44 Facts About Neil Kerley

Donald Neil Kerley was an Australian rules footballer and coach.

Neil Kerley is best known for taking three clubs to four South Australian National Football League premierships over three decades as both a player and coach, and for playing 32 state games for South Australia.

Neil Kerley played alongside Norwood great Peter Vivian in Rostrevor's U13 football and cricket sides.

Neil Kerley returned to umpire several Past vs Present Player matches at Rostrevor in the 60s.

When he turned 18 in 1952 Neil Kerley was called up for National Service where he was based at the Woodside Barracks in the Adelaide Hills.

The Redlegs, as Norwood has been known since 1878, had heard of Kerley's football skills but Neil was not impressed with the reception he received from the club and when West Adelaide approached him a week later he agreed to play for the club.

Neil Kerley played in an era when players usually only played one position on the ground yet he was a rare breed of player who could play any position on the ground including being successful in the ruck despite his lack of height for a ruckman.

Neil Kerley made his SANFL league debut for West Adelaide in 1952 as a reserve for a game against West Torrens at Thebarton Oval.

West Captain-Coach Brian Faehse was injured early in the game and Neil Kerley went on to play Centre half-back, standing a young Lindsay Head, a future three time Magarey Medal winner.

Neil Kerley got what he believes was his first touch when he took a contested mark against Head but, in what would be a pattern in his career, the umpire awarded the mark to Head.

In 1953 Neil Kerley headed north again and worked as a truck driver at a tent camp near the rocket testing range at Koolymilka, close to Woomera.

Neil Kerley won the association's Mail Medal and led the team to the premiership.

In 1954 Neil Kerley was persuaded by former West Adelaide player Bill Sutherland to take over from him as coach of North Whyalla in the Whyalla Football League.

Neil Kerley led North Whyalla to the premiership in both 1954 and 1955 and in 1955 he played his second SANFL league game with West Adelaide which allowed the club to retain him as a registered player.

West persuaded Neil Kerley to start a serious league career in the SANFL and found a replacement coach for South Gambier.

Neil Kerley took over as coach from Jack Oatey in 1961 when Oatey moved on to coach Sturt.

Neil Kerley led Westies to its first premiership since 1947 with a 16.13 to 11.7 win over Norwood.

Neil Kerley was at his dynamic best on the day leading the 1st Ruck.

Neil Kerley collected 23 kicks, 3 handballs and took 6 marks in a best on ground performance.

Neil Kerley led the Bloods to the 1962 SANFL Grand Final where they faced their nemesis Port Adelaide but couldn't repeat their 1961 win and lost to the Magpies.

Neil Kerley was replaced as captain-coach by longtime teammate Doug Thomas for 1963 but agreed to play out his contract with the club.

The South Adelaide Panthers had finished last in 1963 and Neil Kerley cemented his place among the greats of South Australian Football when he took the Panthers from bottom in 1963 to the SANFL Premiership in 1964 with a 27-point win over his long-time Grand Final nemesis Port Adelaide.

Neil Kerley signed with his third league club when he agreed to join Glenelg as player-coach from 1967.

Neil Kerley played 55 games for the Tigers, won the club's Best and Fairest award in 1967 and led the club to the 1969 Grand Final against Sturt.

Neil Kerley took the Tigers to the 1970 Grand Final where again they lost to Sturt who won their fifth premiership in a row under the coaching of Kerley's former West Adelaide mentor Jack Oatey.

Neil Kerley coached the club to just its second premiership when they defeated North Adelaide by seven points in front of 56,525 fans in what would be the last Grand Final played at the Adelaide Oval, as the league's new headquarters, Football Park in the western Adelaide suburb of West Lakes opened in 1974.

Neil Kerley coached Glenelg to both the 1974 and 1975 SANFL Grand Finals where they lost both times to Sturt in '74 and Norwood in '75.

Neil Kerley signed on as coach of perennial under-performers West Torrens in 1977 and fans of the club were called upon to "Join the King's Eagle Revival in 1977" with T-shirts printed up stating just that.

Neil Kerley took them from bottom with losses in each of the last sixteen matches in 1976 to sixth in 1977 and fifth in 1978.

The club slumped to eighth in 1979 before Neil Kerley again lifted them and took the Eagles to their last ever finals series by finishing fifth in 1980.

In 1981 Neil Kerley was enticed back to West Adelaide by their President Bob Lee and his 1961 premiership winning teammate, General Manager Doug Thomas, who had replaced Neil Kerley as Captain-Coach of the Bloods in 1963.

The Bloods continued to improve and in 1983 Neil Kerley won his fourth premiership as a coach when West Adelaide defeated Sturt in the Grand Final at Football Park, with Neil Kerley stating that the 1983 team was the best side he had ever coached.

In 1991 Neil Kerley was appointed Football Manager for the newly formed Adelaide Crows in the Australian Football League and spent the 1991 AFL season with the Crows before making his third run as coach of West Adelaide in 1992, taking over from Kevin Morris who like Neil Kerley in 1962 was sacked after taking Wests to the Grand Final in 1991.

Neil Kerley was sacked for the second time as coach of West Adelaide, bringing an end to his SANFL coaching career after 28 seasons that began with a premiership at West Adelaide in 1961.

Neil Kerley is the only SANFL coach to win premierships at multiple clubs over three decades.

Neil Kerley represented South Australia 32 times during his league career including captaining SA to a famous win over Victoria at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1963.

Neil Kerley spent 10 years as state coach over a span of 30 years with his last year being 1984 when South Australia lost to Victoria by just 4 points at Football Park and to Western Australia by a single point at Footy Park.

Neil Kerley was coach of the Australian team for the 1987 International rules series played in Ireland.

Neil Kerley served as a selector for the AFL's All-Australian team.

Neil Kerley recorded a single of "I was Born Under a Wandering Star" whilst still coaching Glenelg in the early 1970s.

Neil Kerley was the son of Laurie and Lillian Kerley and was the second of the couple's six children.

Neil Kerley's father died at the Daw Park Repatriation General Hospital in Adelaide on 21 February 1945, the day after Neil's 11th birthday.

Neil Kerley was referring to wife Barbara who had learned a thing or two about Aussie rules football in her 30+ years sitting on the sidelines watching her husband's teams play.

Neil Kerley died on 29 June 2022, aged 88, after crashing his car in Walker Flat, South Australia.