James Begley article in The Age

bluecrow

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Hi everyone,

There was a really good article about Begs in Saturday's Age. (And a nice pic, girls ;)). It's nice to see he doesn't sound like your typical airhead footballer! :)

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Begley at peace with family and familiar faces
April 17, 2004

Shaken by the death of a friend in Bali, James Begley left St Kilda and returned to his home town, Adelaide. It's a decision he has not regretted. Emma Quayle reports.

James Begley really did go home. When he left St Kilda for Adelaide a little over a year ago, Begley went back to his home town, bought a unit not far from his parents' place, and moved in with an old friend.

"It's a little bit weird. I actually live on the same street as the high school I went to, where my mum now teaches, and I went to school with the guy I live with," Begley said.

"I don't know if I've regressed into my childhood, or what. It's a bit small-town syndrome, I suppose, but it's actually been kind of nice."

Begley did not need the Saints to release him at the end of 2002 and as it turned out, they did not grant him any tangible favours.

The simple story is that when the 23-year-old left Moorabbin, he was an uncontracted and delisted player who had played 36 games in four seasons and was nursing a recently reconstructed shoulder.

The No. 22 selection in 1998, Begley was picked up by Adelaide late in the national draft.

But in this case, the simple story does not say much. Begley had just come back from an end-of-season trip to Bali and had his shoulder rebuilt when he had lunch with Josh Deegan.

He was the kid who lived a couple of hundred metres up the road, who he went to school with every day and with whom he could do "the most boring and the most mundane things, but the things that are really normal and everyday and sum up what your life is".

Josh was off to the airport that day for his own Bali holiday. "We had a beer and some lunch," Begley said, "and I was telling him how good it was all going to be."

Then the bomb went off. Josh never came home and, as absorbed as he was in his and everyone else's grief, Begley quickly understood his own life had been forever altered by this "weird, terrible, bizarre thing that happened".

At first he did not avoid football, because to do that would have taken effort. But then, one morning, Begley woke to the sudden thought that he could not go back to Melbourne, that he did not even want to.

He was an only child who did not want his parents to miss out on any more of his life - what if something happened to them, or to him? - and he wanted to be there for his friends, and Josh's family.

But more than that, it was the sort of instinctive feeling he could not beat back with logic. "My mum and I spoke about it at length. We talked about it for two days and in the end she told me to sleep on it one last time and then decide," Begley said.

"I woke up and I knew I couldn't go back. If there had been more time, it might have been different. If there were three months to make the decision, I might have gone back and that's something I'll never know if I can achieve, going back to Melbourne and being able to be happy. But at the time it was just a real gut instinct. I just knew."

And that was where the Saints came in. Begley was hardly the sort of player Grant Thomas was looking to lose as he began constructing the young team that today sits on top of the ladder. He had been injured, often, but he was tall, fast and flexible, and everyone knew he had talent. "If Begs wanted to be here, he'd still be here and he'd be an integral part of our team," Thomas said.

"He had the physical attributes, the football nous and ability. He was that sort of running defender or wingman you can never have enough of, and very definitely he had the character and integrity we're trying to make happen here."

There are times, though, when trying too hard to talk a person around is to let them down. That Begley had no contract meant the Saints were stuck when they could not work a trade; Thomas made sure Begley knew how badly the club wanted him back, but only pushed the point so far. "There are times it just isn't worth it, for either party," he said.

"Guys get homesick and they want to go home. But it was more a matter of the way Begs conducted himself that allowed us to understand how sincere and how honest he was about it. I don't think football has to be entirely without compassion."

It took more than three months, until the start of pre-season games last year, before Begley felt he was reconnecting with football, and could make the 45-minute drive home without breaking down.

But he was satisfied with his first year back home, is confident he can more sharply pierce the settled Adelaide line-up this year, and looks forward to sharing his 50th game today with players and a team he grew up with.

One part of Begley sometimes struggles with the thought that he lived through "all the crap stuff" at St Kilda, only to leave a team he knew would get things together. But it's only a small part.

"To be honest, I look at them now and I am so happy for them. I really can say that, because my life here is so different and I'm so incredibly happy right now," Begley said.

"If thought deep down that I'd made the wrong choice, then there would be some element of looking at them and thinking, 'I'm missing out on that; that should be me.'

"But I haven't had to do that. I've absolutely made the right decision and I'm really glad, because it allows me to enjoy their success."
 

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#3
Originally posted by bluecrow
Hi everyone,

Begley at peace with family and familiar faces
April 17, 2004


And that was where the Saints came in. Begley was hardly the sort of player Grant Thomas was looking to lose as he began constructing the young team that today sits on top of the ladder. He had been injured, often, but he was tall, fast and flexible, and everyone knew he had talent. "If Begs wanted to be here, he'd still be here and he'd be an integral part of our team," Thomas said.

"He had the physical attributes, the football nous and ability. He was that sort of running defender or wingman you can never have enough of, and very definitely he had the character and integrity we're trying to make happen here."
Another supporting reason why Begley will be a part of the Crows team for a while yet.
I acn't understand why he is so maligned by some parties.?
 

Stiffy_18

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#4
Re: Re: James Begley article in The Age

Originally posted by Wayne's-World
Another supporting reason why Begley will be a part of the Crows team for a while yet.
I acn't understand why he is so maligned by some parties.?
Spot on.

I really don't understand why Begs cops a fair bit of unwarranted you know what on this board.

He has been doing a fantastic job on small forwards for the last couple of weeks.
 

Stiffy_18

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#7
Originally posted by dyertribe
Back in the day didn't Blight once pencil in him as a future captain of St. Kilda?
Blighty certainly rated him.

I think his 4 years with St. Kilda was ruined by persistent shoulder injuries. I think he had a couple of reconstructions. By his own admission he only missed 6 gmaes of footy through injury in the last 2-3 years and that was last year with a ruptured thumb.
 
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