New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
One of the most experienced umpires in football history, Kennedy officiated in 495 games before his retirement in 2011. <\/p>\n
And one of those matches was the infamous St Kilda-Fremantle clash in Round 5, 2006.<\/p>\n
Fremantle led by one point when the final siren sounded \u2013 but full-time wasn\u2019t called by the umpires. Play went on for another 10 seconds, with Saint Steven Baker scrambling a behind to tie the scores \u2026 before that point was voided, Baker was handed another free kick after being infringed against and booted another behind to tie the match.<\/p>\n
Tempers flared on the field.Source: News Limited<\/p>\n
Four days later, Fremantle was handed a one-point victory by the AFL Commission on protest.<\/p>\n
But asked by Hall of Fame host Gerard Whateley if he heard the initial siren in Sirengate, Kennedy said: \u201cYes! Yes, yes, yes \u2013 I did.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there\u2019s three umpires. I\u2019m 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\u2019s reaching over to hit a button and their elbow hits the button oh so briefly.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo 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 \u2013 and that didn\u2019t happen. So I just thought it was a mistake.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for the next 10 or so seconds, I was on tenterhooks, because I\u2019m thinking \u2018it had to be the siren\u2019. It was a really soft one during the day, anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the situation, the ball\u2019s up the other end, I\u2019m keeping an ear out for everything \u2013 and then the siren does go. I\u2019ve blown my whistle and I just race on down to where the incident occurred. I said to the other umpire, Matt Nicholls: \u2018I\u2019ve heard the siren.\u2019 So he\u2019s gone back, he\u2019s annulled the score, I think, and then he\u2019s come back and there\u2019s mayhem. Then he said to me: \u2018Oh, but I paid a free kick for a free after disposal.\u2019<\/p>\n
Matt Nicholls and Hayden Kennedy.Source: News Limited<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you ever see the vision, I put my hands like they are now (crossed) and I just walk away thinking: \u2018We\u2019re up sh** creek here, aren\u2019t we?\u2019 I\u2019ll never forget. It was 20 or so minutes on the field just by myself talking to Adrian Anderson.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m standing there in the middle of the ground thinking: \u2018How good is this?\u2019 And then all of a sudden I just hear Peter Cameron, who I umpired with, and he yelled out \u2013 and I\u2019ll never forget it: \u2018Get to the horses! Get to the horses!\u2019 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,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n
Kennedy, who said he\u2019d umpired at least 83 members of the Hall of Fame, also officiated in five Grand Finals \u2013 including the 1997 decider.<\/p>\n
But as Kennedy revealed on Tuesday night, he almost missed selection, despite being the All-Australian umpire that season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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: \u2018Do you know Hayden you\u2019ve been dropped for the prelim?\u2019 And I said: \u2018No I actually don\u2019t know that,\u2019\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made a couple of other phone calls to some umpiring people \u2013 and it was just radio silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to train on a Monday and a Wednesday out at Waverley. We used to start training at about 6pm \u2013 I reckon I was there at 5pm \u2013 and I just ran laps of Waverley hoping that someone would come out and talk to me. No one did.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I was coming off the ground on that particular Monday, I was handed an envelope from an umpiring person saying: \u2018I don\u2019t want you to read this. You can have a look at this at the end of the year.\u2019 As soon as I got up the race, I opened the envelope.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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 \u2013 you\u2019re talking about (Steven) Kretiuk, (Tony) Liberatore), (Jose) Romero and (Paul) Dimattina \u2013 they just got Gardiner before the game. But the rules were that you couldn\u2019t do anything about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got dropped, I didn\u2019t know anything about it. Went through the whole week, went to the Brownlow the week after \u2013 so we\u2019re now into Grand Final week \u2013 I still don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening. No one\u2019s spoken.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I had a meeting with Ian Collins on the Tuesday morning \u2026 Ian sat there with a couple of umpiring people and he said: \u2018You know why you\u2019re here?\u2019 And I said: \u2018I actually don\u2019t know why I\u2019m here.\u2019 Then he proceeded to reel off about five different things there where I\u2019d showed no leadership in games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI then went for a coffee with an umpiring person afterwards and he said: \u2018Well, you\u2019ve got the Grand Final, but you\u2019ve got it by that much.\u2019 It was a relief, but it really meant (I) put a lot of pressure on me \u2026 I wanted to ensure that game was as good as any game that I could\u2019ve umpired. I got a letter from \u2018Collo\u2019 a couple of weeks later saying \u2018really well done\u2019, so that was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kennedy said he considered himself \u201cone of the most fortunate people involved in our great game\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s 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 \u2013 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hayden Kennedy \u2013 Hall of Fame inductee. Picture: Michael Willson\/AFL Photos via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve 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 \u2013 and the list can keep on going. These are just memories that I\u2019m just going to take forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight, a seated at my table over there are the friends and family who have helped me and shared the journey with me. There\u2019s money on me crying just quietly, and I think they\u2019ve won.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh Australian Hall of Fame member Hayden Kennedy has opened up about his involvement in one of footy\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[17288,638,64,63,689,55,15824,639,3423,351592,351591,351595,646,351596,158275,351587,351594,295842,4603,8002,61619,351598,61,2105,2485,67759,351597,351590,48340,12149,351586,100692,647,77607,7198,677,103634,351599,701,351589,85,1122,219562,68931,351588,351593,660,309776,7067,698],"class_list":["post-726183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-adrian-anderson","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australian-football-league-commission","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-bill-walker","tag-controversial-endings","tag-controversial-finish","tag-country-footy","tag-essendon-district-football-league","tag-fame-inductee","tag-fame-member","tag-fantastic-opportunities","tag-field-umpire","tag-final-game","tag-final-siren","tag-football-history","tag-footy-icon","tag-gerard-whateley","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-harvey","tag-hayden-kennedy-hall","tag-ian-collins","tag-james-hird","tag-jason-dunstall","tag-matt-nicholls","tag-mcleod","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-gardiner","tag-michael-willson","tag-oceania","tag-patrick-smith","tag-peter-cameron","tag-queensland","tag-siren-sound","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-stunning-reveal","tag-tony-lockett","tag-umpiring-people","tag-umpiring-person","tag-victoria","tag-wayne-carey","tag-west-coast-eagles","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726183","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=726183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}