Josh Begley completes transformation from suburban footballer to landing on an AFL list

IT WAS about this time last year Josh Begley first came on the radar of the Eastern Ranges be he now finds himself on an AFL list.

Josh Begley takes a mark for Eastern Ranges during the year. Picture: Brendan Francis

IT WAS about this time last year Josh Begley first cropped up on the radar of the Eastern Ranges.

Twelve months down the track and the explosive forward/midfielder has gone from playing Division 3 football for Upper Ferntree Gully in the Eastern Football League at the start of the year to an AFL list.

Little did the laid back 18-year-old think he would be in this position at the start of the season.

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“It has been a whirlwind, it has all happened pretty quickly ... it is a dream come true,” Begley said.

Begley proved to be one of the success stories of last month’s AFL draft when Essendon snapped him up with pick 31.

After initially being overlooked by the Ranges, he averaged 17 touches and nearly two goals a game in 15 TAC Cup outings.

Josh Begley has gone from playing suburban football for Upper Ferntree Gully to Essendon.

He was invited to the Ranges after booting 13 goals in the first two games for Upper Gully then proceeded to boot 16 majors in his first four appearances for the Ranges.

After tipping the scales at 105kg in April, Begley, who has been likened to Melbourne’s Christian Petracca and Port Adelaide’s Ollie Wines, has completed a remarkable transformation to now weigh 94kg.

“The people down at Eastern really encouraged me and really stepped me through the process,” he said.

“They changed my diet and put me through a running program and that really helped me to shred off the weight.”

He is eyeing a role as a third forward and contested midfielder in 2017, with the Bombers keen for him to drop a couple more kilos over the pre-season.

Ranges talent manager Len Villani said Begley had “massive upside” at the elite level.

“Never having done a (TAC Cup) pre-season and being able to produce what he did in terms of his numbers, he has natural endurance and ability to cover the ground,” Villani said.

“Once they can get him a bit harder in terms of his body in a full-time environment, I think he is going to be a very, very dynamic player.

“He’ll be very powerful and hard to match up on, he has a super penetrating kick.”