Football

Antrim's Mr Affable Chris Kerr ready for Championship rumble with Down

Chris Kerr signs an autograph for a young fan at the Antrim senior team's Championship launch at Tir na nOg club in Randalstown Picture by Philip Walsh.
Chris Kerr signs an autograph for a young fan at the Antrim senior team's Championship launch at Tir na nOg club in Randalstown Picture by Philip Walsh. Chris Kerr signs an autograph for a young fan at the Antrim senior team's Championship launch at Tir na nOg club in Randalstown Picture by Philip Walsh.

MEET Antrim’s Mr Affable. A biting cold wind is sweeping up Tir na nOg’s pitch in Randalstown and has sucked virtually all the children into the nearby clubhouse or their parents’ cars.

A few hearty souls are still in search of more autographs at the Antrim senior footballers’ press night. The players have signed everything there was to sign and posed for umpteen ‘selfies’ before decamping to nearby Dunsilly for a training session - away from the prying eyes of the media.

Big Chris Kerr is the last to leave as a few remaining kids wait patiently for the goalkeeper to sign their gloves, notepads and rucksacks.

Over two months has passed since he decided to write a heartfelt piece about his late father, Pat Kerr, and the bouts of depression that accompanied his loss.

The big Antrim ‘keeper laid bare his deepest emotions. It was one of the bravest, most moving pieces of writing you will ever read.

Published in full on the GPA’s website and The Irish News, Kerr wrote: “My dad was a milkman and taxi man in the Andersonstown area, he knew everyone, and anyone fortunate or unfortunate enough to get picked up by him would have to endure all about my sporting career and matches even though he had no interest in sport.

"That was my Daddy. Anytime I play or anything I do in life in general, I do it in memory of him.”

Not an hour goes by where he doesn’t think of his father. But, in more recent times, he’s learned to cope with his grief.

Committing pen to paper was like therapy, he says.

Leaning against the goalpost, Kerr says: “As I said in the piece I thought about doing it for a long time and being from west Belfast and playing football and playing soccer for Newington, the suicide rates in young men in those areas are so high, I just thought if somebody can read it and get something out of it, that’s all I wanted. So I put it out there.

“The feedback has been unreal… Initially, I thought a few people might read it but when the likes of the rugby referee Nigel Owens (who announced he was gay) got in touch and he’d been through the same thing... There were people from all over the country tweeting and sending me private messages. I think it’s more when people you don’t know got in touch. It meant a lot.

“My father is passed away five years now and I’m a lot more at ease with it and I think that’s reflective in the way I play now.

“I used to be too much of a livewire, too involved [in the game]... I think having managers like ‘Kell’ [Sean Kelly] at St Gall’s has settled me and Lenny [Harbinson] with Antrim, and just concentrating on doing goals instead of what’s going on up the pitch and what people are saying on the sideline.

“I can see that in myself now. Being the oldest here now and maturity helps.”

He freely admits his mother Maud and girlfriend Maria keep him on the straight and narrow.

Kerr was first invited onto the Antrim senior panel in 2007 but it was around 2010 he claimed the number one jersey on a regular basis

He enjoys these days leading up to an Ulster Championship match.

For the highly decorated 31-year-old, there won’t be a better feeling in the world walking out at Pairc Esler against Down on Saturday evening.

Part of him, he says, will never grow old.

“You still feel like you’re only out of minor – all the build-up during the week, you’re excited, you’re nervous, walking behind the band before the game.

“It gets harder as you get older, when you’re training through the winter months. Recovery takes longer, but then you go out in the Championship with so many Antrim fans there, that’s why you play.

“I know I’d miss it if I wasn’t playing. You’re a long time retired and sitting on a bar stool talking about it. So I’ll keep trying to do it for as long as I can.”

Laughing, he adds: “Paul Hearty only retired at 43. I don’t know if I’ll play for Antrim that long but St Gall’s might be stuck with me for that long!”

Kerr has played under several managers in his county career and hasn’t a bad word to say about any of them.

And there’s nothing he doesn’t know about the current boss Lenny Harbinson as both hail from the Milltown club.

“Lenny is relentless,” Kerr says.

“I go to bed at night and I wake up hearing his voice about kick-outs. I’ve said to him a few times, he’s like having a second girlfriend – he’s just constantly at you!”

He jokes: “I go to training to get away from one and go home to get away from the other one. But, seriously though, Lenny leaves no stone unturned.”

At St Gall’s, possession has always been king.

For Harbinson, it’s not nine-tenths of the law – it’s ten-tenths.

“I knew straight away when Lenny got the job, that would be the first thing he’d want to concentrate on because he was doing that with St Gall’s nine years ago.

“He played Sevens with St Gall’s and keeping the ball is key and if you have the ball the other team can’t do anything about it. It’s sort of engraved in us that style of football. It’s worked well for us this year: our scoring has gone up and we only conceded one goal in the League [against Carlow].”

There’s less tension in big Kerr’s shoulders these days and he’s getting more out of his football too.

Every kid has his autograph now.

It’s time to get to Dunsilly – where “relentless” Lenny awaits him…