Colm Begley is set to remain in Aussie Rules after being offered a contract by St. Kilda. The 2003 Laois All-Ireland winning minor, who played in the recent International Rules series, was released by the Brisbane Lions at the end of last year and had been training with Martin Clarke's Collingwood for the last month. It has been expected that the Magpies would move for the Stradbally man, but instead it was another Melbourne club, St. Kilda, who stepped in. The club has revealed that it sent scouts to the Lexus Centre to judge the 22-year-old's form and were sufficiently impressed to offer him an opportunity to break into their defence. "He provides us with some pace at half back or in the midfield with 29 games of AFL experience at 22 years of age," said St. Kilda's recruiting manager John Peake. "He is pretty much ready to go if he performs. When we interviewed him, he was really impressive. "We've kept a close eye on him and from our point of view it is on a needs basis, plus the fact that he has got some development opportunities at his age. "We watched him train a few times (at Collingwood) and we know he has some injuries this year, but that happens, so we think he can certainly add to the St. Kilda Football Club." Tweet

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