- Hayden Kennedy
Hayden Daniel Kennedy (born
October 16 ,1965 inAirport West ,Melbourne ) is anAustralian rules football field umpire in theAustralian Football League and is also a teacher atSt Bernard's College Essendon . He has umpired 400 career games in the AFL. [At the completion of Round 11 of the2007 AFL season .] [http://www.aflua.com.au/index.asp?d=5A4C5A717251477C7008060A010502 AFLUA Statistics] , accessed onSeptember 18 2006 ]One of the veterans on the umpire circuit, Kennedy has umpired five
AFL Grand Final s since debuting in the late 1980s. [ [http://www.aflua.com.au/index.asp?d=5A4C5A717251477C7008060D070608 Hayden Kennedy at the AFL Umpires Association] , accessed onOctober 27 2006 ]Early career
Kennedy was a very promising junior footballer with St Christophers Football Club in the Oak Park Junior Football League, a club which also produced AFL legends Simon and Justin Madden. Kennedy completed his secondary schooling at
St Bernard's College Essendon where he now currently teaches as aPhysical Education teacher.Kennedy commenced a career as an umpire in the
Essendon District Football League in1983 . After one season there, he was recruited into the VFL cadets squad.Fact|date=June 2007In
1986 , Hayden Kennedy umpired the under 19 VFL grand final, and by1987 had been promoted to the senior list. At this level he umpired the VFL reserves and country football matches.Career in the Australian Football League
Kennedy had his
Australian Football League umpiring debut in1988 , officiating a game between North Melbourne and Carlton [Carlton won this match 147-131] . Kennedy’s partner on the day was fellow 300 game umpire Peter Cameron.In the
1995 AFL season, Kennedy umpired in all 21 weeks of Home and Away games, and a further 4 weeks of finals. He was the first umpire to achieve this in 38 years, and the 11th field umpire to do so. [The last person to accomplish this had been Alan Nash in1957 ]He umpired his first AFL Grand Final in
1995 . The game, involving Carlton and Geelong, was shared with boundary umpire Allan Cook. Both Kennedy and Cook had been field umpires together on the cadet squad at the beginnings of their careers and both reached the pinnacle of achievement on the same day having followed very different paths.Kennedy continued his dominance at the top of the AFL umpiring ranks, umpiring Grand Finals in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2003 as well as taking part in every finals series. Kennedy has also obtained many other prestige appointments and honours including three State of Origin appointments and being named All Australian Umpire in 1997. He attained Life Membership of the AFL Umpires’ Association in 1993.
After reaching the milestone of 300 games in
2002 , he qualified for a life membership with the AFL. At that stage he had umpired 294 premiership season games, as well as 22 pre-season matches and 3State of Origin games. [ [http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=lifemembers&spg=display&articleid=260656 10 new life members added in 2003 - AFL website] , accessed onOctober 27 2006 ]In 2006 he umpired the controversial match between St. Kilda and Fremantle, along with Matthew Nicholls and Michael Vozzo.He umpired his 400th match on
June 8 ,2007 between Essendon versus West Coast atTelstra Dome . [ [http://www.aflua.com.au/index.asp?d=5A4C5A717251477C7008060B0E0703145A4C5A71784456587D710A080406010A07 400 for Hayden Kennedy] - "AFL Umpires Association",2007 -06-05 ] and was quickly catchingRowan Sawers in the umpiring record books.He finally surpassed his former colleague on
September 8 ,2007 when he umpired in the first elimination final between Hawthorn and Adelaide at theTelstra Dome to break the 410 game record held by Sawers.Kennedy achieved yet another umpiring honour when he was appointed one of four field umpires to officiate in the
AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match played onMay 10 ,2008 at the MCG. [ [http://www.afl.com.au/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsid=59400 AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match Report] accessed onSeptember 7 ,2008 ]Hayden is married to wife Maree and resides in Essendon with their 3 children.
Footnotes
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