Mark Baguley during a training session earlier this week. Credit:Pat Scala "It's a 10-hour boat trip," he says of the sojourn that involved other Bombers in Patrick Ambrose, Ariel Steinberg, Jason Ashby and former teammate Hal Hunter, the photographic results of which were as impressive as has been his football. "I'm not very good but I have a bit of a bash. The waves can get big and they break over coral reefs, so if you come off and hit the bottom it cuts you up pretty quickly. I got a couple of grazes on my feet and back. Ariel knocked his front tooth on a surfboard." In fact, Baguley came to far more grief when he returned for pre-season training, breaking the metacarpal bone in his left hand going for a contested mark. Left to heal on its own, the injury would mean a six-week layoff. That was never an option for Baguley when surgery meant he could be back in two. "I just got a ball on the end of my fingers, it's happened 100 times before, but then half an hour later it started really throbbing and I thought, 'This isn't your regular jarred finger'," he says. "I got operated on the next day, they put a couple of screws in it and a plate over the top. I'll be back training a week from now and I can still keep running and my fitness up in the meantime."

Teammates would expect no less of the 27-year-old given he's hardly missed a beat since his senior debut midway through 2012 against Port Adelaide. Essendon's elimination final defeat at the hands of North Melbourne was his 50th game from a possible 53 appearances since then. It's a far cry from the 16-year-old kid whose heart, he freely admits, wasn't really in it when he tried out for the Dandenong Stingrays in the elite TAC under 18 competition. "I got injured during the trial matches, got cut, and never got a call back after that," he recalls. "At that stage, I didn't really have my heart set on playing AFL. I was just playing for the fun of it and to play with friends." Baguley was more than happy to return to his junior club at Langwarrin, where he ended up playing seniors for four years. After a call from his old sports teacher, former St Kilda and Hawthorn player and Frankston stalwart Robert Mace, he headed to the Dolphins, suddenly finding he could match it with AFL-listed players Having left school at the end of year 11, Baguley did an apprenticeship and for eight years was a plumber. It's a point not lost on the likes of Egan when talk turns to Baguley's late blooming.

"I was drafted at 21," says Egan, the former Geelong defender. "But I've got friends [from the Cattery] who have never had a job in their lives. I think having a job like he did gives you an understanding of the real world. It gives you perspective and an understanding of how lucky you are to be playing AFL footy." It still isn't lost on Baguley. Has he surprised himself with his progress? "To a certain extent. I think I've just adapted to the conditions around me. When I first got to Essendon, I was so far off getting a game you wouldn't believe it, just the fitness levels and the way they read the game, you're not used to that coming from local football. It probably took me half a year just to get used to the professionalism." Asked about the courage that won him an award this year, Baguley is suitably modest. "It's not something you think about. It's not like you go, 'OK, now I'm going to do something really courageous'. You just see the ball and you go for it." He wants to keep improving on other facets. "I want to try to take the game on more and back myself, which probably sometimes I don't. And probably being a bit more vocal out there and more demanding of my teammates. I have been a bit of a shy guy around the club." But never underestimated. Egan recalls a crucial game late this season with Essendon leading West Coast by a couple of points in the dying seconds, the ball heading into the Eagles' attack, and Baguley one-out against West Coast key forward Jack Darling, 10 centimetres taller and 10 kilograms heavier.

"I remember in the box, everyone's yelling, 'We've got to make a move'," Egan recalls. "I just said, 'He'll be right, he'll be right.' And he was. He just nudged Darling under the ball and took the mark." No fuss and plenty of work ethic, that is Baguley. Whether making sure a critical win is secured, putting in another monster session on the training track or tackling another monster wave at a remote surfing spot with a jagged coral reef lurking ominously below.