Photos of the family home where superstar striker Sam Kerr practised her craft as a kid – and was later set fire to by her AFL star brother – have recently re-emerged online.
Before she joined the Matildas, superstar Kerr grew up in a two-storey house, 13km south of the Perth CBD, as the youngest of four siblings.
Older brother Daniel Kerr found great success in Aussie Rules football, later playing 220 AFL games with West Coast Eagles, and Kerr wanted to follow in his footsteps with a professional sporting career.
Photos from their childhood home show framed football jerseys adorning the walls and what looks to be a photo of Kerr with a family dog hanging in a bedroom.
Kerr switched from Australian Rules footy to soccer at the age of 12, and just three years later made her debut for the Matildas as a substitute in a match against Italy, when she was just 15.
Sam Kerr’s brother Daniel (left) was jailed for two years for setting his parents’ home on fire
Kerr’s two-storey childhood home was located 13km south of the Perth CBD
A bedroom in the house features what looks like a photo of a young Sam Kerr pictured with a dog adorning a wall
Playing for the Perth Glory in the Australian W-League, Kerr’s impressive performances there, and later in Sydney, earned her a move to the USA in 2013.
Sadly, as Kerr’s career took off, Daniel would struggle with drugs and alcohol after his retirement in 2013, culminating in a five-day stint in prison after he breached a violence restraining order.
In 2021, Daniel set fire to the family home and was later sentenced to two years jail for the arson attack.
A court heard that Daniel, 40, drove to the family home in Kardinya on February 17, 2021 and set fire to the back rooms, then drove off while yelling and waving his hand out the window. The house was empty at the time.
The former footy star caused nearly $250,000 worth of damage to the property and was arrested an hour after the incident at his car wash business, where he told officers he had no recollection of driving there.
Kerr’s lawyer Kate Turtley-Chappel told the court that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia while in custody.
What was left of the house after the fire was demolished, and Kerr’s parents Roger and Roxy subdivided the property into two separate lots, which they sold off for $420,000 and $440,000 in 2022.
Memorabilia from Daniel Kerr’s footy career decorates the walls of the home
The Kerrs had originally purchased the property in 2001 for $404,000
The house was demolished after Daniel Kerr’s 2021 arson attack and the Matildas star’s parents subdivided the property and sold it off in two separate lots
The Kerrs had originally purchased the property in 2001 for $404,000.
Despite playing for Chelsea in the UK, the Matildas captain still loves WA – and recently purchased her first property in Perth.
Kerr snapped up a $940,000 block in the oceanfront development on South Beach, North Coogee.
The beachside block has approved plans for a three-story townhouse with ocean views.
In 2019, Kerr revealed that she didn’t speak to her brother Daniel for two years after his 2013 five-day stint in prison.
Daniel Kerr was arrested in 2021 for the attack, which caused $250,000 worth of damage
Daniel Kerr was a champion AFL player who racked up 220 games for the West Coast Eagles
‘I didn’t speak to him for two years,’ she said in 2020.
‘All our family’s close but me and Daniel are super-close … he always says, ‘that’s the thing that brought me back onto the road, that everyone spoke to me except you’.
‘I just really needed that reassurance that things were going to go back to normal.
‘That’s what hurt me the most … when you do things that affect yourself, it also affects other people.
‘I had to watch Mum and Dad be stressed out about their 30-year-old son, which isn’t normal and it affected me.
‘I don’t let things bother me but seeing my parents have to deal with it, that was probably the hardest thing.’
Daniel has previously revealed that Sam’s tough love was the kickstart he needed ‘to behave again, to get my family back’ before the February 2021 incident.