As she was left to warm the subs' bench again by Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor on Sunday, it's now two years since the Matildas great started a Women's Super League match for the Blues.
But the way she helped reinvigorate Chelsea in the second half at Brighton's Broadfield Stadium demonstrated that Bompastor must surely employ the 32-year-old more after the winter break if they're to win the league for the seventh successive season.
They go into the break six points adrift of leaders Manchester City, who beat Aston Villa 6-1 with four goals from Jamaican star Khadija Shaw, the woman who now enjoys the role of WSL's premier striker that Kerr once filled.
It was December 10, 2023 when Australia's captain last played 90 minutes in a WSL match for Chelsea and it was thought Bompastor might mark this anniversary-of-sorts by putting Kerr in the starting lineup again against the south-coast side managed by former Melbourne City boss Dario Vidosic.
But without Kerr, the stuttering champs again looked fairly toothless up front in the first 45 minutes, with only a remarkable solo run and shot from French fullback Sandy Baltimore just before the break giving them a halftime lead.
Once Kerr and Wieke Kaptein had been brought on for the second half, though, Chelsea looked a different team up front, the Matilda bringing more of a robust physical presence and directness than Aggie Beever-Jones.
The Australian discomfited Caitlin Hayes so much, even giving her a sneaky off-putting shove as the cross came in at the near post from Erin Cuthbert, that the pressurised Brighton defender headed into her own net.
Then Kerr went on a barrelling run on the left flank before laying a third on a plate for Alyssa Thompson to slot home.
The only frustration for Kerr once again was that she didn't end up on the scoresheet herself, having had one rasping shot and a superb diving header kept out by Brighton's busy keeper Sophie Baggaley.
Kerr's now scored just four in 16 matches for club and country since her comeback in September from the ACL injury that kept her out for so long. In 11 of those matches, though, Kerr has been a substitute.
Ellie Carpenter, who had a fine game herself, might have laid on a goal for her Matildas captain near the end but chose to shoot herself from a more unpromising angle.
Manchester City will take some catching for Chelsea, though. Shaw scored her 100th goal for the club and went on to add three more, with Aoba Fujino and Vivianne Miedema adding the other two.
Elsewhere in the WSL, another Matilda, West Ham's captain Katrin Gorry, was left ruing a missed late chance which could have given her side victory in the foot-of-the-table clash against Liverpool. It ended 2-2 with Liverpool still bottom on three points and the Hammers a place above on five.
