The contrasting sporting journeys of former cricket prodigy Brent Daniels and GWS’ first captain Alex Carey
Brent Daniels was once a promising wicketkeeper and Alex Carey a top junior football talent. Nine years after Carey led GWS Giants in the TAC Cup, the Aussie gloveman reflects on his time with the grand finalist and what might have been.
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Alex Carey can still remember the searing pain that engulfed him when he was cut from the GWS Giants, but claims it helped make him into the man who is poised to become Australia’s next Test wicketkeeper.
Carey was the very first captain and best-and-fairest winner at the GWS football club when they played their inaugural year as a team in the TAC Cup competition in 2010, only to be brutally cut by Kevin Sheedy two years later on the eve of the Giants’ entry to the AFL.
At 20 years of age, the talented sportsman returned to South Australia heartbroken that he might come up with nothing having abandoned a promising cricketing career for a failed shot at football.
But just like Jeremy Cameron and the host of Giants grand final stars he used to call teammates, Carey went onto make the big time, with his journey to the lofty heights of dominating at a cricket World Cup surely one of the most extraordinary in Australian sport.
Carey will be cheering on his former club on Saturday, adamant the rollercoaster he went on with GWS formed his character as a cricketer.
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“It was something that was taken away pretty quickly and at the age of 20 I was lucky to go home to a supportive family and friends and find my feet there. But it was devastating,” Carey told The Daily Telegraph.
“I put all the work in and unfortunately it didn’t work out. With a lot of high draft picks and some mature age picks they put into the club, that just saw me down the bottom of the list and that was it.
“It was definitely very hard to swallow at the time but I still say that’s held me in good stead where I am today.
“The roller coaster ride it has been, it’s something I’ve learnt a lot about myself and sport is something I’m very grateful for. Cricket is something I love it and I’m trying to get the most out of myself because (I know from experience) it can all end pretty quickly.”
One of the ironies of the Giants’ finals surge this year is that a bizarro version of Carey has emerged.
Like Carey was the Giant who became a wicketkeeper, small forward Brent Daniels is the gloveman who became a GWS star.
Daniels was an under-15s wicketkeeper for Victoria, who was still in the mix to play for his state aged 19 when he played alongside the likes of Will Pucovski and Will Sutherland.
He used to watch the Big Bash and wonder what might have been, but not now.
“I did but now I’m thinking I’d rather play in the AFL grand final,” said Daniels.
“I was a bit of a wicketkeeper-batsman. I was a left hander and played pretty aggressively and used to open up in the one dayers.
“But I’m stoked with the decision I made and I couldn’t be happier.”
So are the Giants, after Daniels — the second shortest player in the AFL — kicked the stunning matchwinner against Brisbane in the semi-final and a critical goal against Collingwood in the prelim.
Carey — best mates with former Giant and now Essendon star Dylan Shiel — knows from experience that the Giants came into the AFL with nothing and there’s nothing like a self-made sporting fairytale.
“We did it pretty tough in terms of the facilities we were rocking up to and moving out of home at a young age,” said Carey.
“Some of the facilities weren’t at the level every other AFL club had at the time, but you learn to get on with it and make the best of those situations.
“No doubt the club is relishing because of that and guys like Jezza (Cameron) as well.”
Originally published as The contrasting sporting journeys of former cricket prodigy Brent Daniels and GWS’ first captain Alex Carey
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