LEAGUE legend Daniel Keenan notched his 300th senior game in Montmorency’s 33-point win over Heidelberg in Round 8.
One of the competition’s most decorated and respected players, Keenan marked the occasion in style, playing a leading role as the Magpies became the first side this year to beat the Tigers.
Keenan’s senior career began back in 1998, when he debuted for Hurstbridge as a 16-year-old.
He joined Montmorency in 2002, after 56 games with the Bridges, and for more than a decade since has marked himself as one of the premier midfielders in Division 1.
His impact at Montmorency Park was immediate, winning the club’s best and fairest, the Ron Smith Trophy, in each of his first two seasons with the Magpies – both Grand Final years for the club.
He has since added a third club best and fairest award in 2011, captained the club to a Grand Final and, perhaps most notably, claimed back-to-back Frank Rosbrook medals in 2008 and 2009 as the NFL’s best and fairest player.
Despite his long list of achievements, Keenan said his greatest football memories were playing alongside his older brothers and the friendships he has formed over his 16-year career.
“You look up to your older brothers when you’re growing up and to get the chance to play senior footy with them was great,” Keenan said.
“My first year was quite a highlight for me because I got to play with two of my older brothers.
“It’s a very long time since I first started as a 16-year-old at Hurstbridge. They were very good times. I spent a few years at Hurstbridge, which was my junior club, and followed one of my brothers to Montmorency in 2002.
“I’ve made a lot of really good friends around the club and when you’re around the club for so long it becomes part of your family.
“Everything you do for two thirds of the year revolves around what’s happening with your mates at the footy club and that part of footy for me is what makes it special.”
In a significant day for one of its favourite sons, Montmorency never looked troubled in its Round 8 win over Heidelberg, leading from the first bounce in the 12.10 (82) to 7.7 (49) triumph.
The win propelled last year’s beaten grand finalist into the top five for the first time this season, with four wins from the opening eight rounds ahead of the Queen’s Birthday break.
Keenan said the club had earmarked the clash with Heidelberg as a game it could ill-afford to lose.
“We probably set a target to say this is a game that if we don’t win our season is really on the back foot,” he said.
“We set ourselves on really doing the things that we’ve worked on at training and it came through.
“We had a real intent that we were going to make sure that the defensive side of our game was going to be a lot stronger than what it has been. We felt that we were scoring enough and scoring well, so we put our concentration in to making sure we have our defensive game right.”
Keenan conceded the club’s early season form slump may have been attributed to the lingering mental scars from last year’s agonising Grand Final loss – where Montmorency led by 45 points during the third quarter before falling to a 29-point defeat to Bundoora.
“I think there was a bit of lethargy during some of the pre-season about where we finished last year,” he said.
“It was a topsy-turvy pre-season. Getting grounds in the pre-season was very difficult. In between Poulter St and eventually at Central up in Greensborough and it just really unsettles you.”
Keenan said an injection of youth into the senior side had provided renewed energy within the group as it begins building towards another finals campaign.
Montmorency has won three of its past four matches, with its only loss a three-point defeat at third-placed West Preston-Lakeside.
The Magpies face a stern three weeks after the break, beginning with a clash with a sixth-placed Lower Plenty outfit that will include former AFL hard man Campbell Brown. That game is followed by a meeting with ladder-leader Greensborough, before a trip to Yulong Reserve to take on Bundoora.
THE BOMBER FILE
Games: 300
Goals: 187
Frank Rosbrook Medal: 2008, 2009
Ron Smith Trophy: 2002, 2003, 2011
Other accolades: Montmorency club captain, NFL Coaches Team of the Year representative, Member of NFL and DVFL representative teams
