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The Roosters back lines up for his 60th grade game thanks to his father's inspiration, writes Brad Walter.
Shaun Kenny-Dowall was stuck in a backpackers' hostel with no job and nowhere else to live, having spent most of the $3000 he'd saved to come to Sydney. Yet the then 16-year-old only had to look across the room at his father, John, for inspiration to keep pursuing his dream of an NRL career.
Just five years later, Kenny-Dowall is lining up for his 60th first-grade game with Sydney Roosters against Canterbury tomorrow and John is coaching the club's Harold Matthews Cup team, with his own ambition to take charge of an NRL team.
An amputee since he was five years old, John is also a Paralympic gold medallist and tried to convince Kiwis and Storm great Tawera Nikau - a family friend from New Zealand - to compete in the Games after he lost his leg in a motorcycle accident.
''My dad is a big role model for me,'' Kenny-Dowall said. ''He knows what it takes to be successful and has always been good at inspiring other people. It was a big gamble when we first came here but obviously we had big ambitions and it has all paid off. He wanted to pursue his coaching career as well and he's done all of the international coaching courses so it is good that it has worked out for him too.''
But it hasn't been easy and the time the pair spent at the Coogee hostel while trying to get Shaun a start with an NRL club was nothing compared to what John overcame when he was just five. ''I had a lawnmower accident,'' he said. ''Me and my brother were riding on top of the mower and we rolled it down a bank. My foot was trapped under it and I couldn't get it out.''
John never had the chance to play league but it didn't prevent him from playing sport at the highest level and at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney he won a gold medal in javelin and silver medal in shot put.
John also coached at representative level in New Zealand before he and his wife, Leigh, moved to Sydney to help Shaun chase his dream.
''Shaun was just a natural-born rugby league player,'' John said. ''Between about nine years of age and 15, the amount of games he played … he was absolutely killing them. It was a pretty tough area where we were from but he was shining week in and week out.''
The catalyst for the move was the Warriors' failure to recognise the talents of Shaun, who has since gone on to play for New Zealand, the All Golds and Aotearoa Maori.
''I was in a Warriors development squad for two or three training sessions and one of the coaches pulled me aside and said, 'Sorry mate, I don't think that you are in the top 100 players in New Zealand in your position,''' Kenny-Dowall recalls. ''I probably used that as a bit of motivation. I went home disappointed and said, 'I've had a enough of this, I want to move to Australia to pave my own career.'
''Dad thought I was crazy, and said 'what about school?, but he eventually came around. He came up with a plan and we just stuck to it. I was only 15 or 16 years old and got a few part-time jobs and we just saved up all the money we could in six months and did it. I had about $3000 but we couldn't find jobs or anywhere to live so it got to a real scary point where we thought we might have to go home because we didn't have enough money to keep going. But in one week everything turned around. We got a house, we got stable jobs and I started playing footy for the Clovelly Crocodiles.''
John started coaching, too, and became part of the Roosters development program, working his way up to the Harold Matthews Cup team, which is in equal seventh place three weeks from the play-offs.
''I've been coaching for about 25 years,'' he said. ''I've coached men as well as kids, and I think this year could be my last at this level. Ultimately I'd love to coach in the NRL. Some people are made for it and some people aren't but I think I am one of those who are. I've spoken to some influential and inspirational people and they've given me some good advice about how I should go about it.''
He has also been responsible for handing out advice and visited Nikau in hospital just after his 2003 motorcycle accident.
''Tawera was losing a lot of weight because his leg was poisoning him,'' John said. ''I said to him, 'The technology is great these days, you should just get the thing chopped off.' It wasn't easy for Tawera. I did what I did purely out of friendship. I just wanted to see him get on with his life and it was great that he took up coaching.''
The Roosters back lines up for his 60th grade game thanks to his father's inspiration, writes Brad Walter.
Shaun Kenny-Dowall was stuck in a backpackers' hostel with no job and nowhere else to live, having spent most of the $3000 he'd saved to come to Sydney. Yet the then 16-year-old only had to look across the room at his father, John, for inspiration to keep pursuing his dream of an NRL career.
Just five years later, Kenny-Dowall is lining up for his 60th first-grade game with Sydney Roosters against Canterbury tomorrow and John is coaching the club's Harold Matthews Cup team, with his own ambition to take charge of an NRL team.
An amputee since he was five years old, John is also a Paralympic gold medallist and tried to convince Kiwis and Storm great Tawera Nikau - a family friend from New Zealand - to compete in the Games after he lost his leg in a motorcycle accident.
''My dad is a big role model for me,'' Kenny-Dowall said. ''He knows what it takes to be successful and has always been good at inspiring other people. It was a big gamble when we first came here but obviously we had big ambitions and it has all paid off. He wanted to pursue his coaching career as well and he's done all of the international coaching courses so it is good that it has worked out for him too.''
But it hasn't been easy and the time the pair spent at the Coogee hostel while trying to get Shaun a start with an NRL club was nothing compared to what John overcame when he was just five. ''I had a lawnmower accident,'' he said. ''Me and my brother were riding on top of the mower and we rolled it down a bank. My foot was trapped under it and I couldn't get it out.''
John never had the chance to play league but it didn't prevent him from playing sport at the highest level and at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney he won a gold medal in javelin and silver medal in shot put.
John also coached at representative level in New Zealand before he and his wife, Leigh, moved to Sydney to help Shaun chase his dream.
''Shaun was just a natural-born rugby league player,'' John said. ''Between about nine years of age and 15, the amount of games he played … he was absolutely killing them. It was a pretty tough area where we were from but he was shining week in and week out.''
The catalyst for the move was the Warriors' failure to recognise the talents of Shaun, who has since gone on to play for New Zealand, the All Golds and Aotearoa Maori.
''I was in a Warriors development squad for two or three training sessions and one of the coaches pulled me aside and said, 'Sorry mate, I don't think that you are in the top 100 players in New Zealand in your position,''' Kenny-Dowall recalls. ''I probably used that as a bit of motivation. I went home disappointed and said, 'I've had a enough of this, I want to move to Australia to pave my own career.'
''Dad thought I was crazy, and said 'what about school?, but he eventually came around. He came up with a plan and we just stuck to it. I was only 15 or 16 years old and got a few part-time jobs and we just saved up all the money we could in six months and did it. I had about $3000 but we couldn't find jobs or anywhere to live so it got to a real scary point where we thought we might have to go home because we didn't have enough money to keep going. But in one week everything turned around. We got a house, we got stable jobs and I started playing footy for the Clovelly Crocodiles.''
John started coaching, too, and became part of the Roosters development program, working his way up to the Harold Matthews Cup team, which is in equal seventh place three weeks from the play-offs.
''I've been coaching for about 25 years,'' he said. ''I've coached men as well as kids, and I think this year could be my last at this level. Ultimately I'd love to coach in the NRL. Some people are made for it and some people aren't but I think I am one of those who are. I've spoken to some influential and inspirational people and they've given me some good advice about how I should go about it.''
He has also been responsible for handing out advice and visited Nikau in hospital just after his 2003 motorcycle accident.
''Tawera was losing a lot of weight because his leg was poisoning him,'' John said. ''I said to him, 'The technology is great these days, you should just get the thing chopped off.' It wasn't easy for Tawera. I did what I did purely out of friendship. I just wanted to see him get on with his life and it was great that he took up coaching.''
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