RubbaDuck
All Australian
- Mar 6, 2022
- 977
- 2,977
- AFL Club
- Sydney
The owen-six year was Kennedy's first year as captain. We'd played a losing GF and after going deep into September we were struggling to get our first win. We were being kicked around and bullied by lesser teams. A lot of teams were taking the opportunity for a bit of payback. We needed leadership more than ever which put a lot of pressure on our inexperienced sole captain, who was trying to come to terms with the demands of the captaincy while maintaining his enormous output.Interesting remarks, RBBS. I don't like arrogant bullies either. Not a good look. JPK just lets his deeds and effort do the talking. Most of the swans do. The issue with Parker is whether he was reacting to what Shiels had said earlier. No matter really, you dish it out then the time will come when you take your whack. It's why it's not a good look to be presenting to young supporters and players. Sort of sullies the good deed and suggests that he's a flat track bully. I didn't see Parker running to assist Mills in his first games when he was man handled repeatedly by oppositions. Stand up to bullies, but don't become one. Having said that, I didn't see any swan standing up to Mills transgressors in his early games for us. Shameful really and was a stain on the character of our senior players at the time.
The Mills bullying episode marked a low point for the club. Players like Hanners, Parker, Kennedy, Heeney and Jones would normally be expected to get in the face of anyone who tried such a thing. But we'd just been robbed of a hard fought premiership, we'd let the dogs rub salt into our wounds again in round 2 and we just weren't performing. Our hopes of making the finals were fading fast. Team morale was very low and Kennedy just didn't have the experience to lift the team.
I don't know who decided enough was enough, whether that was a team thing, Horse or Kennedy himself, but after the Mills incident there was a marked turnaround in attitude. It started with a Buddy Franklin 8 goal haul and ended up with the most incredible run of 15-2 from the next 17 games on the way to a semi-final. Kennedy found his mojo again in Rd8, picking up an average of a shade under 2 Brownlow votes per game over the next 7 games, after just 2 votes for the whole of the first 7 games. We hammered the Dogs in Round 12 then beat the eventual premiers Richmond with eventual Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin in a game where Kennedy picked up the 3 votes for best afield. But the effort of coming back from owen-six was too much and we were torn apart in the Semi by eventual Brownlow runner-up Dangerfield.
I'd like to think no young Swan will ever be bullied like Mills was again, but what that year did highlight was that Kennedy took time to adjust to the sole captaincy while trying to maintain his incredible output. I can't help but think we could have won the 2017 premiership had we not started so poorly, and I think that came down to making our best midfielder sole captain. To his credit JPK still finished 4th in the Brownlow that year. The decision to eventually share the captaincy was a relief to many supporters and no doubt also to Kennedy.
I think Mills has all the makings of a great captain but I worry how a sole captaincy might affect his output. Lets not forget that Kennedy was the best inside mid and contested ball winner in the game before he took on sole captaincy. yet he'd already been leading by example for his entire career. I'm far more comfortable with Mills being a co-captain. I think his deeds are already inspirational enough to the team. I expect soon enough Rampe will relinquish the co-captaincy and it'll will come down to just Mills and Parker. I'd be comfortable with that.