Hampton Park’s Fredericks brothers, from left, Linden, Brendan, Hayden and Sheldon, finally took to the field together last Saturday. 34589 Picture: Nigel Clements
By Brad Kingsbury
AFTER three years together at Hampton Park, the four Fredericks brothers – Brendan, Sheldon, Hayden and Linden – finally ran onto the football field together on Saturday.
The foursome that hails from South Africa (excluding Linden, 24, who was born in Australia) are very close and have harboured a desire to play together for their whole careers.
Until Sheldon, 26, joined the other three at the Redbacks at the start of 2007, that chance had never presented itself and soon after the four were registered Hayden, 25, suffered a career-threatening knee injury.
The boys had all but given up hope until Hayden decided to give the game one more go halfway through this season and hit some form in the reserves two weeks ago.
Coach Josh Taylor said that Hayden’s form warranted a game in the seniors where his three brothers were waiting for him.
“We wouldn’t have played them for the sake of it, especially given we needed to win the game this week to get off the bottom of the ladder,” he said.
“It worked really well. They all got amongst it and we won the game well. I couldn’t be happier.”
The Fredericks’ parents Marcel and Chevron were present, along with other family members who had never heard of Australian Rules football when they migrated from Durbin in 1984.
Between the foursome they have won most of the personal awards that the game has to offer, but playing senior football in the same team was the ultimate aim, especially given that Brendan, 31, has indicated that retirement is not far off for him.
