Kenyon Carves Key Role

After leaving the Brisbane Bullets at the end of the 2018 season, it looked as though Matt Kenyon may never get the chance to fulfil his potential. 

He'd struggled to impact games at NBL level early in his career and suffered a horrific knee injury. He even admitted lacking that 'elite' mentality. 

How things have changed. 

Kenyon has come back into the Australian game with a bang and has carved a niche for himself with the Tasmania JackJumpers.

The now 24-year-old signed on as the last rostered player for the JackJumpers in their inaugural campaign and has now made himself an indispensable part of their side.

Matt Kenyon shoots over Brisbane defender Nathan Sobey.

Speaking to SEN, Kenyon reflected on his basketball journey.

“I’ve had a pretty crazy journey, pretty up and down and a bit of a rollercoaster,” Kenyon said.

“I was with the AIS when I was 17 and I was one of the best young prospects coming up. Training at the AIS I thought I was going to have a really good career - whatever that may have been. I signed up with Brisbane straight out of the AIS with Andrej Lemanis because he was preparing for the Olympics at the time.

“I signed a two-year deal with the team at 18 which is pretty crazy to think, because there’s not many roster spots in the NBL so that was pretty cool. I had a bunch of injuries and never really got a chance to play, and I probably wasn’t ready mentally more than anything.

“On the back end of that two years I did my knee pretty badly – I dislocated my kneecap and my kneecap was on my hammy. Then I had a long process of rehab, finally got back and ended up going to the G-League because I couldn’t get into the NBL.

“After that I came back, played NBL1 and signed with the JackJumpers after that. It’s been a pretty crazy journey, I think it was the last roster spot on the team. I’m super grateful, I always knew I’d be able to get back here but I’m thankful to ‘Rothy’ (Tasmania head coach Scott Roth) for the chance.”

While Kenyon’s shot wasn’t falling last night in Tasmania’s win over Adelaide, he showcased the best of his abilities in last week’s narrow overtime win against Brisbane.

Having created a reputation as a three-and-d specialist, especially in the corner, Kenyon hit two clutch threes on back-to-back plays in the third quarter to begin his team's comeback. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Call him Mirror-Image Matt (Kenyon) ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on 10 Peach, 10play and Kayo Freebies. <a href="https://t.co/ayBRWM7bLm">pic.twitter.com/ayBRWM7bLm</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1578961863114903553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 

Scott Roth was heard screaming for Kenyon to shoot it against the Bullets, and the guard says he’s happy to have that faith put into him by the coach.

“He said that (to shoot) throughout the game and I think the next shot I took went in,” Kenyon said.

“I’m happy he said it, and it’s always nice when the coaches have faith in you. It’s always better when they want you to shoot it than not.

“I’m definitely looking to be more aggressive and take the open ones, especially when there’s good offence and good action created through the team.

“I need to shoot them and knock them down. They didn’t fall last night but I felt pretty good and I’m going to keep shooting.”

Kenyon and the JackJumpers are back in action on Sunday afternoon, when they travel to Melbourne to take on United.