Sam Kerr has landed back in WA after cutting short celebrations with her Matildas teammates at Emily Van Egmond’s wedding after she was told her grandmother had been struck by a ute.
Coral Kerr, 89, stepped off a bus in the southwest Perth suburb of Palmyra about 11am on Friday local time when a driver allegedly mounted the kerb in an attempt to overtake the bus before hitting her. She is in a critical condition in hospital.
The Chelsea striker, 31, and her parents Roger and Roxanne were greeted at Perth Airport by Sam’s brother, former West Coast Eagles star Daniel Kerr, who appears to have patched a rift with his family after a spectacular fall from grace.
Daniel was awarded the AFL’s Rising Star award after his debut season in 2000 and was the 2005 Brownlow Medal runner-up but through his career he struggled with alcohol – leading to an infamous punch-up in 2002 with his even more wayward teammate, and 2005 Brownlow Medal winner, Ben Cousins at a Perth nightclub.
Daniel was involved in multiple other booze-fuelled fights through his career which landed him heavy court fines and was implicated in a drug scandal in 2007 before his 2013 retirement, which saw him lose the direction AFL provided just as his sister’s career took off.
He was sentenced to two years jail for attempting to set his parents’ Kardinya house alight in 2021 following an argument – the house where Sam had also grown up – and narrowly avoided another jail stint this year over historical domestic violence incidents after he told the court he was getting treatment for mental health issues.
Daniel and Sam went for years without speaking but appear to have mended their relationship with Daniel picking up the family from Perth Airport on Saturday evening.
Sam’s and Daniel’s grandmother Coral was just metres from her house when she was hit by the ute on Friday before she was rushed to Royal Perth Hospital where she has already undergone surgery for a broken femur and other injuries.
Sam Kerr arrived in Perth Airport with her family on Saturday evening after learning her grandmother had been hit by a car while she was at her Matildas teammate’s wedding
Sam’s mother Roxanne flew back with her and the family was greeted at the airport by Sam’s troubled former West Coast Eagles star brother Daniel (pictured) who appears to have patched a rift with his family
Kerr also arrived with her father Roger who told reporters that he did not know the condition of his mother Coral who had been rushed to Royal Perth Hospital
The 63-year-old driver who allegedly mounted the kerb has since been charged with one count of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and will appear before the Fremantle Magistrates Court on February 4.
While Sam rushed through Perth’s airport, her father Roger told reporters he was not sure on the condition of his mother when confronted with questions.
‘I don’t really know, I’ve just come from the Hunter Valley from a wedding,’ he said.
Coral’s neighbours and bus passengers who witnessed the crash rushed to the elderly woman’s side to help her as she lay on the grassy area next to the footpath.
‘She really wasn’t responding too much, she was very sweaty and clammy… I think she was in shock obviously,’ neighbour Mary Ivey told 9News.
Witnesses alleged a series of cars lined up behind the bus and the ute driver tried to overtake it by driving on the footpath.
Pictures from the Palmyra scene show the ute with extensive damage to its bonnet after the vehicle hit a power pole before it hit Ms Kerr.
Sam Kerr is pictured with her beloved grandmother Coral Kerr who is in a serious but stable condition in hospital after she was struck by a car near her Perth home on Friday
The ute allegedly drove on the footpath in an attempt to overtake the bus where it hit a power pole before it hit Ms Kerr
Kerr is pictured being comforted by fiancée Kristie Mewis before flying to Western Australia
Kerrwalking through Perth Airport after landing on Saturday evening
Kerr rushed through the airport without taking questions from reporters
Daniel was still battling with alcohol in 2020 when the then-36-year-old was in the WA goldfields town of Kalgoorlie for meetings of a security company he part-owns, which provides bouncers for the Palace Hotel.
Kerr was found unresponsive on Kalgoorlie’s main drag, Hannan Street, and taken to hospital with suspected alcohol poisoning, but discharged himself hours later.
He later played down the incident as ‘a bit of a joke’ and noted that his drunken antics were only news because he was white – unlike the 50 Aboriginal homeless on the town’s streets.
‘I wasn’t being violent, I wasn’t breaking the law, it was just a bit of fun. A bit of stupidity but nothing else to it,’ he said at the time.
‘These days with the three kids [and] the businesses I’m running I don’t really get to let the hair down too much. I probably let it down a little bit too much this time.’
Kerr said he accepted his behaviour was stupid but that he wasn’t being rude or violent to anyone and, unlike past controversies, there was no drugs involved.
After the all-night festivities he was walking to Hannan’s Hotel for more booze, but ‘didn’t quite make it’ before he passed out.
Kerr (right) had a fractured relationship with his sister (left) due to his alcohol abuse
The 36-year-old has had a number of high-profile incidents involving drugs and alcohol. Pictured during 2014 arrest
Kerr starred in West Coast’s 2006 premiership win despite having detached ligaments in his foot
Kerr was right that passing out in the street is minor compared to many of his previous indiscretions.
The punch up with Cousins at the team’s end of season bash was the result of ongoing bad blood between the two young Eagles stars stemming from Kerr dating Cousins’ sister.
Witnesses at the notorious Club Bayview at the time recalled Cousins about 11pm yelling ‘this is not over’ to Kerr after a long argument, to which Kerr turned his nose up at his captain.
Kerr got his revenge later that night by pushing Cousins down the club’s long flight of stairs, breaking his arm.
In January 2007 he was fined $2,000 for beating up an 18-year-old partygoer so badly he broke his nose and a tooth, attacking him after Kerr’s sister complained about being groped at a party at the Kerr home.
He was later ordered to pay the teenager $13,125 compensation for his injuries.
Just a month later he jumped on the boot of a taxi, ripped off its aerial and threw it in the driver’s face, injuring him, in a booze-fuelled rampage and was fined $1,800.
Weeks later Kerr was implicated in a drug scandal when 2003 police phone taps revealed him talking about buying drugs and smuggling them interstate.
On the phone to convicted drug dealer Shane Carl Waters, he described the effect the drugs had on him.
‘Yeah, it was f**ked. It turned all pear-shaped. I swear to God. I couldn’t even sleep it was that bad,’ he said.
‘It turned all f**king weird like everyone was… I basically didn’t know where I was and s**t like that.’
Kerr in 2018 blamed his many scandals on drinking too much.
‘I turned into a person who wasn’t speaking to his family and real mates, and was speaking to a lot of people who were – well put it this way – I don’t speak to one person now who I was speaking to in that time frame,’ he told the West Australian.
‘You become an angry, aggressive person who’s not really that pleasant to be around.’
In 2016 Kerr was being held on remand in jail as his friends and family refused to post his $5,000 bail over allegations he broke a community violence order.
Matildas captain Sam Kerr (right) didn’t speak to her brother for two years
Daniel Kerr appears to have got his life in order and met his parents on Saturday at Perth’s airport
Roger Kerr said the family would visit the hospital to check on the condition of Coral but had no further information
Chelsea striker Kerr, 31, and her partner, West Ham midfielder Kristie Mewis, 33, who hails from the US, had both been spending time with Kerr’s family over the Christmas break.
The pair announced in November they were expecting a baby and had flown back to Australia for the festive season.
The Chelsea star is currently recovering from an ACL injury that could see her out of action until March 2025.
Before she learned of the crash on Friday, a beaming Kerr posed for snaps alongside Mewis with Ireland and Arsenal star Katie McCabe, as well as her partner Caitlin Foord at Matilda’s teammate Emily Van Egmond’s wedding to Kat Thompson.
Matildas stars Clare Polkinghorne, Mackenzie Arnold and Steph Catley were also in attendance, while Lydia Williams who has just retired from international football following the Paris Games also posed for snaps, wearing a glamorous red and white dress.
Emily Van Egmond’s national team-mates were in attendance with Kerr (second from left) who posed for snaps alongside her partner Kristie Mewis (left). Arsenal star Katie McCabe (second from right) and Caitlin Foord (right) joined the couple for a picture
Clare Polkinghorne, Foord, Mackenzie Arnold, Steph Catley, Lydia Williams and Hayley Raso (L-R) also dazzled as they posed for snaps at the venue
The wedding venue Krinklewood Estate in the NSW Hunter Valley is located about two-and-a-half hours outside Sydney and is set on 150 acres of land nestled near the Brokenback mountain range.
Van Egmond popped the question to Thompson in June last year, posting the happy announcement to Instagram with a series of photos near the beach in San Diego, California.
Born in Newcastle not too far of a journey from her chosen wedding venue, Van Egmond, began playing football from a young age, and is the daughter of former Socceroo and Newcastle Jets coach Gary Van Egmond.
The San Diego Wave star has enjoyed a glittering career, having made her first professional appearance for the Jets back in 2008.
The midfielder would go on to be capped 153 times by the Matildas and star for the side in three Olympic Games.
The Australian side is currently without a permanent coach with the hunt for likely to extend beyond February’s international window.
Football Australia (FA) recently said they are determined to take their time to appoint the right long-term candidate.
Former long-serving mentor Tony Gustavsson departed in August following the Olympics, with interim coach Tom Sermanni has leading the Matildas in six friendlies since his appointment in September.
That interim reign could continue into and passed February’s SheBelieves Cup as FA contemplates candidates for the next four-year cycle.
The coach will need to lead Australia at the home 2026 Asian Cup and qualify and compete in the 2027 Women’s World Cup and 2028 Olympics.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk