Selected with the club’s second pick (29 overall) in the 2008 AFL draft, Dayne Beams surpassed first-year expectations with the 19-year-old contributing 18 senior games including two finals matches.
While much of the talk revolved around the youngster’s tattoos before the season commenced, chatter soon turned quickly to his on-field ability.
He burst on the scene with 18-possessions, six tackles and one goal in the win over Melbourne in round two and played the following five out of six matches before taking a brief spell in the VFL to finally see out the rest of the year in the seniors.
He averaged 17.7 disposals at the AFL level and used the ball with 76.7% efficiency. Nominated for the AFL Rising Star award in round 17, the Gold Coast-native has signed on as a Magpie until 2012 causing many supporters to invest in number 17 on the back of their guernsey.
2009 highlights
Round 17 v Carlton: Beams racked up 21-possessions and two goals in a strong win over Carlton in front of a packed MCG. He took eight marks including a contested grab in the final minutes of the fourth quarter to set up his second goal for the game.
Round 20 v Richmond: It only took 14 games to hit the 30-possession mark as Beams used the ball with 80% efficiency. He polled two Brownlow votes in the match, the first in his young career.
Mark Neeld: He had a very good first-up season. He played about 20 games through the midfield and across half-forward. He won our best first-year player award, so that indicates that we were very pleased with Dayne's season. He was very consistent in terms of his ball-winning ability when he played. The recruiting staff weren't surprised by his performances. They thought he could come in and have an effect and they were proven correct.
2009 AFL statistics
| G | K | H | D | M | G | B | T | C |
| 18 | 7.9/66.4% | 9.7/85.1% | 17.7 | 4.7 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 1.6 |
2009 VFL statistics
| G | K | H | D | M | T |
| 3 | 11.7 | 11.7 | 23.3 | 4.3 | 8 |
CTV
