WHERE ARE THEY NOW
A DUAL Mathieson medallist and two-time best and fairest winner, Paul Keating played for Geelong and claimed two premierships in North Shore’s golden era.
AO: Thanks for your time, Paul. I understand you’re living in Sydney now? PK: I am. After the ’93 premiership, I pretty much got on a plane and came up here.
AO: Wow. What took you up north? PK: Work. I was 28 at that stage and we’d won the flag. Ronnie Watt was coach and I was assisting him. It was a great year. It was pretty much planned to perfection, we had a cracker year. We lost the last game and lost a final but we got ourselves fit and had a 20-goal win over Lara in the grand final. Fond memories.
AO: Did you end up having a kick in NSW? PK: No. I came up here for work and that became a focus. It involved a lot of overseas travel, and the climate up here is milder and I fell into paddling. I was doing ocean canoe racing and paddling ocean skis and that keeps me fit these days.
AO: You spoke about premierships. How many did you
end up winning at North Shore? PK: I was involved in two in the time I was there – seven years. In fact, I played seven years straight, apart from the last game when I injured my ankle. I had a fantastic run, I was very lucky. I played in four grand finals and I won two. At that time, we started to get a really good bunch of young kids coming through. Ronnie Watt and Glenn Keast did a fantastic job in moulding those guys into good footballers and the club culture was pretty formidable in those days.
AO: Of the two flags, do you have a favourite? PK: Definitely the last one against Lara. Because I was involved as an assistant coach. I was part of the planning and execution and people underestimate how much effort and research went into individual players and reviews. The sense of satisfaction … there was so much joy. We knew we could win the premiership that year and we planned it out well and we got it. It was by far the highlight.
AO: You managed to win two Mathieson Medals, 1990 and you were a joint winner with Mark Dahlhaus in
1987. You must have been impressive? PK: I think ’87 was a surprise for me because it was one of my early years in the competition. I’d come away from Geelong and I had a year or two at Leopold and I came across to North Shore. Best and fairests are borne out of the people that you play with. In the early days, the guys weren’t used to a ruckman who could get the ball first and give it to a terrific team of ruck rovers, but you can’t be successful on your own and the Mathieson Medals belong to the club, as far as I’m concerned.
AO: The two grand final losses must have been
devastating? PK: I took grand final losses very hard. I still do. But there’s nothing you can do to change the result, so in hindsight I wasted a lot of emotional energy mulling over what could have been. We got beaten by better sides and you have to learn from that and move on. It certainly hurt me and still does, but we got two.
AO: In terms of individual accolades, what did you
manage to win over the journey? PK: Two club best and fairests, but I didn’t focus to much on the individual things. What I took pride in was playing GFL interleague. It was good to play with those who you were competitors with and we had some great results. I represented Victoria once as well and it all added to the experience. Once I got out of Geelong I really enjoyed my footy and if you enjoy it, you train better and as a result you play better football. That was the learning I got out of it.
AO: Where else did you have
a kick? PK: I played all my junior footy at Leopold and I played my first senior game when I was 15. A guy by the name of Tony Graham, a legend at Leopold and he was my primary school teacher and he pulled me out of the under17s to play senior football. I had no idea what I was doing, but he gave me confidence to play good football and then I got dragged off to Geelong to played under-19s and reserves until I went to North Shore.