Fresh Australian Hall of Fame member Hayden Kennedy has opened up about his involvement in one of footy’s most controversial endings to a game, saying he heard the York Park siren sound initially … before chaos broke out and the infamous ‘Sirengate’ fallout began.

Kennedy on Tuesday night was one of six footballing greats inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame, while WA footy icon Bill Walker became the game’s 34th Legend.

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One of the most experienced umpires in football history, Kennedy officiated in 495 games before his retirement in 2011.

And one of those matches was the infamous St Kilda-Fremantle clash in Round 5, 2006.

Fremantle led by one point when the final siren sounded – but full-time wasn’t called by the umpires. Play went on for another 10 seconds, with Saint Steven Baker scrambling a behind to tie the scores … before that point was voided, Baker was handed another free kick after being infringed against and booted another behind to tie the match.

Tempers flared on the field.Source: News Limited

Four days later, Fremantle was handed a one-point victory by the AFL Commission on protest.

But asked by Hall of Fame host Gerard Whateley if he heard the initial siren in Sirengate, Kennedy said: “Yes! Yes, yes, yes – I did.

“So there’s three umpires. I’m up the left-hand end, plays down the right-hand end and I heard the sound for the briefest period of time. I describe it as someone’s reaching over to hit a button and their elbow hits the button oh so briefly.

“So I heard it, but the rules of the game said that you keep the hand on the siren until it gets heard by a field umpire – and that didn’t happen. So I just thought it was a mistake.

“But for the next 10 or so seconds, I was on tenterhooks, because I’m thinking ‘it had to be the siren’. It was a really soft one during the day, anyway.

“I know the situation, the ball’s up the other end, I’m keeping an ear out for everything – and then the siren does go. I’ve blown my whistle and I just race on down to where the incident occurred. I said to the other umpire, Matt Nicholls: ‘I’ve heard the siren.’ So he’s gone back, he’s annulled the score, I think, and then he’s come back and there’s mayhem. Then he said to me: ‘Oh, but I paid a free kick for a free after disposal.’

Matt Nicholls and Hayden Kennedy.Source: News Limited

“If you ever see the vision, I put my hands like they are now (crossed) and I just walk away thinking: ‘We’re up sh** creek here, aren’t we?’ I’ll never forget. It was 20 or so minutes on the field just by myself talking to Adrian Anderson.”

Kennedy began his journey as a boundary and field umpire in the Essendon District Football League, before venturing into country footy and eventually cracking into the then-VFL in 1988.

His VFL/AFL first match was a Carlton-North Melbourne clash at Princes Park, where he found himself still in an awe-struck state when the final siren sounded

“I’m standing there in the middle of the ground thinking: ‘How good is this?’ And then all of a sudden I just hear Peter Cameron, who I umpired with, and he yelled out – and I’ll never forget it: ‘Get to the horses! Get to the horses!’ Because in those days as soon as the siren rang, everyone jumped on the field and the two horses would come and protect the umpires as they were coming off the ground,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy, who said he’d umpired at least 83 members of the Hall of Fame, also officiated in five Grand Finals – including the 1997 decider.

But as Kennedy revealed on Tuesday night, he almost missed selection, despite being the All-Australian umpire that season.

“I was at home after my second final and I get a phone call from Patrick Smith at The Age on a Sunday night. He said: ‘Do you know Hayden you’ve been dropped for the prelim?’ And I said: ‘No I actually don’t know that,’” Kennedy said.

“I made a couple of other phone calls to some umpiring people – and it was just radio silence.

“We used to train on a Monday and a Wednesday out at Waverley. We used to start training at about 6pm – I reckon I was there at 5pm – and I just ran laps of Waverley hoping that someone would come out and talk to me. No one did.

“As I was coming off the ground on that particular Monday, I was handed an envelope from an umpiring person saying: ‘I don’t want you to read this. You can have a look at this at the end of the year.’ As soon as I got up the race, I opened the envelope.

“It was a reassessment of my final game, West Coast Eagles versus Western Bulldogs, which was the final game at what is now Whitten Oval. Michael Gardiner was going really well for West Coast, but what the Western Bulldogs players did – you’re talking about (Steven) Kretiuk, (Tony) Liberatore), (Jose) Romero and (Paul) Dimattina – they just got Gardiner before the game. But the rules were that you couldn’t do anything about it.

“I got dropped, I didn’t know anything about it. Went through the whole week, went to the Brownlow the week after – so we’re now into Grand Final week – I still don’t know what’s happening. No one’s spoken.

“Then I had a meeting with Ian Collins on the Tuesday morning … Ian sat there with a couple of umpiring people and he said: ‘You know why you’re here?’ And I said: ‘I actually don’t know why I’m here.’ Then he proceeded to reel off about five different things there where I’d showed no leadership in games.

“I then went for a coffee with an umpiring person afterwards and he said: ‘Well, you’ve got the Grand Final, but you’ve got it by that much.’ It was a relief, but it really meant (I) put a lot of pressure on me … I wanted to ensure that game was as good as any game that I could’ve umpired. I got a letter from ‘Collo’ a couple of weeks later saying ‘really well done’, so that was great.”

Kennedy said he considered himself “one of the most fortunate people involved in our great game”.

“I don’t think there’s many people that can say the following: I stood up close to Tony Lockett one day, where he tore opposition apart, including a bag of 12 against Adelaide Moorabbin in 1991. I was there when Jason Dunstall kicked 14 out of 20 goals at Waverley against the Western Bulldogs in 1996. I witnessed Gary Ablett Senior kick 14 against Richmond and then against Melbourne where he kicked 11 – and they (the Cats) still lost by 14 points. And in 1999, I umpired Essendon versus North Melbourne where Wayne Carey kicked 10.5 and (Matthew) Lloyd seven. I was pretty lucky just in those particular instances,” he said.

Hayden Kennedy – Hall of Fame inductee. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images

“I’ve had so many fantastic opportunities and have umpired some great midfielders. You can talk about Williams and Harvey, Buckley, Voss, Judd, Cousins, Kerr, Black, McLeod, James Hird, Crawford, Swan, Ablett Jnr, Hodge – and the list can keep on going. These are just memories that I’m just going to take forever.

“Tonight, a seated at my table over there are the friends and family who have helped me and shared the journey with me. There’s money on me crying just quietly, and I think they’ve won.

“They’ve witnessed the highs, the challenges and everything in between, and I sincerely thank them for their friendship, their encouragement and their support over many years.”