{"id":607834,"date":"2026-04-15T05:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T05:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/607834\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T05:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T05:43:14","slug":"western-bulldogs-player-matthew-kennedy-rates-prince-harrys-afl-skills-after-royal-kickaround","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/607834\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Bulldogs player Matthew Kennedy rates Prince Harry’s AFL skills after royal kickaround"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Duke of Sussex took part in a kickaround with children and players at \ufeffthe team’s headquarters at Mission Whitten Oval in Footscray, Melbourne on day two of his Australia visit<\/a> and proved to fans that he has a “six out of 10” ability to punt the football.<\/p>\n

Western Bulldogs trio Matthew Kennedy, Tom Liberatore and Adam Treloar had some one-on-one time with the former royal on the field.<\/p>\n

\"PrincePrince Harry is seen at a Movember event at Mission Whitten Oval in Footscray. (Paul Jeffers)<\/p>\n

After admitting he was a little starstruck, Kennedy had a measured response when asked about Harry’s skills on the field.\ufeff<\/p>\n

“I gave him a six out of 10, still a bit of an improvement to go, but he was really good, he asked us plenty of questions and it was great pleasure to meet him,” Kennedy told Nine.com.au.<\/a><\/p>\n

“He needs to probably get the ball spinning in the right direction.<\/p>\n

“There was a few floaters in there, so, that’s probably a start.”<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs midfielder presented Harry with a team scarf, which the duke wore proudly for the rest of his visit.<\/p>\n

Kennedy joked that he might convince the duke to sign up as a Bulldogs\ufeff member if his team can lock in a win on Friday.<\/p>\n

“I think that’s gonna be pretty tough, but we’ll see how we go,” he laughed.<\/p>\n

“Maybe we get the win this weekend, we can get him across.”<\/p>\n

\"PrinceBulldogs trio Matthew Kennedy (second from right), Tom Liberatore (left) and Adam Treloar had some one-on-one time with the former royal on the field. (Paul Jeffers)\"WesternWestern Bulldogs player Matthew Kennedy presented Harry with a team scarf. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

\ufeffKennedy, who welcomed his son Theo in 2024,\ufeff said the pair also bonded over fatherhood.<\/p>\n

“We spoke about a bit about his, sporting background with rugby, [a] bit about AFL and bit about our kids and stuff, it was a great opportunity,” Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

“You don’t get to do that every day… it’s pretty awesome.”<\/p>\n

Earlier, Treloar \ufefftold reporters he thought Harry’s visit was a “big joke” until he saw the media start setting up.<\/p>\n

He was chosen as one \ufeffthe players to kick the ball with Harry only yesterday.<\/p>\n

“I still didn’t really believe it until he came walking out,” \ufeffTreloar said.<\/p>\n

\"WesternAdam Treloar said Harry was “disappointed” he was given a kid’s footy. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“\ufeffWe don’t usually get that out here in Footscray, so it’s pretty cool.”<\/p>\n

During his visit, Harry told the players he often followed the AFL fixtures from his home in the US.<\/p>\n

“He was a little bit disappointed that we gave him a kid’s footy,” Treloar added.<\/p>\n

“He wanted one of the, the real ones, but he went OK.”<\/p>\n

Harry took to the field after joining a panel on mental health hosted by Melbourne-based charity Movember.<\/p>\n

Harry and wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are focusing on events that champion community resilience, support for the armed forces and mental health during their whirlwind four-day visit.<\/p>\n

It’s their first visit since their 2018 royal tour, and the first since they quit the monarchy in 2020.\ufeff<\/p>\n

The couple will head to Canberra, before returning to Melbourne for a brief visit and a stop in Sydney.\ufeff<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Duke of Sussex took part in a kickaround with children and players at \ufeffthe team’s headquarters at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-607834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607834","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=607834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}