By Peter Ryan
Teenage phenomenon Harley Reid leads the competition for broken tackles after his brutal performance against Melbourne on Sunday night.
Only Sydney star Chad Warner comes close to matching the 19-year-old West Coast Eagle on the broken tackles metric with Reid having broken 29 tackles this season (average 3.22 per game) compared to Warner’s 25.
The next three players on the table (North Melbourne’s Luke Davies-Uniacke, Hawthorn’s Jai Newcombe and James Worpel) have broken 15 tackles apiece.
Reid has played one fewer game than that quartet this season. Hell, he’s played just nine games overall. Warner has played 70 matches.
Among those closer to his age and influence, Port Adelaide’s Jason Horne-Francis has broken 11 tackles while Collingwood matchwinner Nick Daicos – who plays with a surgical precision rather than brute strength – has broken nine tackles.
If you wonder how his effort compares to his football idol Dusty Martin when the Tiger exploded into form in 2017. Martin broke 68 tackles in the 22 home and away rounds that season (average 3.09 per game).
The fading brilliance of Martin is obvious. When it comes to tackles broken, he has seven this season, sitting him at 44th in the competition.
The fend-off was just one in a series of show-stopping moments created by last year’s No.1 draft pick as Waalitj Marawar (West Coast) managed an upset victory over Narrm (Melbourne) on Sunday night.
Reid kicked the goal of the year just 17 minutes into the first quarter when he grabbed the ball at a centre clearance and exploded away from Melbourne champion Christian Petracca. He ran past the centre circle as Petracca took off after him. Reid had one bounce, then a second, then a third as he flew past the 50-metre line. He then kicked the ball on the run and watched it sail through the goals before turning to the crowd in excitement.
The piece of play was a 2024 mash-up of Chris Judd, Anthony Koutoufides, Patrick Dangerfield, Martin and Nic Naitanui; a jaw-dropping moment that even had his hardened premiership coach Adam Simpson grinning in disbelief in the coaches box.
“It was pretty good. I knew it was going to blow up social media,” Simpson said.
“He was really important for us tonight. He’s carrying a heavy weight at the moment. I’m trying to be cautious about how much attention he gets but when he plays like that (it’s hard).
“He just looked like he had fun tonight and that’s our goal for him is to enjoy being an AFL player.”
When Reid enters the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 20 years (yes that is ridiculous but not as ridiculous as it should be) the goal will be the first piece of footage shown.
But Reid wasn’t finished producing two more memorable pieces of play in the third quarter that led to goals.
The first was hard to fathom as he tried to get clear at a centre clearance but found Clayton Oliver in his way. He gave him a “don’t-argue” then bounced forward to see Petracca’s outstretched arms closing in on him.
To Petracca’s shock, Reid fended him off too, then ran in four different directions like a brawler looking for the next challenger before kicking the ball inside 50 metres, grabbing the rebound and then finding Jack Darling who goaled.
In four seconds he had broken two tackles and started a scoring chain.
Melbourne superstar Christian Petracca learns you don’t argue with Harley Reid.Credit: AFL Photos
“It’s just part of my game. I am just doing what I need to do for the team. When we all do our part we can win,” Reid told Fox Footy post game.
That part of his game is not unprecedented, but it is rare in a player so young, the precocious talent searching for contact in a way few do.
Reid celebrates a goal on Sunday.Credit: AFL Photos
To top the game off, he kicked a vital goal with Waalitj Marawar holding a 12-point lead with less than 30 seconds remaining before the final break.
Reid turned promising Demons’ defender Blake Howes inside out as the ball reached the pair in space inside West Coast’s forward 50 metres. He ran towards goal before finishing the deal with a banana kick on the run. It may as well have been game over at that point as Reid clutched at his jumper and ran towards the adoring crowd.
“I couldn’t be any happier with the group we have got here now. It’s pretty exciting,” Reid said.
In just his ninth match, he finished with 21 disposals, 10 score involvements and two goals, having now kicked 14 for the season, but the numbers did not tell a fraction of the story about how he has elevated the Eagles from unwatchable to endlessly entertaining, particularly on their home deck.
His teammates think so too, with key forward Jake Waterman, who kicked five goals to join the top of the Coleman Medal leaderboard, full of admiration for the youngster.
“I love it when he comes running out of the middle,” Waterman told Fox Footy.
As does the crowd.
No wonder as Reid has been among the top 10 ball users in the competition in the past six weeks, according to Champion Data. He breaks tackles, then opposition hearts with his delivery.
Sadly, none of the action that happens in Perth will be available in Victoria on free-to-air TV for the rest of the season, meaning any highlights package of the tackle-breaking talent with an appetite for destruction will be in high demand.
That demand is obvious to Simpson, who is fighting a no-win battle to reduce the hype.
“Harley obviously is the new toy, but he’s pretty good to play with,” Simpson said.
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