DAVID Peachey was a man who won over a legion of league fans with his freakish natural ability, but now there's another talent being compared to the Dubbo star
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It's another Cronulla Shark, it's another fullback and it's another another Central West product in William Kennedy.
The Bathurst fullback was compared to Peachey during Cronulla's 28-6 win over the Melbourne Storm on Friday night by none other than league Immortal Andrew Johns.
It came after Kennedy had got within inches of scoring on the left edge for the Sharks early in the second half.
"There was a piece of play where Will Kennedy gets the pass off Matt Moylan - look at the brilliance," Johns exclaimed.
"It [pass] goes behind him, he stops, checks, changes hands, fends off, dummys - there are just some things you can not coach and that there was pure instinct.
"He reminds me of a fullback who use to play here, David Peachey. He could do things that you'd just scratch your head and say 'He's too good'."
Besides their role at fullback for the Sharks, there are a lot of other similarities than can be drawn between Peachey and Kennedy.
Both began their careers in the Western region, Peachey for Group 11 club Dubbo Macquarie while Kennedy is a Bathurst St Pat's graduate.
Just as Cronulla was the first club to sign Peachey, the Sharks are the club that gave Kennedy his shot at the NRL.
Both spent time at the Kirinari Hostel in Sylvania when they first moved to Sydney, the pair being proud Indigenous men.
Peachey was a player noted for his speed and slick skills and they are assets that Kennedy has shown in his 57 NRL appearances.
Though Peachey made his debut for Cronulla three years before Kennedy was born and earned his Test cap when the Bathurst talent was seven days old, Johns is not the first to compare the duo.
Before Kennedy made his Auckland Nines debut in 2017, Sharks media said of him "Good judges have drawn comparisons to Sharks legend David Peachey, with his silky ball skills another strong component of his game."
Last year when Kennedy was named Cronulla's player of the year he joined a list which included Peachey, the Dubbo product having picked up that honour in 1997, 1999 and 2000.
While Peachey got to play in a Super League grand final with his beloved Sharks in 1997 - they lost it 26-8 to Brisbane - Kennedy is yet to tick that box.
Naturally he hopes it will come this season, Cronulla's win over Storm on Thursday their fourth in a row and at the time it had them sitting in position four on the ladder.
Kennedy made 137 metres from his 14 runs, 33 of those being post-contact, he broke three tackles, had a line break assist and his tackling efficiency rating for the match was 100 percent.
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