Northern NSW Football interview with Kevin O Neill

Newcastle Herald

Kevin O Neill talks to Northern NSW Football about his career

Transcript

00:00 Australian goalkeeper during the 1950s, Ron Lord, told me that he has the utmost respect

00:05 for Kevin O'Neill as a person and a footballer.

00:08 He said Kevin O'Neill and Joe Marston were the best two central defenders he'd ever played

00:14 behind.

00:15 You played in the national team between 1949 and 1959.

00:21 Based on club performances, you were selected six times in the All Australian team during

00:25 the 1950s.

00:27 That's the most selected player.

00:28 You captained your country, you had numerous appearances for northern New South Wales,

00:34 for New South Wales, and up until the 1970s, you were the most capped soccer room.

00:40 And you achieved this all living in the Cessnock area.

00:43 That's right, yes, I did.

00:45 I'm very proud of the performance and me now at Tenridge.

00:51 Ronnie Lord, I thank Ronnie for what he said.

00:54 He told me that one day I was in Melbourne, when I went down there for something that

01:00 never happened and I just had a walk with him and he told me that at the time that he

01:06 thought Marston and myself were the best two central Arsenal ever played behind.

01:12 I'm very grateful for that.

01:14 It's one of the memories that I'll never forget.

01:18 I was born 1925 at Cecilia Lundy, Patrick Arnhill.

01:26 I had five brothers, three sisters, and my father was killed when I was three to four

01:34 year old.

01:35 So my mother read the nine of us through the depression and all, so you can guess we had

01:42 a pretty hard time growing up.

01:46 And I lived opposite the soccer ground at Aberdeen when this town had two First Division

01:52 teams, Cessnock and Aberdeen.

01:53 And I must tell you, I had an idol, a fellow from West Wales End called Ducky Henry.

02:02 And I used to go down and carry his bag from the Cessnock railway station when we had a

02:08 train run and carry his bag all the way to the soccer.

02:14 What was the main industries in Cessnock around that time?

02:17 Coal mining, that's where I started.

02:20 And I worked at Aberdeen for about 21 years.

02:24 And I worked at Awaba for 22 years.

02:30 So you went to school here in this area?

02:32 Yes, I went to school at the primary, at the infants primary and the high school.

02:39 And then the technical school, I couldn't handle the bloody French, so they sent me

02:43 down to the technical where I had woodwork and metalwork.

02:49 Growing up in this area, mainly a football area, so you would have seen touring teams

02:55 play in this area?

02:57 Oh yes, very often.

02:59 Every touring team knew that when we was at our top, we'd play at Cessnock.

03:04 On a Wednesday afternoon, the pits in the area would start early, so they'd be over

03:10 there at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and then that ground where the sports ground where

03:17 I think it's Kmart is, or Big W, where Big W is now, that was always packed on those

03:25 days, on the Wednesdays.

03:26 How old were you when you first started?

03:27 I was nine.

03:28 I was nine year old.

03:29 The only grade I could play was under 14.

03:30 I played for Kersley, and I played all my junior football with Kersley from when I was

03:42 nine to 16.

03:44 From 16, I played my first senior football with Curran.

03:53 Next year, I went to Cessnock, played there, and that was the year the breakaway was on,

04:03 1944.

04:04 A great friend of mine, the referee, Bunim McWilliams, said, "I'll get you when the breakaway

04:12 is on, I'll get you a game with Westy if you want to go there to improve your football."

04:18 I took his chance, and I went to Westy on the conditions that when the breakaway was

04:27 finished, I had to come back to Cessnock.

04:29 How I got to Westy to play, I used to have to catch the train from Cessnock to Newcastle,

04:38 catch the tram from Newcastle to Walsend, then catch the bus from Walsend to Westy and

04:48 play football and do the same trip home.

04:51 At Cessnock, we had no coach.

04:56 In fact, I was the coach there at Cessnock from '54, '55, '56.

05:03 What we did, as soon as we'd come from work, which we worked, which they don't do today,

05:09 we went to work and at three o'clock, we'd all, after work, three to four, four to six

05:17 at night, we'd train.

05:20 We'd do laps of the ground, we'd make them do exercises, and then after that for about,

05:27 I'd say, three quarters of an hour, then we'd play a game against one another.

05:34 Football boots in your day?

05:35 Yeah, they were big, heavy, I don't know the name of them, but they were big, they used

05:40 to come up around your ankle and support, but it didn't make that much difference to

05:47 me because I always played and always bandaged the ankles.

05:53 Even at training, I bandaged the ankles.

05:56 And after football, after the game, before I even had a shower, I'd go to the cold water,

06:05 tap and run cold water over my ankles.

06:08 About 50, I think, what they call cutaways came in.

06:13 If you look through the records, you can see that I played full back, half back, and on

06:19 the wing for Australia.

06:23 So I did not always, I was classed, I think, at the time as the best utility player in

06:33 New South Wales.

06:34 I could play anywhere, and I used to like playing a different position every week because

06:40 it was more enjoyable to me to be in a different position playing every week.

06:46 From Cape Town, when we landed, we flew to Johannesburg, and from Johannesburg, they

06:51 put us on a train with two carriages, and we'd travel in that train to another place

07:00 to play, like East Africa, and we'd get off, we'd have lunch there, and then after the

07:07 game, we'd catch the train again to the next place where we played.

07:12 We had preparations all right.

07:13 Meet one another to have lunch.

07:16 No coaching like going anywhere for fortnight, training together for fortnight.

07:23 We met at the hotel before we went to have lunch, and meet the players who we was playing

07:29 with, and go to the ground and play.

07:33 There was no coach as such?

07:34 No.

07:35 Who ran the team?

07:36 Who gave instructions?

07:37 When the migrants first come here, we thought we'd get...

07:46 Some of us might get a player out of this, so out we went to Greta to see if we'd get

07:52 a player, and we got one player who came to Cessna to play with us.

07:58 That's when we first started to play third back, and that's when it was introduced mainly

08:04 in this area, third back when Mosher was with us.

08:08 I think that was...

08:09 I don't know what year that was.

08:10 Probably '54.

08:11 '54, so he bought an account.

08:12 We never got nothing for playing.

08:13 So we played for the love of the game.

08:19 So I went to work, and because they knew I was like the two old men who worked at the

08:26 pit with soccer players, soccer men, Jackie Curtis and another bloke, and they knew what

08:33 I was going to do.

08:34 I just made myself, after I went down the shaft, I made myself make sure that I went

08:43 to the overman and knew that they was there.

08:46 Then I'd walk out from the Aberdare to the top of Newthill underground, then I'd walk

08:53 from Newthill back home, get my gear and go and play football at Newcastle.

08:59 Did you realise as you were playing the influence that the migrants were having on the competition?

09:05 Could you feel it?

09:06 Well, to me, their control.

09:07 That was their beauty over us.

09:10 Their ability and control of the ball all the time.

09:19 That's what impressed, I think, not only me, but every player that played football here

09:25 at the time.

09:26 I trained at home.

09:27 I didn't train with them.

09:28 So you didn't go to Sydney?

09:30 I didn't go to Sydney to train through the week.

09:31 I trained at home.

09:32 I trained here and travelled down every weekend to play.

09:37 Or if it was midweek, I'd take an old friend from up the road with me that I'd have company

09:45 and I'd get home about two o'clock in the morning or something like that, because it

09:50 wasn't the highway what it is today.

09:52 It was up around the mountain, pushing the turn.

09:57 I'd go to work the next day, take a get on about two o'clock in the morning and go to

10:05 work at six.

10:06 One of the biggest things I've ever done.

10:10 To be recognised to be the captain of the country.

10:16 It's probably a good time to bring out this shirt.

10:25 What did it mean to you playing for Australia?

10:29 Well, one of the greatest things I've ever done.

10:34 For throwing myself in my family.

10:46 It's unbelievable I think.

10:49 I was raised in an area where I come from a little place, well not a little place, but

10:58 a big place.

10:59 It's not too big anyway.

11:00 I love playing here.

11:01 Football was my life I reckon.

11:02 It's great.

11:03 Looking back, can you believe it was over 70 years ago?

11:04 In fact, I wish it was today, that I could get out there now.

11:23 I'd be grateful.

11:26 What we did for nothing.

11:29 I don't know.

11:30 We just did it for nothing.

11:34 End of the day.

11:36 What players get today is built on the back of people like Kevin O'Neill.

11:42 Thank you.

11:44 Thanks.

11:45 You're welcome.

11:50 Bye.

11:56 Bye.

12:00 Bye.

12:03 (upbeat music)

12:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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