When we were mildly competetnt at sports and enduring the travails of the jungle of the educational system, we often played pick-up games during breaks and had only one goal-to not be the last one picked for one of the sides.
So, we can empathise with Bridie Kennedy, to a degree at least.
She was the joint hounoree as the best and fairest in the TAC Cup and she blew up the timing devices of the scouts at the draft combine, yet still suffered the dreaded fate of being the last draft pick of one of the Victorian AFLW clubs.
Kennedy is a recent graduate of Padua on the Mornington Peninsula, where she was in the same class with Hunter Clark and Tom de Koning.
“We were all in the same homeroom which was amazing,” Kennedy tells foxfooty.com.au. “We were called the AFL homeroom. It was really incredible. Who would have thought? Three out of one homeroom.”
Being in the same homeroom with Clark and de Koning did not carry any water with the selectors for the second season of the AFLW.
“It was an absolute rollercoaster,” Kennedy recalls. “Everyone around me had been called out and I was just there sitting by myself thinking, ‘oh no’. It was such relief once my name got called out. There were so many emotions. “I felt like for a second it wasn’t going to happen. Even my parents were worried.”
Mum and dad can relax now, if relax is the proper word to use when your little girl decides to follow the path of an AFLW footy player, rather than a safer route.
Carlton picked Kennedy and it appears as though she will make the side when the Blues take on the Collingwood Magpies in the opener. She is looking forward to some mentoring from Brianna Davey and Nicola Stevens.
“It’s great to learn off them and see it all first hand.”
Kennedy will obviously play with a chip on her shoulder as she tries to demonstrate that as an elite defender with superb endurance, she should have been taken much earlier when the bell rang for recess.
