{"id":197526,"date":"2025-10-08T10:29:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T10:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/197526\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T10:29:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T10:29:27","slug":"carrolls-corowa-debutant-to-honour-the-name-of-a-true-swans-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/197526\/","title":{"rendered":"Carroll’s Corowa debutant to \u2018honour the name’ of a true Swans legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trainer and former AFL player Wayne Carroll is hoping Corowa<\/a>-bound debutant Kenny’s Swans can kick a goal on Monday in memory of one of the Sydney club’s most beloved figures.<\/p>\n

Carroll<\/a>, known as \u2018Christmas’ in his days in the old VFL, was an original member of the Sydney Swans back in the Geoffrey Edelsten era.<\/p>\n

He, like most of the Swans’ first roster, were new to Sydney but found a guiding pair of hands from a husband and wife duo that would become lifelong friends.<\/p>\n

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“Kenny and Yvonne Williams really looked after the majority of the players and when I say looked after, they made them feel at home, invited them around to their place for tea and really became part of the Swans from day one,” Carroll said.<\/p>\n

“Every since our days in Sydney, myself and my wife Cherie, we have always kept in contact with Kenny and Yvonne.<\/p>\n

\"2012<\/p>\n

Kenny Williams holds aloft the 2012 AFL premiership cup as he celebrates the Swans’ 2012 grand final victory over Hawthorn.<\/p>\n

“Obviously Kenny passed away a couple of years ago now but I still talk to Yvonne every month.<\/p>\n

“When I first got the name (Kenny’s Swans<\/a>) for this horse and I told Yvonne, she started crying on the phone and was that emotional.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kenny Williams with Swans players Tadhg Kenelly (left) in 2006 and Andrew Dunkley in 1996.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has ever seen a Swans goal kicked would recognise Kenny and Yvonne.<\/p>\n

She would be the one sitting next to a grey-haired, beaming Kenny leaning over the fence down under the Bradman stand.<\/p>\n

\"Kenny<\/p>\n

Yvonne Williams sits at the Sydney Cricket Ground where two red and white seats were unveiled as a tribute to Sydney Swans club stalwart Kenny Williams, who passed away in November 2022 at the age of 93. Picture: Phil Hillyard<\/p>\n

While a fixture at the SCG, Kenny was no stranger to a racetrack.<\/p>\n

“As a young bloke when he was in Melbourne, Kenny used to work on the wharves, but when he came to Sydney he worked as a stablehand for Fil Allotta, the trainer, and Kenny used to look after Baguette and Cabochon,” Caroll says.<\/p>\n

(Only fitting, really, given those two horses’ colours were red and white).<\/p>\n

Kenny’s Swans is guaranteed a huge cheer squad himself on Monday. The son of Magnus is owned by a whole interchange-sized number of Carroll family members with Yvonne herself and all of the Williams descendants watching on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wayne Carroll (right) during his playing days with South Melbourne before the club’s move to Sydney.<\/p>\n

So is Carroll expecting a mark or a behind on Monday from Kenny’s Swans when he steps out onto the track for the Waldrons Corowa IGA Maiden Plate (900m)<\/a> at 4.20pm?<\/p>\n

“Look, I think he can win,” said his trainer and 1984 VFL Mark of the Year award winner.<\/p>\n

“But you know, I never have my horses super wound-up first-up, especially a young one.<\/p>\n

“But he’s fit and well and I am happy for him to go to the races and he’ll run really well.”<\/p>\n

Wherever he runs on Tuesday, he’ll no doubt \u2018Honour The Name’ of a true Blood. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trainer and former AFL player Wayne Carroll is hoping Corowa-bound debutant Kenny’s Swans can kick a goal on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-197526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}