Harry Kerley

Henry Charles "Harry" Kerley (12 December 1894 – 23 January 1987) was an Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood and St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Harry Kerley
Personal information
Full name Henry Charles Kerley
Date of birth 12 December 1894
Place of birth Prahran, Victoria
Date of death 23 January 1987(1987-01-23) (aged 92)
Place of death Numurkah, Victoria
Original team(s) Prahran Juniors
Height 178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight 73 kg (161 lb)
Position(s) Centre Half-Forward
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1915 Collingwood (VFL) 12 (21)
1921–1922 St Kilda (VFL) 20 (29)
1923 Prahran (VFA)   5 (10)
1923–1924 Port Melbourne (VFA) 15 (29)
1925–1929 Coburg (VFA) 83 (128)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1929.
Career highlights

Prahran (VFA)

  • Captain-Coach: 1923

Port Melbourne (VFA)

  • Grand Final team: 1923

Coburg (VFA)

  • Captain: 1926-1927
  • Captain-Coach: 1928
  • VFA Premiership player: 1926, 1927, 1928
  • Team of the Century member
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Family

The fourth son of John Kerley (1855-1939),[1] and Sarah Ann Kerley (1860-1941), née Hillier,[2] Henry Charles Kerley was born on 12 December 1894. He married Rose Gertrude Robinson (-1987) in 1922.[3] He died on 23 January 1987.

VFL Football (Collingwood)

Kerley twice kicked four goals in his games with Collingwood in 1915 among his year's total of 21.

Military service

Just 21, Kerley enlisted in the First AIF in February 1916,[4] and was discharged from the service in October 1919.

Football (First AIF)

He represented the Australian Training Units team in the famous "Pioneer Exhibition Game" of Australian Rules football, held in London, in October 1916. A news film was taken at the match.[5][6]

VFL Football (St Kilda)

In 1921, Kerley was cleared from Collingwood to play with St Kilda.[7] He played his first match for St Kilda, against South Melbourne, on 7 May 1921 (round one). He played his last match for St Kilda, again against South Melbourne, on 5 August 1922 (round thirteen). In all he played 20 senior games for St Kilda (15 games in 1921, and 5 games in 1922).

VFA Football

Prahran

On the basis that Kerley had been appointed to the position of captain-coach at Prahran Football Club, St Kilda granted him a clearance.

He played well for Prahran in the first five games of the 1923 season; and then, for reasons that have never been revealed, Kerley and Prahran severed all connection with each other, and Thomas J. Bayliss assumed the coaching duties.[8][9]

Port Melbourne

Granted a clearance from Prahran on 20 June 1923,[10] he transferred to Port Melbourne part-way through the 1923 season,[11] and played his first game for Port Melbourne, against Geelong Association, in round eight. He played in every match in the 1923 season, including the losing Grand Final against Footscray; and played twice in the 1924 season. He was captain of the Port Melbourne team on at least one occasion.[12]

Coburg

Kerley transferred to the Coburg at the beginning of the 1925 season. It was the club's first VFA season, having been admitted to the VFA competition (among other things, to keep an even number of teams and remove the problem of byes) following the move of Footscray, North Melbourne and Hawthorn to the VFL.

Kerley was the team's captain in three successive premierships (1926, 1927, and 1928), and all in all he played 83 games for Coburg, mainly at centre half-forward, kicking 128 goals.[13]

He was appointed captain-coach for both the 1928 and 1929 seasons, but resigned the position on 16 July 1929, because "he considered that it interfered with his play".[14] "He said that he was not satisfied with the form the team had shown, and that, together with the fact that he had injured his hand at Brunswick (on 22 June}, had caused him to decide that it would be in the best interests of all concerned for him to drop out.[15][16]

His resignation was accepted. Fred Chapman and Jim Jenkins were asked to supervise the team's training for the remainder of the 1929 season). Coburg, the 1926, 1927, and 1928 premiers, finished outside the final four in 1929 (in sixth position, with 14 wins from 22 matches). Although he was listed again by Coburg for the 1930 season,[17] he retired and never played senior football again.

Northcote

In 1930 he was appointed coach of the Northcote Football Club's Second XVIII.[18]

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See also
  • "Pioneer Exhibition Game" in London (1916)

Footnotes
  1. Deaths: Kerley, (Tuesday, 20 June 1939), p.1.
  2. Deaths: Kerley, The Age, (Monday, 22 September 1941), p.1.
  3. Births: Kerley, The Age, (Saturday, 12 May 1923), p.5.
  4. Footballers' Roll of Honor, The Winner, (Wednesday, 8 March 1916), p.5.
  5. The original newsreel: Australian Football (Pathé Newsreel, 1916) on YouTube
  6. The 2019 remastered and colourised version of the original newsreel: Australian Football (Pathé Newsreel, 1916), remastered and colourised version (2019) on YouTube
  7. Football: Permits Granted, The Argus, (Saturday, 7 May 1921), p.20.
  8. Notes for Various Sources, The Sporting Globe, (Wednesday, 20 June 1923), p.9.
  9. Bayliss, Thomas, J., at VFA Project.
  10. Victorian Football Association, The Age, (Thursday, 21 June 1923), p.7.
  11. They Say, The (Emerald Hill) Record, (Saturday, 23 June 1923), p.2.
  12. Ports Comfortable Win, The (Emerald Hill) record, (Saturday, 11 August 1923), p.2.
  13. Note that, in a number of (modern) references, Kerley is listed as having won the club's best and fairest awards in 1929 and 1930. However, on the basis of (i) his retirement at the end of the 1929 season, and (ii) that such awards were always given by the football clubs' annual meetings held in the February of the following year, one must conclude that, in fact, the claim is being made that he won the awards for his performance in the 1928 and 1929 seasons. Yet, a careful and thorough examination of all the available press reports of the Coburg Football Club annual meetings of 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, and 1930, reveal no mention of any such award ever being made at all -- and, in fact, the only mention of Kerley in his time with Coburg is that, at the 1927 annual meeting, "a framed photograph group of the players was presented to H. Kerley (capt.)" (Coburg Club Meeting, The Age, (Tuesday, 15 February, 1927), p.13.
  14. Coburg Coach Resigns, The Age, (Wednesday, 17 July 1929), p.16.
  15. K. Kerley Resigns, The Argus, (Wednesday, 17 July 1929), p.11.
  16. He had already addressed the team's performance in strong terms the week before: Club Notes, The Argus, (Friday, 12 July 1929), p.15.
  17. Football: Training Lists Reduced, The Argus, (Wednesday, 23 April 1930), p.12.
  18. Football, The Age, (Friday, 14 March 1930), p.5.

References
  • Harry Kerley's playing statistics from AFL Tables
  • Kerley, Harry: The VFA Project.
  • "Harry Kerley". Collingwood Forever. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
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