In a series new to 2019, we revisit moments in history involving the Sydney Swans’ round-by-round opposition.

History, nostalgia and memories form a special part of what makes Australian rules football great, and we hope the Footy Flashbacks series reignites some of your fondest Swans moments.

In the latest edition, we wind back time to the day a young Tadhg Kennelly conquered the journey from Ireland to AFL footy in a clash with Carlton in Round 14, 2001.

Sydney Swans great Michael O’Loughlin would have a better idea than most as to just how green Tadhg Kennelly was when he arrived in Australia in November 1999.

Not only had an 18-year-old Kennelly stepped off a plane sent from a country full of green, rolling hills, the Irishman was clueless when O’Loughlin picked up a footy at his first training session at the Swans.

O’Loughlin – at the time a 101-game, 125-goal Swan with an All Australian selection and a Club Champion honour beside his name – asked Kennelly for a kick at the pre-season Randwick session.

But Kennelly didn’t have the foggiest idea as to what the champion Swan meant, and O’Loughlin would tell him many years later that at that moment he thought he’d never get a game.

But less than two years later, the boy from Listowel in county Kerry soldiered up the race at the SCG alongside O’Loughlin for his first game in the AFL. 

And later in the afternoon, as the night sky began to settle on the hallowed turf of the SCG, Kennelly and O’Loughlin belted out the victory song in celebration of a 10-point win over Carlton.

Kennelly – now a 197-game Swans legend with a 2005 premiership medallion on the mantelpiece – admittedly sacrificed a lot to pursue a career in the AFL.

Kennelly’s father Tim won five All Ireland titles with county Kerry, including one as captain in 1979, his brother Noel enjoyed ultimate Gaelic football success of his own in 2000, and Kennelly had long dreamed of one day adding to the family’s esteemed honour board. 

In Kennelly’s own words, he had come from a family “steeped in Gaelic football tradition”.

Coach in the making: Tadhg Kennelly giving directions on debut.

“I had worked extremely hard to make my AFL debut. From the minute I got out here everything I had thought about doing was playing a game of AFL football. Otherwise I’d go back home to Ireland a failure, so the fact I was able to make my debut was a big relief,” Kennelly told Swans Media.

“The fear of failure was a driving force for me on the other side of the world. I had left a lot of stuff behind in Ireland in making the decision to come out, so if I could get one AFL game I knew it would come with a big sense of self-achievement.

“I didn’t take the decision to come out to Australia lightly. It was a mentally difficult thing. I was thinking, ‘Have I done the right thing here?’ So that’s why I felt a lot of self-satisfaction from making my debut. I had a lot of belief in my ability but a lot of people didn’t think I could make it, and on that day against Carlton it happened.

“I had also always been the best at whatever I had done. I was the best soccer player, I was the best Gaelic footballer, I was the best runner and so on. So it was a huge kick to my ego to come out here. It was back to the bottom of the pile. Then to be able to come out the other side of that – I was super-proud to be able to challenge the status quo of which way I’d go.

“I understood that all my teammates – Paul Kelly, Stuart Maxfield, Wayne Schwass, all of them – would have been thinking, ‘What the heck is this bloke doing out here?’ I was a skinny 18-year-old from Ireland but I wanted to prove to them that I was here to add value to this footy club and this team – and I’m going to show you. So I played with a bit of an edge and a bit of a chip on my shoulder, and I just so badly wanted to earn the respect of every teammate.”

Tadhg Kennelly (third from right) celebrates with his teammates after winning on debut.

Kennelly was first spotted by former Swans recruiting manager Rick Barham at a clinic in Ireland.

The bright-eyed, skin-and-bone youngster later signed with Sydney as an international rookie in November 1999, and ahead of Round 3, 2001 – after a one-year apprenticeship in the reserves competition – he was elevated onto the club’s senior list.

The stats sheet of Kennelly’s debut doesn't tell the whole story of an impressive first game, with the speedster finishing with just eight touches in the clash with the Blues.

But coach Rodney ‘Rocket’ Eade assigned him to tagging Scott Camporeale in the final term, and Kennelly said his job on the highly acclaimed Carlton on-baller was just one facet of the game to be proud of.

“I had some score assists, some inside-50 entries and I was able to tag, so I contributed to the team,” Kennelly said.

“It wasn’t too bad a debut.

“I remember after the game (assistant coach) George Stone ran onto the ground and gave me a massive cuddle. He jumped into my arms and gave me a big hug. He was very happy with the role I had played and it was just an awesome experience.”

But Kennelly can recall his first injection into the game rattled him to the core.

“Normally back then if you were making your debut you wouldn’t go on until the second half,” Kennelly said.

“But Wayne Schwass made a mistake four minutes into the game, the runner goes to run out to him and he goes, ‘Tadhg, you’re on!’ And I go, ‘What! What do you mean? It’s just four minutes into the game!’

“I was waiting on the boundary for Wayne to come off and I remember standing there going, ‘Sh*t! What am I doing? I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m not ready for this. This shouldn’t be happening until the second half!’ And then, bang – I was on.

“I went straight onto the wing, Wayne gets on the phone to ‘Rocket’ and Rodney gives him a few home truths. The ball is bounced, it goes into our forward line and the runner comes back on and goes, ‘Tadhg, you’re off’.

“I was only out there for about 30 seconds but it was the best thing that ever happened to me because everything from then on was plain sailing. I went on again and I was ready. I had been on the ground, I had finally done it, it was an ice-breaker.”

Kennelly cut his teeth in the AFL alongside Leo Barry, Kelly, Maxfield, O’Loughlin, Schwass and a long list of other Swans greats, and he played with Tony ‘Plugger’ Lockett when the greatest goal-kicker in history made a comeback from retirement in 2002.

But although his first entry onto the ground ignited a cyclone of emotion, he said he was never on edge around his many glorified teammates.

“I didn’t know who they were because I had grown up in Ireland. I didn’t grow up idolising Paul Kelly or Tony Lockett. I hadn’t heard anything about the game until about a year before I came out to Australia. So in the most respectful way possible, I wasn’t in awe of those great names in the way a young Australian player was,” Kennelly said.

“That helped me fit into the group because I used to be super-competitive at training against whoever it was, and I wasn’t ever nervous around them in the change rooms.

“Looking back, I was very privileged. I understand now how lucky I was to be playing with guys like Paul Kelly and Wayne Schwass on debut, and then guys like ‘Plugger’ later on. But at the time I was just a green, innocent, young man running about and looking at nothing but every upcoming contest on the field.”

Kennelly doesn’t remember a single second of his first rendition of the club song, but he’ll never forget a moment he shared with his mother Nuala after the match. 

“The major thing I remember from the day was meeting my mum after the game and giving her a big cuddle,” Kennelly said.

“There were tears in her eyes and it was very emotional. What it meant to her is the biggest thing I take from the game.”

His mother and sister Joanne took the 17,000-kilometre flight from Dublin to Sydney to be in the SCG stands for his debut, but his father couldn’t make the trip because he had suffered a heart attack two days earlier.

Kennelly said his mother and sister didn’t give him the real reason until after the game, and an indebted Kennelly said his debut and career could have been “destroyed” if they had dropped the news before.

Tadhg Kennelly soaking up the elation of singing his first club song.

Interestingly, Kennelly had gone within whiskers of making his debut three weeks earlier.

The free-running half-back boarded a plane for a reserves match against Port Melbourne, before his phone buzzed when he landed at the airport.

He was told Maxfield couldn’t line up for the senior side’s Round 11 clash with Port Adelaide at the SCG, so Kennelly – an emergency player for the game – jumped back on a plane bound for Sydney.

He was then warming up and was “ready to go”, but Maxfield was given a last-minute all-clear and Kennelly had to bide his time.

Sydney beat Port Adelaide by 47 points and lost to Richmond and Geelong in its next two games, before bouncing back against Carlton in Kennelly’s first match to claw back a position in the top eight.

Kennelly returned to his home country to win an All Ireland title in 2009, before again donning a Swans guernsey in 2010 and 2011.

And he said the Kennelly at the time of his debut compared to the Kennelly at the time of his 2011 retirement were polar opposites.

To start with, he weighed just 72 kilograms when he arrived in Australia in 1999, he had hardly gained anything by the time of his debut, and he rode off into the sunset at 88 kilograms in 2011.

“As a young fella I was a bit more of a chimp than a professor but in the end I had a true understanding of the game,” Kennelly laughed.

“I could preview and review my own game, I had a strong understanding of myself as a footballer and the club as a whole.

“So I was very, very different to the young kid that first arrived in Australia, but I was very positive about the player and person I had become. I got an awful lot out of myself and retired with a huge sense of pride.”

Many moons later, Kennelly again returned to the Swans ahead of season 2018 to assume the position of development coach, which saw him lead the NEAFL side to the Grand Final alongside Jeremy Laidler.

He then became Sydney’s defence coach ahead of season 2019 after the departure of Rhyce Shaw to North Melbourne, and he says he feels at home. 

“I love it. I thought initially when I retired I’d go straight into coaching, but I decided not to and took some time away from the game – and it was the best thing I ever did,” Kennelly said.

“I joined the real world, I got a job and I now understand how lucky I am to be involved in an industry that I love. It’s not a job; I watch vision and I guide today’s players. I really enjoy being involved in sport and this footy club.”

Away from footy, Kennelly lives in Maroubra in Sydney’s east with his wife Nicole and three kids: five-year-old Maggie, three-year-old Jake and one-year-old Hugh.

And he struggles to believe it’s all real.

“This is the last place on earth I thought I’d be bringing up kids, last place on earth I thought I’d be playing football and last place I thought I’d be making a living.”

But Kennelly, who burst through the banner for his debut game on Sunday, July 8, 2001, has five words many years later that make perfect sense of his story.

“I bleed red and white.”