Chelsea Football Club will be financially secure for many years thanks to late life member Les Kenny

He summed up Kenny in simple terms.

He was “salt of the earth’’, “loyal’’, “quiet’’, “unassuming’’, a “great supporter’’ and a “great clubman’’, Caffyn said.

Three weeks later, Caffyn and the football club also know Les Kenny to be exceedingly generous.

The 83-year-old made Chelsea Football Club the main beneficiary of his will.

Caffyn is reluctant to put a figure on how much the club expects to receive, but says it’s safe to say it will be a significant amount given Kenny owned property in Chelsea.

Caffyn says the windfall “has to be a game-changer’’ for the Seagulls, who play in the Mornington Peninsula Football League.

And he says Chelsea will be careful to honour Kenny’s wish that members of the club benefit from his estate.

“We have a duty now to make sure his legacy is properly managed,’’ Caffyn says.

“I’m sure Les’ view was, ‘I want this to be supporting the club for the long-term, not for the right now’.

“The way it (the will) has been crafted, it needs to be used for the benefit of the members of the facility. We will spend money diligently and over a period of time to make sure the club has a solid footing and the facilities are maintained properly and all the clubs there – the senior and junior football clubs and the (Chelsea) cricket club – benefit from Les’ generosity.

“We certainly don’t think we’re going to go out and buy next year’s AFL premiership. It’s meant to underpin the club for the next generations.’’

He says Chelsea intends to invest in junior football, which “has been one of our weak points recently’’.

Caffyn was “amazed’’ when a solicitor contacted him two days after Kenny’s funeral with details of the will.

He says there had always been “rumours’’ a supporter was going to be “very generous’’ to Chelsea when he or she passed, but a name was never attached to them.

It turned out to be a man who a neighbour laughingly referred to as a “cantankerous old bugger’’.

*****

Col Caffyn says Les Kenny seemed to be around Chelsea Football Club “forever’’.

In fact, he had been associated with the Seagulls since starting as a junior in 1953.

In 1955, he was a premiership player with the Under 16 side coached by club great Bonnie Johnstone.

But in 1958, Kenny was involved in a serious car accident, suffering severe neck and back injuries.

He never played football again.

Kenny returned to the football club after his recovery and right up until his death, he remained a fervent supporter of the Seagulls.

In 2019, former club president Ray Stuart and fellow life members “Wagga’’ McDonald and John Hornsey nominated Les Kenny for life membership.

They noted that Kenny, then aged 80, continued to be a paid-up member of Chelsea, watched the thirds, reserves and senior games at home and still travelled to away matches.

“For some 30-plus years, Les has been a regular five-to-seven-day- a-week patron at the bar of the Tom Williams Social Club.

“We believe that Les’ 66 years of continuous loyalty and longevity to our club as a player, member and patron are exceptional and amount to an outstanding ‘lifetime’ contribution by an individual.’’

The committee agreed. Kenny was awarded life membership at Chelsea’s 2021 annual general meeting.

*****

Les Kenny died at his Chelsea home on March 6 this year.

About 30 people attended his funeral at Gateway Chapel in Chelsea Heights on Friday, March 24.

There was a burial at Springvale Botanical Cemetery and, as Kenny wanted, a wake at Chelsea Football Club.

At the funeral, celebrant Michael Pearson called the football club Kenny’s “favourite haunt’’.

He had no living relatives; he considered the Seagulls his family.

“His two loves were the Chelsea and Carlton football clubs,’’ a neighbour, John, told mourners.

“He used to get the Herald Sun delivered every day. I used to buy The Age, so I was a ‘commie’.

“He’d bring it (the newspaper) down to us when he was finished and you’d open page three and you could tell if he had jam or Vegemite on his toast that morning. You’d get to the sports pages and if Carlton had won, there would be bugger-all left because he’d cut it all out.’’

John said they would often have Kenny in for Christmas dinner.

Invariably, his first comment was not, “Merry Christmas’’, but, “What’s on TV?’’

And so it was that one year they tucked into their meal with Hogan’s Heroes blaring in the background.

“Even though he was a cantankerous old bugger, we still had plenty of good times together,’’ John said.

He said Kenny used to run a footy-tipping competition for the neighbourhood and would host a barbecue at the end of the season.

“It was basically a booze-up; you know how it goes,’’ he said.

In his tribute at the funeral, Col Caffyn said Kenny was a concreter, learning his trade under Ray Stuart Sr, and for the last 10 years of his working life was with the old Chelsea City Council.

He said Kenny could often be seen at Chelsea games sitting at his favourite table in the social club, a stubby of Cascade beer in hand, his eyes fixed on the Seagulls and his ears tuned in to an old transistor radio listening to Carlton matches.

“He was never one to put himself forward for a position of office. Les was happy to just be a supporter,’’ Caffyn said. “That is what he enjoyed doing.’’

The songs of both clubs were played at the end of a short funeral that Pearson said reflected Kenny: “No fuss, no bother, nothing flowery, no fluff.’’

Caffyn says the influence of Les Kenny at Chelsea will be felt a long time after his death.

“Having some surety of your financial position is going to be of great benefit to the club, and I would think it will be over a long period of time,’’ he says.