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| ⚫ | Hayden Daniel Kennedy (born [[October 16]], [[1965]]) in the Essendon outer suburb of Airport West is an [[Australian rules football]] [[Umpire (AFL)|field umpire]] in the [[Australian Football League]]. He has umpired 399 career games in the AFL. <ref>At the completion of Round 10 of the [[2007 AFL season]].</ref> <ref name="afluastat">[http://www.aflua.com.au/index.asp?d=5A4C5A717251477C7008060A010502 AFLUA Statistics], accessed on [[September 18]] [[2006]]</ref> |
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One of the veterans on the umpire circuit, Kennedy has umpired five [[AFL Grand Final]]s since debuting in the late 1980's.<ref>[http://www.aflua.com.au/index.asp?d=5A4C5A717251477C7008060D070608 Hayden Kennedy at the AFL Umpires Association], accessed on [[October 27]] [[2006]]</ref> |
One of the veterans on the umpire circuit, Kennedy has umpired five [[AFL Grand Final]]s since debuting in the late 1980's.<ref>[http://www.aflua.com.au/index.asp?d=5A4C5A717251477C7008060D070608 Hayden Kennedy at the AFL Umpires Association], accessed on [[October 27]] [[2006]]</ref> |
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Revision as of 04:59, 6 June 2007
Hayden Daniel Kennedy (born October 16, 1965) in the Essendon outer suburb of Airport West is an Australian rules football field umpire in the Australian Football League. He has umpired 399 career games in the AFL. [1] [2]
One of the veterans on the umpire circuit, Kennedy has umpired five AFL Grand Finals since debuting in the late 1980's.[3]
Early career
Kennedy was a very promising junior footballer with St Christophers Football Club in the Oak Park Junior Football League, a club which also produced AFL legends Simon and Justin Madden. Kennedy attended St Bernard's CBC, Essendon - a nursery to many AFL players.
Due to his small stature, Kennedy commenced a career as an umpire in the Essendon District Football League in 1983. After one season there, he was recruited into the VFL cadets squad.
In 1986, Hayden Kennedy umpired the under 19 VFL grand final, and by 1987 had been promoted to the senior list. At this level he umpired the VFL reserves and country football matches.
An early career influence in the Under 19s was Glenn James. Kennedy recalls that, “Jamesy ran a half shadowing me and taught me how to run and where to run to. I also spent a year in the Northern Territory in 1987 / 88 and that helped me significantly.”
Career in the Australian Football League
Kennedy began umpiring in the Australian Football League in 1988, with a game between the North Melbourne Kangaroos and the Carlton Blues [4]. Kennedy’s partner on the day was a fellow 300 game umpire Peter Cameron.
In the 1995 AFL season, Kennedy umpired in all 21 weeks of Home and Away games, and a further 4 weeks of finals. He was the first umpire to achieve this in 38 years, and the 11th field umpire to do so. [5]
His first Grand Final, Carlton versus Geelong, was shared with boundary umpire Allan Cook. Both had been field umpires together on the cadet squad at the beginnings of their careers and both reached the pinnacle of achievement on the same day having followed very different paths.
Since that first Grand Final breakthrough, Kennedy went from strength to strength, umpiring Grand Finals in 1997, 1998 and 2000 as well as taking part in every finals series. Other prestige appointments and honours have also been attained, including three State of Origin appointments and being named All Australian Umpire in 1997. He attained Life Membership of the AFL Umpires’ Association in 1993.
After reaching the milestone of 300 games in 2002, he qualified for a life membership with the AFL. At that stage he had umpired 294 premiership season games, as well as 22 pre-season matches and 3 State of Origin games. [6]
In 2006 he umpired the controversial match between St. Kilda and Fremantle, along with Matthew Nicholls and Michael Vozzo.
With 399 games under his belt, he is currently second on the all-time umpiring leaderboard, trailing Rowan Sawers by 11 games.[2].
Amongst the umpiring fraternity, Hayden is highly respected for his committment to an unrelenting work ethic, working tirelessly on the decision making component of his game, and his fun atttitude and sense of humour in life generally.
Kennedy attains his 400th game milestone on Friday 8 June at Essendon versus West Coast Eagles at Telstra Dome.
Hayden is married to wife Maree and resides in Essendon with their 3 children.
Footnotes
- ^ At the completion of Round 10 of the 2007 AFL season.
- ^ a b AFLUA Statistics, accessed on September 18 2006
- ^ Hayden Kennedy at the AFL Umpires Association, accessed on October 27 2006
- ^ Carlton won this match 147-131
- ^ The last person to accomplish this had been Alan Nash in 1957
- ^ 10 new life members added in 2003 - AFL website, accessed on October 27 2006
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