From a jackeroo to leading coach, the late Neil Kerley became a legend of SA football

One of his fans, John Miller, supplied a photo of his hero in the 1954 Whyalla combined team of which Kerley was captain-coach.

Known as "Knuckles" and "King", Kerley was a South Australian football legend. He died aged 88 in a car crash at Walkers Flat, in the Murraylands, on Wednesday, June 29.

Together with information that Mr Miller supplied, Mr Miller's friend, Dan Keast, compiled a summary of Kerley's career.

"We always claimed him as a Riverland (Barmera) person and I never knew of the Whyalla bit," Mr Keast wrote.

"So I dug deeper and that set it out in a bit of context and answered my question about the Riverland bit.

"Kerley, who started his senior footballing career with Barmera in the Riverland Football League in 1948 at the age of 14, played mostly in the SANFL between 1952 and 1969.

"A Norwood supporter as a young boy growing up on a fruit block in Barmera in South Australia's Riverland, Kerley left home less than a year later and headed north on his motorbike for two years, working as a Jackeroo on cattle stations.

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

"While there he was invited by a friend to attend a Norwood game.

"The Redlegs, as Norwood has been known since 1878, had heard of Kerley's football skills, but he was unimpressed with the reception he received from the club and when West Adelaide approached him a week later he agreed to play for the club.

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

"Kerley stood only 182cm or just over 6 foot tall compared to most ruckmen of the time who stood at least 190cm or 6'3" tall.

"His strong, early leap and the ability to do so all game as well as his physical strength made him one of the league's top knock ruckmen.

"He made his SANFL league debut for West Adelaide in 1952 as a reserve for a game against West Torrens at Thebarton Oval (his only game of the season).

"West captain-coach Brian Faehse was injured early in the game and Kerley went on to play Centre half-back, standing a young Lindsay Head, a future triple Magarey Medal winner (1955, 1958 and 1963).

"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 (not agreeing with officials), the umpire awarded the mark to Head.

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

"Although just 19 years old he was appointed captain-coach of the local scratch team.

"He won the association's Mail Medal and led the team to the premiership.

"In 1954, 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.

"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.

"In early 1956, Kerley was on his way to take up a position of playing coach at South Gambier in the South-East & Border Football League when West Adelaide intervened.

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

"In his first full season with West, Kerley helped the team to the Grand Final against Port Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval.

"It would be the first of four losing Grand Finals for Kerley as a West Adelaide player or coach (1956, 1958, 1959 and 1962) - all defeats to the Fos Williams coached Port Adelaide.

"Ironically, Williams was a West Adelaide junior who had played 54 games for the club from 1946 to 1949 (kicking 112 goals) and had played in the club's Grand Final win over Norwood in 1947 before moving to Port in 1950.

"Kerley's coach in 1956 was Laurie Cahill while from 1957 to 1960 the club was coached by the legendary Jack Oatey.

"Kerley won the first of four best-and-fairest trophies for the club in 1958 and was appointed West captain in 1959.

"Kerley took over as coach from Jack Oatey in 1961 when Oatey moved on to coach Sturt (whom he would coach until 1982, taking the Double Blues to seven flags).

"The new coach led Westies to its first premiership since 1947 with a 16.13 (109) to 11.7 (73) win over Norwood.

"It became known as 'The Turkish Bath Grand Final' due to being played in 35C heat.

"The oppressive heat helped the Bloods as they had won their second semi-final with Port Adelaide and had earned a week's rest while Norwood had to defeat Port in the previous week's preliminary final to make the big game.

"The heat was also blamed for the crowd of just 40,909, the smallest since West Adelaide's last premiership in 1947.

"Kerley was at his dynamic best on the day leading the 1st Ruck. He collected 23 kicks, three handballs and took six marks in a best-on-ground performance.

"The year 1962 produced much the same for West Adelaide. Kerley won the club's best-and-fairest award in 1961 and 1962 (to add to his 1958 and 1959 wins).

"He 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.

"Following the season, Kerley, who was always his own man and rarely bowed to officialdom, was sensationally sacked as West Adelaide's coach despite taking them to one premiership and two Grand Finals in his two seasons in charge.

"He was replaced as captain-coach by longtime teammate Doug Thomas for 1963, but agreed to play out his contract with the club (Thomas was against Kerley's sacking and was initially reluctant to take up the position, only doing so when assured by Kerley that he had his support).

"West Adelaide's form dropped in 1963 and they finished the season fourth, losing the Elimination Final. As a player and playing-coach for West Adelaide Kerley played 165 games and kicked 87 goals between 1952 and 1963 and led the club to its seventh premiership in 1961.

"After his contract with West Adelaide ended following 1963, Kerley signed on as Captain-Coach of South Adelaide in 1964 - succeeding coach, you guessed it, Bill Sutherland.

"The South Adelaide Panthers had finished last in 1963 and 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. I was there when it happened.

"As of 2014 this is the last time South Adelaide has won the SANFL premiership. Kerley went on to play 56 games for the Panthers until the end of 1966.

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

He 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.

"Following the loss to Sturt (coached by Oatey), Kerley retired from league football having played 276 SANFL games and kicked 123 goals in a career spanning 16 seasons beginning in 1952.

"He then went on to coach Central Districts."