Tara Murray
The determination to help Sunshine win the Western Football League division 2 premiership landed Kangaroos captain Patrick O’Keefe in hospital for two nights.
O’Keefe, who was awarded the best on ground medal by the umpires, punctured his lung and broke some ribs during the Kangaroos drought breaking win.
O’Keefe said he didn’t realise he had done that much damage until the doctors informed him after scans.
He said he only went to hospital to be safe and that he was hoping he would be cleared to return to the celebrations.
“I copped a big knock in the second quarter and then went off the ground and didn’t feel too bad,” he said. “I thought it was just a bit of bruising and I went back on.
“I didn’t feel the best, but I was good enough to get through to the end, I think the adrenaline kicked in.
“After all the celebrating after the game, I got back to the club rooms and I was really struggling to breathe properly.
“I went and seen mum and said what do you think and she said get to hospital and get it checked.
“I got worse as the night went on… I got to the hospital and they put me on a drip and said you’ve got a pneumothorax, which is a puncture on your lung and some cracked ribs.”
O’Keefe said there were some concerns with his lung with doctors considering surgery to place a tube in his lung at one stage.
He was released from hospital on Monday and given the OK.
O’Keefe said he can’t believe that he was able to play out the game and hold the premiership cup up at the end of the game, let alone be named best on ground.
“It’s a bit surreal,” he said. “The main thing for me is just getting through and getting the win.
“It was pretty nice to get all that. I thought I started well but I thought I went a bit more quiet.
“I couldn’t believe it when they called my name out either.”
The injuries have meant that O’Keefe has had to take the celebrations a bit easier than he would have liked.
He said he was a bit jealous of all the boys, with all three Kangaroos sides claiming premierships on the same day.
“After winning three premierships on the day you could imagine how special it was at the club,” he said.
“It was pretty disappointing to miss out on all that, but I did the right thing in the end. Still taking it easy now.”
For O’Keefe, who has grown up at the Kangaroos and played all his football at the club, it’s his first premiership.
He said he might have been in one grand final in juniors, but otherwise he hadn’t been close.
“I’ve rarely even played finals,” he said. “It was just a crazy experience and to get the job done it was even more special.”
O’Keefe said the past few years a lot of hard work had been put in to get the side back to where it should be, in division 1.
“It was amazing,” he said. “We’ve had a rough couple of years around the Covid time and a little bit after.
“We got relegated back to division 2. The club was not in the best spot and we could barely field two sides.
“The last couple of years through the work of everyone around the club, we’ve really turned it around.
“We have good juniors coming through now. We fielded three senior teams this year and the thirds only missed their premiership by a point.
“The club is in a really good spot compared to where it was a couple of years ago.”
