(by Don Landry)
Marc Kennedy (L) with John Morris and Kevin Martin at the Vancouver Olympics. (CP)
Even though the seeds of the Kevin Martin/John Morris split were in the wind for the last couple of years, team second Marc Kennedy was still hopeful a resolution could be reached and that the squad would remain intact for next season. In a candid interview this morning, Kennedy painted a portrait of a rink in various degrees of disintegration over the last two years or so, but one that was still hopeful of working through the obstacles that had been presented by a dissolving relationship between the skip and the third.
“The season had just finished so we were kind of looking for some time to think about things and debrief and then he kind of shocked us a bit yesterday,” Kennedy said of Morris’ announcement that he was leaving the team he’d played vice on for the last seven seasons, winning Olympic gold, two Briers and a world championship.
“We were still kind of waiting for them to work things out and get it going,” Kennedy said of Martin and Morris.
Instead, according to Kennedy, Morris decided to take his leave and was not turfed by a vote by the front end, comprised of Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert. There were rumours floating on Wednesday that the two had been asked to choose between the skip and the third, that it was their decision to make as the team reorganized and got set to make a run at next December’s Canadian Olympic Curling Trials.
“Before Ben and I could even have anymore conversations after the Players’ Championship, John pulled the plug. So, it never did come down to ‘we’re picking you or you,’ it never did come down to that. They knew that Ben and I had been quite upset and John’s the one that made a move first, I guess you could say.”
Kennedy expects the team will probably have an announcement on Morris’ replacement “within, at the latest, two weeks.” They could have had an announcement already had their first choice said ‘yes.’ Kennedy confirms that they reached out to Dave Nedohin to see if he’d be interested. “That was our first phone call. Beyond that we haven’t talked to anyone else yet.”