Latest news with #KevinSheedy
Sydney Morning Herald
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
AFL shouldn't be spooked by NRL's Origin behemoth as it weighs up mid-year competition
Whether the AFL proceeds with the concept of a mid-year competition, separate from the home-and-away season, it is clear that there is a wish to generate – or maintain – interest for teams that are losing or have lost the finals fight. It is completely reasonable to consider an NBA-style tournament, which, in effect, might represent a reprise of the old night series – the Ansett Cup was one version – that sat inside the regular season. It is not to this column's jaded taste, and I doubt that most fans will support a mid-year tournament, given their innate opposition to radical reforms. Many, however, will favour the parallel proposal, as The Age's Sam McClure reported, of a regular season that is cut back to 20 games, when the Tasmania Devils arrives, with one game added for rivalry round (showdowns, derbies, blockbusters in Melbourne) and another for Gather Round. The Devils' scheduled entry in 2028 provides a great opportunity to re-shape the fixture. It was this recognition that framed the proposal. The old night series had some value – and was even taken semi-seriously by clubs. Kevin Sheedy certainly used to cite night premierships on his resume, as did Denis Pagan. But the franchise diminished over time, as night footy became entrenched in the 'real' season, and it dwindled further into irrelevance once the good teams used it merely as a vehicle to prepare for the season proper. What the AFL and some clubs have recognised, though, is that their competition does not have any meaningful prize besides the premiership cup (the same applies to the AFLW); Michael Voss, unlike Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham, does not have another trophy on the line to salve his reputation/job (not that it saved Ange).
The Age
07-07-2025
- Sport
- The Age
AFL shouldn't be spooked by NRL's Origin behemoth as it weighs up mid-year competition
Whether the AFL proceeds with the concept of a mid-year competition, separate from the home-and-away season, it is clear that there is a wish to generate – or maintain – interest for teams that are losing or have lost the finals fight. It is completely reasonable to consider an NBA-style tournament, which, in effect, might represent a reprise of the old night series – the Ansett Cup was one version – that sat inside the regular season. It is not to this column's jaded taste, and I doubt that most fans will support a mid-year tournament, given their innate opposition to radical reforms. Many, however, will favour the parallel proposal, as The Age's Sam McClure reported, of a regular season that is cut back to 20 games, when the Tasmania Devils arrives, with one game added for rivalry round (showdowns, derbies, blockbusters in Melbourne) and another for Gather Round. The Devils' scheduled entry in 2028 provides a great opportunity to re-shape the fixture. It was this recognition that framed the proposal. The old night series had some value – and was even taken semi-seriously by clubs. Kevin Sheedy certainly used to cite night premierships on his resume, as did Denis Pagan. But the franchise diminished over time, as night footy became entrenched in the 'real' season, and it dwindled further into irrelevance once the good teams used it merely as a vehicle to prepare for the season proper. What the AFL and some clubs have recognised, though, is that their competition does not have any meaningful prize besides the premiership cup (the same applies to the AFLW); Michael Voss, unlike Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham, does not have another trophy on the line to salve his reputation/job (not that it saved Ange).
ABC News
04-07-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Football, family and forgiveness: the driving forces of Michael Long's life
Star footballer, activist, reformist, leader: Michael Long has worn many labels in his 55 years. Now there is a new label to describe the Anmatjere and Marranunggu man from the Tiwi Islands: NAIDOC lifetime achievement honoree. When I sat down to speak with Michael about his significant contributions, he was adamant that nothing he did was achieved alone, making sure those who helped him along the way were recognised as well. It's a long list, including his parents Agnes and Jack, the St Mary's Football Club where he got his start, Essendon Football Club for drafting him in 1989 and coach Kevin Sheedy for his support on the field and off, and perhaps most surprisingly, Damian Monkhorst, the Collingwood player whose racist abuse of Long sparked major change in the AFLM. "Damian Monkhorst, he has had just as much impact on racial vilification and what happens in our game, and I have enormous respect [for him]," Long said. "He's now become just as important to the rule as I have and I take my hat off to him. You know what he's done is impact on the other side of the fence." It was just over 30 years ago — during the 1995 ANZAC day clash between Essendon and Collingwood — Monkhorst called Long a racial slur on the field. After the game, Long decided to proceed with an official complaint, pushing the AFL to do more to protect non-white players from what he called "tactics" used to put Indigenous and other diverse players off their game. "Obviously, I spoke to the club that we needed to put something into place to protect not just Indigenous players, but all players with different backgrounds," he said. Taking a stand against racist abuse garnered huge public interest and put a lot of pressure on the then-26-year-old. "I had so many different letters and death threats and they came every day. You are trying to focus on your football, and you had that in the back of your mind as well, and we were having our first child and had the media at our front doorstep," he said. The incident led to the AFL's then-groundbreaking racial vilification policy, which bans the harassment of players on the basis of race or ethnicity, and lays out processes for complaints, investigations, and conciliation processes. While he thinks the league still has much to overcome, Michael Long is proud of the changes he made. "So much good that has come out of the racial vilification [code], even though it was the hardest, hardest time and probably my lifetime playing in," he said. Twenty years after the incident, Long met with Monkhurst at the end of the 11th Long Walk to Dreamtime at the 'G. The two men shook hands in a show of forgiveness, Monkhorst calling the incident a "terrible mistake". "I think the greatest way to show that is to forgive someone and make a bigger impact amongst not just Indigenous, but the Australian community and the football community," Long said. Long credits the influence of his parents, Stolen Generation survivors who grew up on Catholic missions, for his decision to forgive Monkhorst. "My mother was very Catholic and a very humble person and very forgiving and [had] all those morals as a churchgoer, and my father, they both grew up on a Catholic mission. I suppose part of that's embedded in you, and that's who you are," he said. "I speak to Damien now and then and yeah, we have a good relationship." After his instrumental efforts in two Essendon premierships, including becoming Norm Smith medalist in the 1993 Grand Final, Long's playing career ended in the early 2000s. It was then he turned his public profile and platform towards activism for Indigenous rights. In 2004, the Howard government announced it would abolish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), leaving many Indigenous people shocked and outraged. In response, Michael Long vowed to walk from Melbourne to Canberra to try and meet with the Prime Minister and ensure Indigenous rights would remain on the agenda. "In 2004, ATSIC had been abolished, and I think I had come back from a funeral, and thought 'what is happening?' You know, we've lost any type of voice or working at the government at the highest level. Where is the love for our people and the challenge we face?" he said. "That is why I felt really strongly about, when ATSIC was abolished, to keep Indigenous issues on the highest agenda with the government, because I just felt we had no vision, we had no voice. It has just been abolished." Setting off on the 650-kilometre trek from Melbourne with his cousin was an almost "spontaneous" decision, according to Long. But there is an innate connection between First Nations people and walking. For mob, walking can have much deeper meaning than just a mode of transportation. It is a form of connection to country and it is integral for survival. As Wakka Wakka and Gooreng Gooreng woman, Professor Sandra Phillips, wrote in 2022, it is walking that connects generations of First Nations people. "Walking is inherent to the experience of being Aboriginal and for a millennia along songlines and trade routes, walking went without massive disruption," she wrote in Walking While Aboriginal. It is no surprise that over the years since colonisation, walking has been the way that many blackfellas have called for change. The Long Walk, as it was dubbed, was just the latest in a long history of Indigenous people taking literal steps to advocate for their rights. These include protest walks by William Cooper against Nazi Germany and colonisation, the walk-offs of Wave Hill station and the Cummeragunja Mission over treatment of Aboriginal people, the 1988 bicentenary protests and the 2000 walk for reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. "Walking is a good, strong message of bringing people along with you," Long said, reflecting on his decision at the time. "It wasn't just about me; it was about the community and people who [had] come along from different communities. They believed in what we wanted to achieve by walking and taking that and putting Indigenous issues back on the national agenda." The journey didn't come without risks. He again received death threats and while on the road he shared fears with a reporter that he would be "shot" while on his way. "There was someone that did put a threat, and I think it was one of the towns. That was the last thing I wanted, [for] people to join me and have that hanging over their heads as they are walking along." Long spoke to his fellow walkers, assuring them he wouldn't think any less of them if they didn't want to continue the journey. "But they all stayed," he said. "They stayed and you talk about strength, and you talk stay the course, no-one left, so I think that was probably just as powerful as what we were trying to achieve." In the end, Long and his supporters only made it to Albury before John Howard called to offer him a meeting. "By the time we got there, the integral moment was meeting the prime minister, but most importantly, we got the message out there to Australia before we got to Canberra," he said. In 2023, the Long Walk headed from Melbourne to Canberra in support of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. "What we wanted to see happen as part of the referendum and the Constitution, you know, we had a great moment in time in Australia to do that and it was so sad," he said. "After the walk and the outcome and I don't think I left the house for a few days, but you've got to get back on your horse. We've got to keep pursuing what we've been doing. "It just shows that there is a lot more, a lot more work to be done in our own backyard, in our own community. As much as it failed. It doesn't stop us from continuing.". At 55, Long still has plenty he wants to do and big plans for his future advocacy, education, and development work, though he laughs that the NAIDOC committee might be "telling him something" in giving him a lifetime achievement award. "People are recognising what you have done and your community and I've used football as leverage to give kids an opportunity," he said. "Football has been good to me, and I hope I've been good to football. Hopefully, a lot of good things have come out of it." His eponymous foundations, the Michael Long Foundation and the Michael Long Learning and Leadership Centre, have been running for around a decade now. They fund Indigenous education and football programs, while working to nurture up-and-coming talent in the Northern Territory. "It's basically around education and football and using that to keep our kids in school. Obviously, there is a pathway with football for our young men and women," he said. Now there are expansion plans on the horizon at Long's old football club, setting up a Michael Long Centre at Essendon's Windy Hill training ground. "That's the next challenge … We see that as a national satellite to the one we have in Darwin," he said. "Then hopefully we can start to implement that with other states as well. "Football is one of the biggest opportunities and pathways. So I'm pretty excited about that."
News.com.au
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
The Back Page: Australia's longest running sports show finishes after 29-year run on Fox Sports
I've only ever spoken to Kevin Sheedy twice but he lives inside my head. He's been there for 12 years since the night on Fox Sports' The Back Page when we showed a comical clip of an angry Sheedy addressing his young Greater Western Sydney side mid-match. What made it so funny was that Sheedy emphasised random WORDS at random POINTS and not NECESSARILY the RIGHT moments to provide golden fodder for panellist and master mimic Billy Birmingham who was in his ELEMENT. All these years later when someone mentions Sheedy's name, I still hear Billy going off in one of the many endearing moments from the show which finishes its 29-year run with its final episode at 7.30pm Tuesday. What better way to kick off our 'Back Page Memories' than reliving this rousing speech from Kevin Sheedy. The reaction from Gibbo, Billy, Crash and Marto is pure gold! 😆 #TheBackPage | #BackPageMemories @FOXSportsAUS @craddock_cmail @MattParslow1 â€' Best Bits of The Back Page (@backpagebestof) June 8, 2025 Twenty nine years. Among the few shows to last longer were Play School (58 years) and Here's Humphrey (45) and there is a theory among Back Page panellists that we accidentally put both out of business by stealing their audience. In that 29-year period Australia has had eight Prime Ministers and nine Test cricket captains, yet the little ol' Back Page – incredibly – has had just two main hosts, the legendary Mike Gibson and the equally talented Tony Squires. Born in early 1997, three months before the first appearance of Harry Potter, the Back Page now joins Harry in flying off into the sunset with Squires and co-host Candice Warner joined for the last show by Ryan Fitzgerald, vivacious former host Kelli Underwood who has been lured back for a cameo farewell, and myself. The team have dug through the archives to find the #Top5 embarrassing cramp moments in sport! #TheBackPage | @FOXSportsAUS â€' Best Bits of The Back Page (@backpagebestof) May 18, 2025 The 29-year run says everything about Gibbo and Squires' love of their show with Squires saying 'Gibbo felt the show was at its best when it felt like people talking in a pub and it became a big part of my social life talking to interesting people like Kelli, Candice, Brad Johnson, Kerry O'Keeffe and Ben Dixon''. Both Gibbo and Squires loathed missing an episode. Gibbo, ably supported by likes of Peter FitzSimons and the late Peter Frilingos, did 720 shows over 16 years and missed just one when he was lying flat out with a back injury. The only way they could have shot the show was with a camera on the ceiling, a stretch too far even for Gibbo. For the panelists like myself, the Back Page was the best fun of our careers. When soccer legend Robbie Slater was told that due to budget restrictions panelists may have to take a pay cut and he replied 'hey ... I'd go on for nothing ... I just enjoy it''. A few years back a former Test cricket great flew over from Perth and did an episode he so enjoyed it he didn't even put in an invoice to get paid. We were fortunate to see the late, great Andrew Symonds on the panel a few times over the years - Roy even treated us to a couple of his brilliant impersonations! #TheBackPage | #BackPageMemories @FOXSportsAUS @craddock_cmail @FitzySA @MattParslow1 â€' Best Bits of The Back Page (@backpagebestof) June 16, 2025 You never knew who was watching. Shane Warne used to tune in. Greg Chappell watched from Adelaide. Allan Langer when he was living up at Caloundra. Cricketer Ben Cutting once told me he would watch from the United Arab Emirates. They were joined by a couple of sheep farmers in the deep south of New Zealand who would send random tweets to the show aired at 9.30pm Kiwi time. One time Mark Bosnich, a long serving and popular panellist, came on and told a colourful story about a night of cross-dressing with fellow soccer star Dwight Yorke. The next day I went to Brisbane Broncos training where Andrew McCullough, a poker faced country boy who rarely shows excitement, was lined up in front of a bank of cameras for the daily press conference and turned his head towards me and said 'hey, before we start, what about Bozza last night ... I mean ... wow''. The team have dug through the archives to find the #Top5 embarrassing cramp moments in sport! #TheBackPage | @FOXSportsAUS â€' Best Bits of The Back Page (@backpagebestof) May 18, 2025 Outstanding producer Matt Parslow is widely lauded within the industry as the show's secret hero for his ability to find rare footage of sport's hidden heroes, villains and comical stumbles. In February 2017, when Kerry O'Keeffe was having a break from television, Squires sent O'Keeffe a text inviting him to come on as a guest. O'Keeffe replied 'my used-by date said best before February, 2017'' and Squires sent back 'that's ok, I like my meat a little gamey'' and on he came with a standout performance that caught the eye of Fox cricket producers and played a role in O'Keeffe joining the summer coverage where he shines annually as the game's best researched and most unique voice. Kerry O'Keeffe has been a huge part of the show over the last decade. Here's one of our favourite Skull yarns on the day he met the Queen! ðŸ'€ #TheBackPage | #BackPageMemories @FOXSportsAUS @kokeeffe49 @craddock_cmail @MattParslow1 â€' Best Bits of The Back Page (@backpagebestof) June 8, 2025 The show was at it's best when it was at its quirkiest, as proved by the fact that the highest rating Back Page ever did not come after a Test match or a State of Origin game but when Iceland – population 340,000 and at its first major tournament – beat England 1-0 at the 2016 European championships. The sports world was stunned. People could not work it out. How could this happen? They turned to us for answers. Did we provide them? Ah, well ... sort of. Some mysteries simply defy explanation, not that it stopped us slapping down some emphatic theories about the secret sauces of Iceland soccer. Kevin Sheedy eat your heart out!
Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
‘Goodison Park was my football school': Jamie Carragher meets hero Kevin Sheedy
It is often said you don't know what you've got until it's gone. Evertonians could not be more appreciative of what they are losing when they relocate from Goodison Park. The groundsman's biggest worry at full-time this Sunday might be a waterlogged pitch because of the number of supporters overwhelmed at the thought of watching a top-flight game there for the last time. The same is true of the most celebrated players. 'I'm not really an emotional person, you know, Jamie. But I think I will be this weekend,' Everton legend Kevin Sheedy tells me as we meet at the stadium to share our Goodison memories. 'I'll not just be thinking about the games I played here and the brilliant times. I'll be thinking about my mum and dad coming to watch me, all the people who work here who I've met over the years. I'm still involved with the club doing stadium tours and meeting supporters in the club lounge and I was with a few fans the other day. 'They were all telling their personal stories; going to Goodison for the first time with their dad or grandad, remembering the result and who scored. As they were talking they all started welling up and the tears came. I think it's going to be that sort of day on Sunday.' 'That was peak Goodison' Whenever I think of what former chairman Bill Kenwright christened the 'Grand Old Lady', I am transported back to being my seven-year-old self watching Sheedy, Peter Reid, Graeme Sharp and Neville Southall in their prime. Goodison was my football school and the legends of Howard Kendall's title-winning teams were my teachers, the sights and sounds of the Gwladys Street terrace in the mid-1980s setting me on my journey to a life in football. You never forget your heroes. In my autobiography I described myself as the 'unofficial chairman of the Kevin Sheedy fanclub'. 'It was a magical time,' Sheedy says of the side which won the title in 1985 and 1987. 'The game everyone talks about most is Bayern Munich, of course (the 1985 European Cup Winners' Cup semi-final, second leg). 'That was peak Goodison. The place was rammed and the team coach could only move at one mile an hour getting us here. We were looking out of the window and knew it was something special. The atmosphere in the warm-up was electric, and then the game itself, needing to score two in the second half. There was no noise like it when we scored the second and third. 'The funny thing is, whenever Kevin Ratcliffe won the toss and we knew we were kicking to the Gwladys Street second half, we just expected it. 'We had such good players, and the best goalkeeper in the world in Neville, that we just knew if we played to our level we would win.' It was my privilege to be standing on the Gwladys Street for that 3-1 win, seeing Sheedy composed enough amid the Goodison cauldron to deliver a cutting pass, that David Silva would have been proud of in more recent times, in the build-up to Everton's third Goodison Park was the most intimidating football fortress in the country then. If you want to fully comprehend the stadium's power, consider this: between Kendall's appointment as Everton manager in May, 1981, until the end of the 1989-90 season, no top-flight English club lost fewer home league games than Everton. Goodison was breached 19 times in 368 games. Over the same period, Liverpool lost 20 at Anfield. The Goodison factor was at its most potent when the team and supporters were in passionate harmony. 'Goodison was such a huge part of everything we achieved,' says Sheedy. 'You've got to have the team, obviously. But the starting point was the knowledge before every game that teams absolutely hated coming here, with that crowd right on top of them they were frightened to death. 'On the other side of it, we signed some players who could not handle playing in front of our crowd. You need to be mentally strong to play for Everton at Goodison because you don't always have a good game. As long as you're having a go they will stick with you and spur you on.' 'Best team performance I played in' There were so many childhood highlights for me, especially in the 1984-85 season. Aside from the Bayern win, the 5-0 victory over Manchester United signalled an emerging side had evolved into the finished product, Sheedy scoring twice. Because it wasn't filmed for Match of the Day, the clips of the goals were limited to a small segment on the BBC News. My dad taped it and sent the cloudy video all around Bootle. 'That was the day I came off the pitch thinking: 'We've got a hell of a team here. We could win the league,'' says Sheedy. 'It was probably the best team performance I ever played in. United had a good team with some great players and we could have scored eight or nine.' Games with more extensive TV highlights ensured I could memorise and recite every Barry Davies and John Motson commentary. Ask any Evertonian from that era about the greatest individual performances and they will mention Andy Gray's two diving headers against Sunderland in the title run-in, and the day Ipswich Town visited Goodison in the FA Cup and Sheedy showcased his footballing genius. From a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area, one of the greatest dead-ball specialists of any era picked out the top left-hand corner, leaving keeper Paul Cooper stranded. Before he could celebrate, referee Alan Robinson intervened claiming Sheedy had struck it too soon. Expecting the same attempt, Cooper covered the angle to prevent a repeat. No problem. Sheedy dipped his left-footer over the defensive wall with a delicate chip to the opposite side of the Park End goal. 'It's probably the one I get asked about the most,' says Sheedy. 'When you look at it again you can see Peter Reid having a go at me for taking it too early, so after it is disallowed he says: 'What are we going to do now?' 'So I've said back to him: 'What do you mean 'we?' Get out the f---ing way and I'll put it in the other corner.' To this day, if I see any footballer with a gorgeous left foot, Sheedy is my reference, and it's the same with set-piece takers. Even when David Beckham was in his prime, I would think: 'He's brilliant at free-kicks, but is he better than Sheedy?' 'I couldn't tell you how many free-kicks I scored,' says Sheedy. 'I know I got plenty in that 84-85 season. I can think of about 12 in my career, at least. What do they say the record is now? Eighteen? It's a pity they didn't keep track of that kind of thing in those days.' As the 84-85 league title edged closer, the final whistle would see me dashing out to the bookmakers on Goodison Road to check how our nearest rivals had got on. 'What was the Spurs score?' I'd shout. Yes, it feels like a long time ago. 'My best year at Everton' Strangely, Everton's 1987 championship-winning side is not celebrated as much, but it was Sheedy's positional move from left to central midfield which was a turning point in the title race. Another of his extraordinary Goodison goals came in a 5-1 win over Leicester City, Sheedy somehow chipping the ball over keeper Ian Andrews from the edge of the penalty area. He scored 16 goals in 37 games that season. 'That was my best year at Everton,' he says. 'I think the fans tend to remember the big away wins more that year – away at Aston Villa and Arsenal – but we lost only once at Goodison.' Everton's run at the summit ended after that, my Goodison experiences growing in frustration before professional responsibilities led to my switching allegiances. I had a Gwladys Street view of the greatest ever Goodison derby, the 4-4 draw with Liverpool in the 1991 FA Cup replay. 'I was injured so I watched it from the stands, but there is no doubt the crowd was a massive factor that day, too. Liverpool couldn't finish us off, could they?' says Sheedy. 'Even in those years Liverpool were a better side, they found it hard winning here.' By 1994, only Southall, Dave Watson and Ian Snodin remained of the last title-winning side, leading to one of my final reckless acts as diehard blue who was now part of Liverpool's youth set-up. I was attending Lilleshall, the England schoolboys School of Excellence, as Everton drifted towards relegation. Home for the final weekend but without a ticket, my dad called me at half-time when the score was 2-0 to Wimbledon to say we had to be at Goodison for what looked like it would be a funeral march out of the Premier League. After the comeback 3-2 win, we had a night out and Lilleshall's coaches were a man short at training the following Monday. 'I'm pretty sure I was playing for Blackpool that day. Wherever I was, all I was thinking about was: 'How are Everton getting on?'' says Sheedy, who having started his career at Liverpool made a reverse trip to me in his tribal loyalties. 'Goodison has been a salvation for the club really. It was the fans which kept the team up, not only the Wimbledon game, but on a few occasions since.' 'A passion inherited through generations' Regeneration at Bramley-Moore Dock beckons from the start of next season, a move everyone understands even if they will leave Goodison Park with a heavy heart. My first Goodison experience was on August 25, 1984. Everton lost 4-1 to Tottenham Hotspur, but I had the consolation of meeting William Dean. No, not that one. Bill Dean was a renowned Liverpool actor who played Harry Cross in the soap opera Brookside and was such a massive Evertonian, he changed his name from Patrick Connolly to that of his hero better known as 'Dixie'. The 40,000 lucky enough to be there on Sunday will have their own tales to tell. 'One fan told me that for all the years he has been going to Goodison he has been sitting in front of a lady, now aged 86, who as a matter of routine kisses him on the back of the head every time Everton score,' says Sheedy. 'It's the realisation that those little moments will no longer be experienced inside Goodison which make it more than a football game on Sunday. 'It's about the relationship the supporters have with each other and how they've inherited that passion through generations. It's going to be hard for a lot of people to get through that last game.'
