Glenelg’s Darcy Bailey reveals how close he was to walking away from the SANFL
Battered from pillar to post, Glenelg’s Darcy Bailey nearly walked away from SANFL football. Now he is preparing to play in a second semi-final.
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Darcy Bailey has had more than his fair share of hard knocks.
And eventually the heavy hits — physically and mentally — took such a toll that he considered walking away from the SANFL.
Having already been rocked by the death of his dad, highly-respected former player and coach Dean, in 2014, Darcy had spent the best part of two years out of Glenelg’s league team rehabilitating two serious ankle injuries when he took an in-season call from former Tigers teammate Clint Alleway asking if he wanted to join him at Great Southern Football League club Victor Harbor.
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“At that point I 100 per cent considered walking away from the SANFL and heading down south,’’ Bailey said as he prepares for his first SANFL league final against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
“I was coming back from a long injury lay-off in 2017 and there was a couple of weeks where Glenelg’s reserves had no game because we were playing the Crows and then had the bye.
“So I had nowhere to play and I wasn’t really involved with the league side because of my injuries, so I lost motivation, my passion for the game.
“Clint’s a good friend of mine and was coaching Victor Harbor and asked me to play there.
“I was close to doing it when I spoke to a few people close to me and they said if I was to walk away from the SANFL at that point I might it never go back and could regret it.
“So I stuck at it, kept putting my best foot forward, and now to be in this position, to be playing in a second semi-final with a bunch of my best mates, it’s amazing how things have turned out and I am very grateful.’’
At age 25, 177cm small forward Bailey has enjoyed a career-best season as the Tigers made the finals for the first time since 2011, finishing minor premier.
Every other SANFL club has played finals since Glenelg, chasing its first flag since 1986, last featured in September.
Bailey, who debuted in 2013 — “Dad got to watch me play my first game, which was really good,’’ he said — played his 50th match in round 17 against West Adelaide and booted a team-best three goals in the last minor round series against Sturt.
A first-year relief schoolteacher who spent this week at Henley High, he has played a career-high 14 games this season, kicking 17 goals, and played a crucial role — offensively and defensively — in tactically-astute, second-year coach Mark Stone’s attack.
“It’s been a long journey for me and the team to get to this point, a lot of ups and downs, and it’s a huge thrill for us all to be a part of it because usually at this time of the year we’re out doing other stuff,’’ said Bailey, a bubbly personality who is popular with his teammates.
“There have been times in the past seven years where we've been the laughing stock of the competition and the club’s struggled just to stay alive.
“But a lot of people have done a lot of great work for us to get to this point and having gone through a lot of adversity, we know that you don’t just get given finals and we’re locked in on making the most of the opportunity.’’
Bailey, who was born in South Australia when his dad played at Glenelg, spent much of his childhood in different states because of Dean’s coaching career.
Dean, who played at Essendon prior to joining the Tigers, where he was club champion in 1995, was an assistant coach at the Bombers, Port Adelaide and Adelaide while he was senior coach of Melbourne from 2008-11, before dying of cancer five years ago.
Darcy said his dad had been a “huge’’ influence on his career.
“I spent a lot of time at the Essendon footy club growing up and have fond memories of playing cricket in the changerooms with greats like Kevin Sheedy, Dustin Fletcher, Terry Daniher and Mark Harvey,’’ he said.
“I can’t remember too much of dad’s playing career but I was watching a YouTube clip of him the other day and noticed that we do have the same running action, the Bailey shuffle as my mates call it.
“He taught me a lot about the game, the tactics behind it — I used to sit with him while he coded games on his laptop — and he’d always tell me that having the ball in my hands is a good result for the team, which is something I often remind myself about.’’
The home coaches box at Glenelg Oval is named after Dean as a tribute to him.