JACK OF ALL TRADES

Written by John Townsend, The West Australian - Thursday, 16 Apr 2020

In 2008, when Subiaco named their team of the century to celebrate 100 years of football at Subiaco Oval, the biggest dilemma was provided by brilliant utility player Laurie Kettlewell.

That dilemma had nothing to do with Kettlewell’s inclusion in the team nearly half a century after the last of his 205 appearances for the Maroons.

Kettlewell’s selection was as automatic as the presence of triple Sandover medallist Haydn Bunton Sr and dual winner Johnny Leonard but there was a considerable debate over which position he should fill.

One selector wanted him at centre-half back. Another argued Kettlewell’s case for the centre. There were suggestions he should be named on the halfforward line or at full-back or on the ball.

The only position where Kettlewell was not considered was in the ruck and that was only because Carlton premiership captain Mike Fitzpatrick and inaugural Sandover medallist Tom Outridge had mortgages on each side of that debate.

The simple fact was that the 181cm and 80kg Kettlewell was a star no matter where he played. He was as influential in defence as attack; he could change a match as a free-wheeling on-baller or create scoring opportunities as a high-flying aerial target or close down a dangerous opponent.

He often filled all those roles over the space of a month or two. Occasionally he did so in the same game.

“As far as natural skills go, Kett had it all,” team-mate Kevin Merifield said.

“He was equally strong on both sides of the body with raking drop kicks and stab passes.

“He was capable of taking a big grab and almost unbeatable in a oneon-one in the air and on the ground.”

In his prime in his seventh season for Subiaco , in 1960 when he was 24, Kettlewell prompted Alan Ferguson, who edited the Football Budget for a quarter of a century, to describe him as “one of the greatest utility players to don a guernsey in this State” .

It was an accolade underlined by his Sandover Medal votewinning games in the middle of that season. He was described as the “driving force in the centre” , “dominant at centre-half back” , a full-back who “marked brilliantly and drove the ball almost to the centre many times” and “best on ground on a half-forward flank” .

Kettlewell came third to eventual medallist Graham Farmer that season, though he edged the champion ruckman in a media award voted on by the players, and may have been disadvantaged by the need to constantly change positions depending on the team’s needs. Still, Kettlewell’s virtuosity and flair made him a key weapon for his six coaches in 11 years at the Maroons and a regular at State level who made his debut as an 18-year-old in his first season and played the last of his 14 interstate matches only six weeks before his retirement in 1965.

It was a period that Subiaco struggled for success, though they ended a decade of bottomthree finishes by reaching the 1959 grand final, only to run into an implacable East Perth team driven by Farmer’s class.

Kettlewell was one of his team’s best players that day while his impact came as little surprise to Merifield.

“Kett always rose to the big occasions,” he said.

“Put him on a top player and Kett would play a top game; put him on an ordinary player and Kett would play an ordinary game.

“As a former teammate I saw first-hand how incredibly talented Kett was.

“I’m often asked who were the best players I played with or against and the three obvious ones were Polly (Farmer), Toddy (John Todd) and Cabes (Barry Cable), but when I put Kett not far behind them, I’m usually confronted with ‘Laurie Who?’

“Kett probable wasn’t heralded as much as he deserved but ask any old-timer at Subi and they will tell you Kett was the best ever to pull on a maroon and gold guernsey.”

Kettlewell took up a lucrative coaching offer at Mt Barker in 1963 but returned the next year to help the shattered Subiaco recover after the deaths of his recent team-mates Rod Newton and Merv Screaigh who were killed in a car crash while on their way to visit him.

Subiaco’s team-of-the-century selectors finally resolved the Kettlewell conundrum by placing him on a half-forward flank, a response as much to do with the lack of flexibility of the other candidates.

There was no argument that Kettlewell was a jack of all football trades but few could match him as a master of most of them as well.