INTERNATIONAL RULES: COLM BEGLEY'S Australian Rules career has been thrown a lifeline by St Kilda, who picked up the former All-Ireland-winning Laois minor in Saturday's AFL draft.

Begley was delisted by Brisbane at the end of last season and has been training with Collingwood for the last month. It has been expected the Magpies would move for the Stradbally man but instead it was another Melbourne club, St Kilda, that stepped in.

The club has revealed 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's played 30-odd AFL games and he is ready to go," said St Kilda's recruiting manager John Peake.