WAGGA teenager John Kennedy wasn't prepared to walk away from football completely when a ruptured spleen brought about a premature end to his playing days last year.
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Kennedy was playing in a Hume League reserve grade game for Osborne when he was on the wrong end of a sling tackle that saw him airlifted to a Melbourne hospital.
Having suffered a ruptured spleen, doctors advised him that it was the end of his playing days.
But the self-confessed 'footy nuffy' was not prepared to walk away from the sport he loved altogether, paving the way for a move into umpiring.
"Midway through last year I got caught in a massive sling tackle and ruptured my spleen," Kennedy explained.
"I got airlifted to Melbourne and the advice after that was I'm probably better off not playing football anymore.
"I was already umpiring the juniors on a Saturday morning. I live in Wagga so I would literally wake up and get in my car at 8 o'clock because sometimes you're going as far as Coreen or Lavington, all the way out there to umpire the under 14s at 10 o'clock.
"I would then go play footy and then boundary umpire for first grade. It's a fair effort of a day. The whole idea was that you earn your sleep that night."
So with his playing days on pause, Kennedy decided to join Riverina Umpires Association (RUA) over the off-season.
"The advice was stay away from contact sport for a while," he said.
"Because I was already doing the umpiring, I thought it would be better if I can try and get into Wagga, be around home and actually do senior umpiring.
"I got added into the group from a friend of mine, one of our neighbours, because he was doing boundary umpiring. I got some information from there and came along to their first pre-season training and from there, I explained to Troy (Mavroudis) and the coaches what I was wanting to do.
"They said they were keen on having me so I started doing the women's comp through the off-season, I did a few practice games and then because I was still coming along to training they gave me a game on Good Friday in the under 17s, which was still a pretty big deal to me.
"They entrusted me a bit. The coaches have been really good, they've guided me along the whole way. From doing that, I ran with Mav for my first game out at Leeton."
Kennedy has wasted no time in making an impression and was included alongside fellow Riverina umpires Will Day and Brock Piltz in this year's AFL NSW-ACT Field Umpire Next Gen program.
The 19-year-old has now officiated in a handful of senior games and is earning praise for the way he goes about it.
"It's good fun, they're giving me good exposure and also showing a lot of trust in me which is also really helpful," he said.
"I'm absolutely loving it. It's really good to stay around, it's good to see the emerging players as well. The coaching group around me has just been incredible."
An auto electrician by trade, Kennedy said he still misses playing.
"Every day," he said.
"I'm just a footy nuffy. I'll be watching Footy Classified on a Monday or a Wednesday, flicking through podcasts, even today listening to SEN on the radio, I'm an absolute footy nuffy.
"That was the whole point, I wanted to stay around football because I just love it too much to give it away. Umpiring's been really good for that."
Kennedy followed his father Andrew's footsteps of playing at Osborne and is a cousin of Carlton star Matt Kennedy.
He is one of 40 umpires from across the state in the Next Gen program, the first step in AFL NSW-ACT's umpire talent pathway.
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