Photos of the childhood home where superstar striker Sam Kerr plied her trade as a child – and was later torched by her AFL star brother – have recently resurfaced online.
Before joining the Matildas, superstar Kerr grew up in a two-storey house eight miles south of Perth CBD, the youngest of four siblings.
Older brother Daniel Kerr had great success in Aussie Rules football and later played 220 AFL games with West Coast Eagles, and Kerr wanted to follow in his footsteps with a professional sports career.
Photos from their childhood home show framed football shirts adorning the walls and what appears to be a photo of Kerr with a family dog hanging in a bedroom.
Kerr moved from Australian Rules footy to soccer at the age of 12 and made her debut for the Matildas just three years later as a substitute in a match against Italy, aged just 15.
Sam Kerr’s brother Daniel (left) was jailed for two years for setting fire to his parents’ house
Kerr’s two-story childhood home was located eight miles south of Perth CBD
A bedroom in the house has what appears to be a photograph of a young Sam Kerr depicted with a dog adorning a wall
Play for the Perth Glory in Australia’s W-League, Kerr’s impressive performances there and later in Sydney earned her a move to the US in 2013.
Unfortunately, as Kerr’s career took off, Daniel struggled with drugs and alcohol after his retirement in 2013, culminating in a five-day prison sentence after violating a restraining order for violence.
In 2021, Daniel set fire to the family home and was later sentenced to two years in prison for the arson attack.
A court heard that on February 17, 2021, Daniel, 40, drove to the family home in Kardinya and set fire to the back rooms, then drove off screaming and waving his hand out the window. The house was empty at the time.
The former footy star caused nearly $250,000 in damage to the property and was arrested at his car wash business an hour after the incident, 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 broke down, and Kerr’s parents Roger and Roxy divided the property into two separate lots, which they sold in 2022 for $420,000 and $440,000.
Memorabilia from Daniel Kerr’s football career adorns 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 divided the property and sold it into two separate lots.
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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 bought her first property in Perth.
Kerr acquired a $940,000 block in the oceanfront development on South Beach, North Coogee.
The beachfront block has approved plans for a three-story ocean view townhouse.
In 2019, Kerr revealed that she had not spoken to her brother Daniel for two years following his five-day jail sentence in 2013.
Daniel Kerr was arrested in 2021 for the attack, which caused $250,000 worth of damage
Daniel Kerr was a champion AFL player who scored 220 games for the West Coast Eagles
“I haven’t spoken to him for two years,” she said in 2020.
“Our whole family is close, but me and Daniel are super close… he always says, ‘that’s the thing that got me back on the road, that everyone talked to me but you.’
“I just really needed that reassurance that everything would go back to normal.
“That’s what hurt me the most…when you do things that affect yourself, it affects other people as well.
“I had to watch mom and dad get stressed out about their 30-year-old son, which is not normal and it hit me.
“I don’t let it bother me, but seeing my parents have to deal with it was probably the hardest part.”
Daniel has previously revealed that Sam’s tough love was the kickstart he needed “to start behaving again, to get my family back” before the February 2021 incident.