Beams at home in Magpies midfield

Collingwood star Dayne Beams is a vital cog in the Magpies midfield. Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: Herald Sun

DAYNE Beams spent the 2011 Grand Final alone, dressed in club-issue suit and tie, in his own little corner of the dressing rooms beneath the MCG.

He could hear the roar of the crowd above and, intermittently, a scream or whoop or a few choice words from down the corridor where Anne Martin, a Collingwood staffer, was camped in front of another television watching the Magpies slug it out with Geelong.

"I didn't want to watch the game out in the stands so I watched it downstairs in the rooms, on the TV," Beams recalled this week.

"I wanted some time to myself and some peace and quiet without all of the people barracking around me. So I watched it down there.

"The only other person who was there was Anne, the lady who makes our lunches during the week. She usually watches the games down there because she goes a bit bananas. There are a few TVs down there. She was watching in another room and I could hear her yelling and screaming and then she'd come into me and vent a little bit, then she'd go back and watch it a little bit. It was a different atmosphere down there.

Dayne Beams at Collingwood training. Coach Nathan Buckley says he's expecting even better results from the midfielder next year. Picture: Wayne Ludbey. Source: Herald Sun

"I stayed down there until the end of the match, when all the boys came back into the room. You certainly felt for them. It was pretty tough to deal with in those initial few hours, while the reality of it all sank in."

That period was a rare trough in what until then had been a fairly blessed 59-game AFL career. Eight days earlier Beams had laboured through the Pies' thrilling three-point preliminary final win over Hawthorn, being subbed out at three-quarter time after managing just two handballs (which coach Mick Malthouse would describe after the match as "not flattering stats").

"I'd had a niggling groin injury that I'd been playing through, and playing OK," Beams said. "Well, we got to the prelim - and when you get to the finals the intensity cranks up another notch again - so my body just couldn't handle it. I couldn't get any power in my running."

As Grand Final week progressed it became clear that the groin complaint was not going to improve dramatically.

"I went to Mick after the main training session on the Wednesday and I just said, 'Look, I don't think I'm going to be right to play'. He thanked me for putting my hand up and being honest.

"It would have been easy for me to just try to bluff my way through. You don't want to do that on a big stage.

"It wasn't easy, but it was a decision purely based on the team, and in the end that made it an easy decision. The team and what you're trying to achieve as a group is what comes first."

Nevertheless, Beams ended the 2011 season at an early football crossroads. The Magpies knew he could really play, but were concerned about his commitment to being the best footballer he could be.

"I didn't apply myself as well as I could have in the first few years," Beams said. "Probably got caught up in the hype of being an AFL footballer.

Adam Oxley will join Collingwood best-and-fairest winner Dayne Beams (above) as another Queenslander at the club. Picture: Wayne Ludbey Source: Herald Sun

"It's a trap that a lot of young footballers get caught up in and I was no different."

The transition to the Nathan Buckley coaching era was an ideal time to reassess his career and Beams pledged to use Collingwood's two-week altitude camp as a launching pad to becoming fitter and more consistent, with an eye to spending more time in the midfield in 2012.

A key moment in realising that ambition came when Luke Ball went down with a season-ending knee injury in Round 3.

Midfield coach Robert Harvey said the Pies knew Beams had "always got a lot of the ball as a high forward and when he had spurts in the midfield", so they decided to push him into the centre square more regularly.

"It was just pure hard work and the time being right for him to step up and grab it," Harvey said.

 "He was really hungry and the opportunity presented itself. Then it was just more a matter of working on a few areas based around the stoppages."

Beams, who believes the small-forward role is arguably the hardest position to play, relished the chance to fill an on-ball slot.

"When you get drafted as a midfielder you don't necessarily expect to come to an AFL club and play in there straight away," he said.

"You expect to have to do your time, to learn from the blokes that are already in there.

"The first three years I was able to do that - and from three of the best in the business in Pendles (Scott Pendlebury), Bally (Luke Ball) and Swanny (Dane Swan) - and when the opportunity came it was up to me whether I grabbed it or not.

"I had to ask myself whether I could take the opportunity, play well and play well consistently, which has always been my problem. When you play well you get a bit of confidence, you start to roll with it and feel comfortable about your standing in the team.

"You feel like the team relies on you to produce consistently - they're not just hoping you play well.

"So in your own head you go out expecting to play well, not hoping to play well.

"But if Bally hadn't gone down I don't know whether I would have got anywhere near as much time in the middle. I certainly would have had more chances to pinch hit in there, but now I feel like I've become more of a mainstay in there."

In the remaining 22 matches of last season, Beams averaged 32 disposals a game, kicked 27 goals and polled 19 Brownlow Medal votes. It prompted Buckley to suggest at season's end that "the penny dropped", and that Beams had taken "massive strides in his attention to detail, his professionalism and his training standards".

Beams agreed: "Yeah, I guess it was all about taking my footy more seriously. I've matured as a person and been able to hang around with some good people in my life and learn a lot from them - learn what it takes to perform at a high level on a consistent basis."

That maturity made an impression on the playing group, and prompted captain Nick Maxwell to suggest Beams and Jarryd Blair should consider becoming involved in the leadership group.

"We went to all of the meetings over the last six or seven weeks of the season and it was something that I enjoyed," Beams said. "I'd never really seen myself as a leader around the club. I'd just hoped that what I did on the field led a bit by example. But I started to realise that my voice was something I needed to work on."

Over the summer Beams, 23, put his hand up for a formal role and was elevated to the four-man leadership group. He and Ball will be the team's deputy vice-captains behind Maxwell and Pendlebury.

"I wanted to build on where I got to last year, not become complacent," he said. "I've always thrived on a challenge.

"I wanted to become more of a leader around the club, because we've got a lot of good young players coming through and I could probably relate to those guys more than, say, a Maxy or Bally. I guess the young guys might not feel as comfortable approaching those really senior players, they might feel a bit intimidated."

Harvey believes both club and player will benefit. "Dayne wants success and he wants to be part of driving it. And he can, because the players respect him, the coaches respect him and we believe he can just keep delivering and keep getting better," he said.

"It's not easy, though; it's a relentless game and he'll have to overcome a quality midfielder each week. But the good part is that nothing really fazes him.

"Even when he was starting to get tagged last year his mindset never changed too much. I was really impressed with his mental strength, on how he could just concentrate on playing his game. That's a really good strength to have, to just keep chipping away.

"Now he's at the right age to take that step forward with his game, and I just think that in himself he is ready to do it."

Beams agrees: "I don't want to become complacent, I want to try to have an even better year."

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Beams at home in Magpies midfield

Dengan url

http://ganangandollar.blogspot.com/2013/03/beams-at-home-in-magpies-midfield.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Beams at home in Magpies midfield

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Beams at home in Magpies midfield

sebagai sumbernya