Brother's death gives Swan perspective
By Peter Ker
Sydney
June 26, 2004
The Australian record industry would do well to keep its offerings out of the hands of Sydney's Ryan O'Keefe, who has forged a reputation in recent times for his CD reviews in the Swans' club magazine.
"I enjoy music... we do that in every edition and there's another one coming up soon, but they've given us terrible CDs to work with," O'Keefe said of artists such as Shannon Noll, Pink and Maroon Five.
So harsh were O'Keefe's ratings out of 10 for some albums that Swans publicity staff felt compelled to revise them upwards before going to print. Even then, the verdict was generally only fives and sixes.
"They are actually not my ratings; they've fudged them a little bit," O'Keefe said this week.
There was a time not so long ago when the former Calder Cannon reserved his harshest reviews for himself. "In my early days, I was all footy and was just worried about that - it was probably the end of the world if footy wasn't going well," he said.
"When you're totally footy-focused and that's not going well, then your whole world falls apart. And then a few things happen in your life and it puts things in perspective."
Perspective was no great consolation for the tragic death of O'Keefe's younger brother Aaron in a car crash in 2002. A footballer of potential himself, Aaron reportedly has a bar in a Richmond pub named in his honour.
"He was younger, he played old boys at St Kevin's College in the amateurs there. He was only a year out of school when he died," O'Keefe said. "I suppose that was a fairly big turning point in my life and that's probably why I put life in a bit more perspective."
Teammate Adam Goodes said the change in O'Keefe had been noticeable. "He probably became a bit more mellow," Goodes said.
It's in honour of his late brother that O'Keefe will wear a black armband into tonight's match against Collingwood at Telstra Stadium - just as he has done in every game since the accident. When the team wears a black armband for other reasons, O'Keefe wears two.
"That's just something to remember him by in each game, it's just something I do," he said. "I will just keep doing it, I will just take it as it goes . . . one day I might stop."
These days life is about enjoying football, enjoying anonymity in Sydney and taking advantage of the city's weather. "When I was down in Melbourne last week there were a lot of unhappy people because of the weather," he said. "You know, good weather makes people happy."
When not studying at the University of NSW, O'Keefe can be found in Sydney's surf with teammate Lewis Roberts-Thomson. His shift to the forward line over the past 18 months has also been making waves.
"His left foot is just to die for," Goodes said of O'Keefe, who was drafted as a half-back. "To get on the end of one of those kicks is great and even when he is kicking for goal it's fantastic. He is playing good football and he is really working over most of the defenders that have been put on him."
Yet the shift to half-forward did not come easy. "I thought it was the hardest place to play when I started - you really have to make something happen, and in the first couple of years when I went up there, I didn't really like it."
Unlike the music of Shannon Noll, the idea of playing forward has gradually caught on. "It has grown on me a bit. I've learnt to like it," he said.
realfooty.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/25/1088144973680.html?oneclick=true
