Two separate but intertwining careers began their journey to an end last week.
I was in primary school when David Mundy played his first game for Fremantle and high school when Josh Kennedy first stepped out on to Subiaco Oval for the West Coast Eagles.
You can measure the impact of a footballer in the wake of their leave, in the flowing tributes and flowery obituaries for their playing careers.
In Kennedy and Mundy, both West Coast and Fremantle fans are losing people who represented their teams with grace and brilliance, but also perfectly reflected the ethos supporters clung to.
The Eagles have prided themselves on their big name players and they have not had many bigger than the generational key forward with an iconic beard, who ended his career as a member of the 700-goal club.
Kennedy arrived as the consolation prize in the Chris Judd trade but as it turned out, the three-time All-Australian helped West Coast win an unwinnable trade.
It is rare a club trades away a generational midfielder and winds up happier in the long-run but Kennedy, who kicked 429 goals between 2011 and 2017 and kicked three crucial majors in their 2018 grand final, became the Eagles’ greatest forward of all time .
Kennedy may not have actively sought out the limelight, but like so many bullet passes inside 50, fame found him as he became one of the AFL’s star forwards.
If West Coast are kings of the big game, Kennedy was football royalty and even among a plethora of fellow stars — Nic Naitanui, Luke Shuey, Jeremy McGovern — he stood and head and shoulders above them.
Throughout his spell at West Coast, the club have been driven by a pursuit of excellence and sustained success and no Eagle has personified those traits more than Kennedy.
His final bow was a fitting finale, an eight-goal avalanche showcasing his prodigious talents one final time to drag West Coast kicking and screaming into a close contest, his star shining brightest among the on-field mire that has plagued the side this season.
If Kennedy was the perfect West Coast servant — a loyal clubman with a star profile and elite ability in spades — the reliable and understated Munday was an equally excellent representative of Fremantle.
When Mundy had the ball, the sense of relief among Fremantle fans was palpable; the level of comfort was akin to settling on to the coach with a bucket of popcorn to watch your favorite film.
You could count on your hand the amount of times Mundy, the epitome of the savvy veteran, made the wrong decision and even when he did turn the ball over, the intent was right.
Part of the allure of Mundy for Fremantle fans was not just his dependability, but also how underrated he was around AFL circles.
Mundy won his lone All-Australian jersey in 2015 as a 30 year-old, but Fremantle fans had known how good and consistent Mundy was long before then.
He was understated around the league, never getting the headlines his more famous teammates Nat Fyfe and Matthew Pavlich earned, even though he was almost as deserving.
In many ways, Mundy reflected the Purple Haze, and Fremantle fans saw so many of the traits they revere and have bought into Mundy.
He has always been a hard-working, passionate battler who has gone about his work to the nth degree, despite perhaps not always getting the wider plaudits he has served.
The Dockers’ history book devotes many a page to their identity as an industrious outfit who may not always have been the star attraction in a footy-mad town, but will always be honest in their performance and Mundy fits the bill to a T.
For all of Pavlich’s goals and Fyfe’s game-breaking ability, Mundy’s steady hand and unerring consistency made him the Docker’s Docker, a player best equipped to embody the anchor.
In Kennedy and Mundy’s retirement, Perth has lost two icons who served their club to perfection not just on the field, but off it too.
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