the reason his father kept playing so long was for the honour to one day run out alongside Will.

“I just want to have one game with you,” Bubba told Will.

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That came in a Koori Knockout when they teamed up for a few minutes with the Goodooga Magpies at a time when Will was already an established NRL player.

“It took a while, and I didn’t think it was going to happen,” Will says. “He held on and it felt good. Not many people get to play alongside your father. It was a good memory.”

His favourite?

“Yeah, probably. Playing with my family is one of the big moments in my life. You never get to do it much. To go back and play that type of footy and have fun, there’s not as much pressure compared to NRL. It’s good to be able to go and enjoy it.”

Fitzgibbon and the Sharks have embraced the Indigenous culture perhaps more than most clubs, with stars such as Nicho Hynes, Braydon Trindall and Jesse Ramien joining Kennedy as All-Stars representatives in recent years. For an introvert like Kennedy, that’s been a huge help.

If it wasn’t for his Aboriginal background, Kennedy may not have ended up at the Sharks at all.

When he was 16, he told his parents he wanted to move to Sydney by himself to give rugby league a crack. He’d heard about other bush kids getting picked up by NRL clubs for under-age competitions, and wanted to see if he could make it too.

He lived at Kirinari Hostel, an all-boys Indigenous accommodation which neighbours Kareela Golf Club in Sydney’s south. Slowly but surely, he began getting noticed, and while older sister Kandy was the first of Bubba’s children to achieve fame (she was an Indigenous All-Stars representative more than a decade ago), Will slowly worked his way through the grades at the Sharks.

“My parents didn’t move away, but I thought I better get in early before it’s too late,” Will says. “It was hard in the start. In the school holidays I used to go back to Bathurst, and I didn’t want to come back home. My mum forced me and I knew it was coming from a good place.”

Kerrie knew she was doing it for the right reasons.

“There are so many people we have to thank for helping him on the journey when he moved to Sydney,” she says. “He’s such a humble boy with a lovely nature.”

Until this year, Kennedy had always been recognised as a dependable fullback, but would he be Cronulla’s long-term No.1? They had young guns Kade Dykes and Liam Ison on the books. After the start to this season, the debate might be over.

He doesn’t yet have a contract for next season, and with each looming week, his value to the Sharks soars. So, what’s been the secret to a standout year at 28?

“Nothing really,” he shrugs. “I was talking to other people and I’ve just been working on myself and my craft. When you do that, it comes off the back of that. Definitely because of my teammates, they’re helping me with my job when they’re doing their job.

“You see stories of guys who work hard and then it all pays off. I’ve seen a lot of those. It’s never going to come easy playing in the NRL. That’s just to make it. You’ve got to be consistent, keep doing what you’ve got to do, and it will all play off.”

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Says coach Craig Fitzgibbon: “Will is a talented player, but his development has come from persistence and hard work. He values those attributes and pushes himself every time he trains.”

Like Bubba, he’s showing no signs of slowing down. He’s missed just one match in the last two seasons, and even checked himself out of hospital to play in a game this year after being treated for a serious elbow infection.

But will he still be playing somewhere at 53?

“I will have to see how my body goes,” he smiles.

And if he is, at least Bubba’s boy will be driving himself to his games with no need to be waving from the back seat.