WHY PIE LEFT COAST
DAYNE Beams has revealed how an offer of an extra season at AFL level prompted him to snub the Gold Coast Suns and join Collingwood.
Beams was born in Yarrawonga, but raised on the Gold Coast where football always loomed large. His connection with his father was strong, with much of it revolving around a shared love of the game.
“When (his parents) divorced you go through ‘who gets the kids’, but what I do remember is always wanting to be with my dad,” Beams told the Sacked podcast.
“A lot of my problems that have arisen over the last three or four years on reflection have come from the amount of time I wanted to be with dad, and I guess the emotional deprivation around that.
“It got to the stage where when I started high school, mum said: ‘You can go and live with your dad’. I didn’t realise how much I aligned footy with my dad until he was gone (in early 2018).”
Beams showed enough talent as a young player at Southport that the newly-created Suns offered him a three-year deal as they were moving from the TAC Cup to the VFL and ultimately the AFL.
“The contract was for three years, but that really only meant one guaranteed year in the AFL,” he said.
Interest from Collingwood – and its recruiting manager Derek Hine – promised two years in the AFL system.
“Derek ended up guaranteeing me that they would take me with one of their first two picks, that was when my decision was made,” he said. The Magpies chose Steele Sidebottom as pick 11 in the 2008 national draft and took Beams with pick 29.