Kevin O Neill talks to Northern NSW Football about his career
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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]