the whistler
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- Aug 23, 2005
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- Hawthorn
It's coming!!
Here's an edit from Caroline Wilson story on Aug 3
For Daniel Chick, it has been the best and worst of years. Chick has spent 2005 living a gypsy-like existence following the break-up of his marriage to Kimberley, the American woman he met on a beach in Hawaii on a post-season trip in 1998 and whom he married a year later.
Chick moved in with his teammate and captain Ben Cousins shortly before the start of the season and now lives with his sister. While he has regular access to his son Seth, he knows his beloved three-year-old will soon relocate to the east coast of the US with his mother. "It's been a pretty tough time, actually," said Chick
"Footy's been an escape, somewhere enjoyable for me to go. It's where I have the only two hours of peace I get during the week. I've spent most of the year living like a gypsy.
"I spent a few months with Cuz (Cousins) and a few months at my sister's. I've been a bit all over the place but it hasn't been that much of an issue. I went to boarding school (in Geraldton) and left home when I was 12, so I'm used to living in different places. Seth will end up going back to the US when everything is sorted out. So I'll be doing a lot of travelling."
Chick does not want to go into details but it is believed he did not consider fighting to keep his son in Australia. Kimberley was keen to return home to be near her family and Chick appears to have put his son's stability first.
And there is no suggestion that Chick plans to give the game away - after all, it has been his refuge and he hopes to have a new two-year contract completed by September.
"I want to be part of the success that may come and they know that," he said. "In football terms, it's been the quickest year of my AFL career. It's good to be winning and feel like you're contributing. I had a few injury issues the first two years here and I think I tried too hard to come back quickly a few times. I felt bad I wasn't living up to the promise."
In fact, Chick hurt his shoulder so badly in 2003 that for several weeks he was unable to lift up his arm.
Having already had a finger amputated, he eventually had a bone in his AC joint removed late in the 2003 season because it had become so damaged. A collision with Jonathan Brown early last year meant a slow start to 2004 with a quad injury but Chick's improvement has been steady ever since.
"I pretty much knew straight out John (Worsfold) would be a career coach," said Chick. "He just commands respect, never raises his voice and his methods can be a little weird but they seem to work for us."
Chick's decision to return home at the end of 2002 was attributed at the time to family issues. The couple were starting a family and Kimberley wanted family close at hand. And then shortly before the grand final that year, Daniel's older brother Justin died on the family farm after an allergic reaction. That changed everything. Now the farm has been sold and Chick's father lives in Geraldton and his mother in Perth.
Chick admitted football has been an escape for him several times in recent years. Hawthorn president Ian Dicker and several of Chick's teammates attended the funeral and shortly afterwards, the club agreed to trade him to West Coast for pick No. 8 (Luke Brennan) in the national draft.
Chick almost had left the Hawks for West Coast two years earlier to play under his first senior coach Ken Judge, who had recruited him to the Hawks as a 19-year-old at the end of 1995. That aborted move came at the end of Peter Schwab's first season and Chick changed his mind at the last minute, shortly after the Kangaroos had put Hawthorn out of the finals.
Now Chick says there were other reasons for his departure from Hawthorn. "I wasn't happy with some of the directions the club was moving. I can't really put my finger on it but there was a void after Chris Connolly left," he explained. "Not taking anything away from Peter Schwab, but I didn't feel I could get on any further. And David Parkin was not being utilised properly. I felt he had a lot to offer and yet he wasn't given the freedom or the direction to do those things. I'd always wanted to play football in WA and I'd played 15 games (149 in fact) and I thought that was good service."
Connolly's Fremantle had also been interested in Chick but had become distracted by the complicated Des Headland trade deal.
"We stay in contact," said Connolly. "We're very supportive of each other. Daniel's a good person. He's not the sort of bloke who'll go out to the pub and drink and get in a fight but he is so tough at the ball and he's built himself into that."
Connolly recalls Chick refusing to have his hand X-rayed towards the end of a season at Hawthorn, concerned at what the club might find with the finals approaching.
Like most Chick fans, Parkin pointed to the 29-year-old's versatility. He is enjoying his best season at West Coast playing largely in defence and often on the best forward. His celebrated tussles over the years range from Anthony Koutoufides, to Michael Voss, Matthew Pavlich and Mark Williams.
"I was more interested in Daniel as a person," said Parkin. "I was seeing a lot of him around the time of the death of his brother and I remember him having to make the decision over the loss of his finger, which I think in the end proved the right decision."
The pain and swelling from a chronic injury to the ring finger on his left hand led Chick to have the finger amputated in 2002. Months earlier, the man who was about to become his brother-in-law, Kimberley's sister's fiance, was killed at the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11.
Executive and staff at Hawthorn and West Coast say Chick has never dwelt publicly on the misfortunes and tragedies that have befallen him. They say that at training and on the football field, he is one of the AFL's most vocal and determined leaders and off it, he is the silent type.
Football for Chick is the place where he regains control and, as the Eagles head towards September, a home away from the home he has lost more than once.
Here's an edit from Caroline Wilson story on Aug 3
For Daniel Chick, it has been the best and worst of years. Chick has spent 2005 living a gypsy-like existence following the break-up of his marriage to Kimberley, the American woman he met on a beach in Hawaii on a post-season trip in 1998 and whom he married a year later.
Chick moved in with his teammate and captain Ben Cousins shortly before the start of the season and now lives with his sister. While he has regular access to his son Seth, he knows his beloved three-year-old will soon relocate to the east coast of the US with his mother. "It's been a pretty tough time, actually," said Chick
"Footy's been an escape, somewhere enjoyable for me to go. It's where I have the only two hours of peace I get during the week. I've spent most of the year living like a gypsy.
"I spent a few months with Cuz (Cousins) and a few months at my sister's. I've been a bit all over the place but it hasn't been that much of an issue. I went to boarding school (in Geraldton) and left home when I was 12, so I'm used to living in different places. Seth will end up going back to the US when everything is sorted out. So I'll be doing a lot of travelling."
Chick does not want to go into details but it is believed he did not consider fighting to keep his son in Australia. Kimberley was keen to return home to be near her family and Chick appears to have put his son's stability first.
And there is no suggestion that Chick plans to give the game away - after all, it has been his refuge and he hopes to have a new two-year contract completed by September.
"I want to be part of the success that may come and they know that," he said. "In football terms, it's been the quickest year of my AFL career. It's good to be winning and feel like you're contributing. I had a few injury issues the first two years here and I think I tried too hard to come back quickly a few times. I felt bad I wasn't living up to the promise."
In fact, Chick hurt his shoulder so badly in 2003 that for several weeks he was unable to lift up his arm.
Having already had a finger amputated, he eventually had a bone in his AC joint removed late in the 2003 season because it had become so damaged. A collision with Jonathan Brown early last year meant a slow start to 2004 with a quad injury but Chick's improvement has been steady ever since.
"I pretty much knew straight out John (Worsfold) would be a career coach," said Chick. "He just commands respect, never raises his voice and his methods can be a little weird but they seem to work for us."
Chick's decision to return home at the end of 2002 was attributed at the time to family issues. The couple were starting a family and Kimberley wanted family close at hand. And then shortly before the grand final that year, Daniel's older brother Justin died on the family farm after an allergic reaction. That changed everything. Now the farm has been sold and Chick's father lives in Geraldton and his mother in Perth.
Chick admitted football has been an escape for him several times in recent years. Hawthorn president Ian Dicker and several of Chick's teammates attended the funeral and shortly afterwards, the club agreed to trade him to West Coast for pick No. 8 (Luke Brennan) in the national draft.
Chick almost had left the Hawks for West Coast two years earlier to play under his first senior coach Ken Judge, who had recruited him to the Hawks as a 19-year-old at the end of 1995. That aborted move came at the end of Peter Schwab's first season and Chick changed his mind at the last minute, shortly after the Kangaroos had put Hawthorn out of the finals.
Now Chick says there were other reasons for his departure from Hawthorn. "I wasn't happy with some of the directions the club was moving. I can't really put my finger on it but there was a void after Chris Connolly left," he explained. "Not taking anything away from Peter Schwab, but I didn't feel I could get on any further. And David Parkin was not being utilised properly. I felt he had a lot to offer and yet he wasn't given the freedom or the direction to do those things. I'd always wanted to play football in WA and I'd played 15 games (149 in fact) and I thought that was good service."
Connolly's Fremantle had also been interested in Chick but had become distracted by the complicated Des Headland trade deal.
"We stay in contact," said Connolly. "We're very supportive of each other. Daniel's a good person. He's not the sort of bloke who'll go out to the pub and drink and get in a fight but he is so tough at the ball and he's built himself into that."
Connolly recalls Chick refusing to have his hand X-rayed towards the end of a season at Hawthorn, concerned at what the club might find with the finals approaching.
Like most Chick fans, Parkin pointed to the 29-year-old's versatility. He is enjoying his best season at West Coast playing largely in defence and often on the best forward. His celebrated tussles over the years range from Anthony Koutoufides, to Michael Voss, Matthew Pavlich and Mark Williams.
"I was more interested in Daniel as a person," said Parkin. "I was seeing a lot of him around the time of the death of his brother and I remember him having to make the decision over the loss of his finger, which I think in the end proved the right decision."
The pain and swelling from a chronic injury to the ring finger on his left hand led Chick to have the finger amputated in 2002. Months earlier, the man who was about to become his brother-in-law, Kimberley's sister's fiance, was killed at the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11.
Executive and staff at Hawthorn and West Coast say Chick has never dwelt publicly on the misfortunes and tragedies that have befallen him. They say that at training and on the football field, he is one of the AFL's most vocal and determined leaders and off it, he is the silent type.
Football for Chick is the place where he regains control and, as the Eagles head towards September, a home away from the home he has lost more than once.
