Josh J. Kennedy

Joshua J. "Josh" Kennedy (born 25 August 1987) is an Australian rules footballer currently listed with the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL), having previously also played for Carlton. Originally playing with the East Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL), he was recruited to Carlton with the fourth pick overall in the 2005 National Draft. Kennedy played 22 games for Carlton before being traded to the West Coast prior to the 2008 season, in a deal involving the club's captain at the time, Chris Judd. Over the following seasons at West Coast, he established himself as a key forward, firstly at centre half-forward and later in more of a full-forward role. Kennedy led the club's goalkicking during the 2011 season, and has kicked over 200 goals during his career. He is considered one of the best tall forwards in the competition, and was one of the leading goalkickers in the league's 2013 season.

Early life and junior career

Kennedy was born in Melbourne, and grew up in Canberra, Townsville, and Perth, with his family finally settling in Northampton, a small country town north of Geraldton, Western Australia.^[1][2] His parents, Jenny Peterson and Jamie Kennedy, both played basketball professionally, in the Women's National Basketball League and National Basketball League, respectively, having first met as scholarship holders at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).^[3] Kennedy played both football and basketball growing up, and represented Western Australia's state under-16 basketball team.^[2] He later concentrated on football, playing for Northampton in the Great Northern Football League (GNFL), and often appeared alongside Harry Taylor, another future AFL player.^[4] Kennedy played for the state football team at both under-16 and under-18 level, and was named in the under-18 All-Australian team at conclusion of the 2005 AFL Under-18 Championships.^[5] He had attended the AIS/AFL Academy in Canberra the previous year, and toured Ireland with an academy side, playing several international rules matches, and thus became the first child of two previous AIS scholarship holders to also attend the institute.^[6] With Northampton falling into the recruitment zone of the Perth-based East Fremantle Football Club, Kennedy made his senior West Australian Football League (WAFL) debut during the 2005 season, finishing with six goals from six games.^[7] He was selected by Carlton with pick four in the 2005 AFL National Draft, held in November 2005.^[8]

Senior career

In 2006, Kennedy showed promises that he could be a future key-position forward, having made his debut in round six. However, he struggled for ground time and form when playing at the AFL level, scoring only 5.4 from his nine games. In Carlton's VFL-affiliate, the Northern Bullants, he found it easier to show his skills with eighteen goals for the season.

In 2007 Kennedy committed to a new 2 year contract with the Carlton Football Club. However on 11 October, it was announced that he had agreed to return to his native state and play for the West Coast Eagles,^[9] thus enabling Carlton to secure the services of top midfielder Chris Judd in a trade.

On 26 April 2008, Josh Kennedy, wearing number 17, made his debut for the West Coast Eagles against the Western Bulldogs. In Round 9, 2011, Kennedy kicked ten goals against the Western Bulldogs, becoming just the fourth Eagle (after Scott Cummings, Peter Sumich and Mark LeCras) to kick ten goals in a game.^[10]

After playing in struggling teams at the start of his career – four of Kennedy's first six seasons resulted in bottom two finishes, including two wooden spoons, one each at Carlton and West Coast – Kennedy made his first finals appearance in 2011. Kennedy won only 14 of the first 67 matches of his career. However his record has since improved; as of the end of 2012, he has won 23 of his last 32 matches to have a career win-draw-loss record of 37-1-61.^[11]

In the 2013 AFL Season, Kennedy was in front of the Coleman Medal nearly every week. But with the Eagles losing their last three games by an average margin of 71 points and was goal-less for three weeks, losing the chance of winning the accolade

References

External links

• West Coast Eagles Player Profile
• Josh J. Kennedy's statistics from AFL Tables
• Josh Kennedy Profile in Blueseum