News RIP Neil Kerley

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Just announced: Neil Kerley has been killed in a car accident, aged 88.

When I was a fatherless kid, Knuckles WAS footy to me; a man's man, tough, a great player/ player-Coach/ Coach and legend of West Adelaide, indeed, SA footy.
Stories of his footy exploits and successes abound. Bloody hell, those hands, that voice!!
He was larger-than-life, bigger than any of the stories he generated; his character and will and strength will never be forgotten at West Adelaide, South Adelaide, Glenelg, West Torrens, Central Districts, SANFL & State games, not to mention his influence in the Crows' early years.

RIP Knuckles. You'll be missed, but never forgotten.
 
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I saw Neil play for Westies in the very first game I ever watched. It was against my Glenelg and we won (against all odds). Kerls stood out as a man you didnt want to f**k with. He was tough, stood his ground never gave an inch. He went to South and coached them from bottom to top in the one year. He gave Glenelg respect and changed that club from being cellar dwellers to wining our second ever flag. But for me the one thing above all else was his love for the State. He hated the Vics and they hated him, but there was a huge amount of respect between them. He and Whitten, not just Whitten, made State Footy mean something that us Croweaters could be proud of. Emotionally known as Knuckles or The King he will be missed especially by my generation.

Really sad.

Vale Knuckles
 
I remember doing a slash at half time at Footy Park some 20 or so years ago, and the large toilet (it might have been under the northern grandstand) was totally crowded with people peeing and lined up waiting. Someone yelled out in a loud voice 'Hey, Neil Kerly is having a piss with us. He's pissing with the ordinary people'. Quite a cheer went up for him. He was good humoured as evidenced by the large grin on his face.
 
wandering star.jpeg

He even recorded a hit record in 1971 with Wandering Star on Pepper Records. His gravelly voice matched Lee Marvin's hit from Paint Your Wagon perfectly. Think he might have gone to No. 1 on the Adelaide Top 40 Charts. Can't find an audio file unfortunately.
 
Condolences to his family.
RIP Neil.

An old school special comments man back in the day. Loved his State of Origin banter with Teddy Whitten.
Very sad his passing had to be this way.
 
I was just watching his Open Mike episode last week. He has you breathing fire and wanting to smash into some Victorians within a few minutes.



One of my favorite parts - as a boundary rider he would refuse to say anything on air that would disadvantage the Crows just in case the opposition coaches got wind of it. You don't get that sort of professionalism these days.
 

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Obviously Neil had a massive impact on SANFL footy. But I wonder what his impact was around the State as well.

For instance, I know that as a 19 year old, he was made Captain Coach of North Whyalla, in a time when Whyalla was booming and the footy very strong. The team won 2 flags in 2 years before he moved on. There was the story earlier in this thread of doing something similar elsewhere (Woomera?) I wonder what other places he went to?

I had the privilege of meeting Kerley a few times as a kid. He was such a nice guy. You just had this sense of him being tough but fair.
 
Wasn't old enough to have watched him, but was lucky enough to have met him on quite a few occasions down the river at Walkers Flat.

The man was engaging and respectful to anyone, even me as a youngling at the time. And man could he tell a story.

Incredibly saddened to read this news
RIP
 
If you look at some of the old photos of Knuckles from his playing days, you can see he was way ahead of his time with his physique.

I remember him saying once he knew he had an edge on game day, as his body was hardened from physical labour/working out (pretty sure he was a tradie of some sort back then) while most of the other players had been sitting in offices all week and paid no attention to that side of things. And he’d just smash them in the physical department.

Love hearing old stories like that.

RIP.
 
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