THE tape around his head to try and stem the bleeding from his nose last Saturday might not have been pretty, but the football that William Kennedy produced for the Newtown Jets most certainly was.
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The star Bathurst fullback played an important role in helping the Jets win their Canterbury Cup elimination final 44-20 over Mounties.
He scored a try in the 47th minute which helped the Jets draw level with Mounties at 20-all while he also produced a try assist as Newtown came from 16-14 down at the break to post a commanding win.
Kennedy's statistics also included four tackles, one line break, seven tackle breaks and 64 metres gained. All that despite copping a bad knock to his nose.
It means that come this Sunday when Newtown fights for Canterbury Cup survival once more - this time against North Sydney at Leichhardt Oval - Kennedy again shapes as a key.
"I think he's playing as well as he has for Newtown in the two seasons he has played for us and he's played a substantial number of games for us during that period," Jets media officer Glen Dwyer said.
"We saw last week that he is very safe under high kicks in windy conditions and he returns the ball really well.
"In the second half when Newtown was under pressure he scored a very good try which put them on the way to a very good win.
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"He's been named in the team again this week, they seem to put broken noses behind them very quickly these days ... well I'm not sure if it was technically broken, but he copped a pretty nasty whack."
The Jets have met the Bears twice previously this season, winning 32-30 in April but then going down 22-8 in July.
Since that defeat the Jets have improved - the five second-half tries they scored against Mounties a good example - but Dwyer is tipping a tight contest on Sunday.
"That second half of the win against Mounties, that's as good as they've played all year and they had a very high completion rate of 91 percent," he said. "But this is going to be a real test, North Sydney are of course affiliated with the Roosters so they've got players with NRL experience in there, just as Newtown has with Cronulla. They are two old rivals so it's going to be a good game."
