AFL Draft 2023: Harley Reid’s journey from junior Tongala star to national TikTok sensation
He’s the freakishly-talented footballer whose highlights reels have been viewed by millions. But Harley Reid is just a laid-back small town kid who had a big dream — and the drive to achieve it.
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He doesn’t have a TikTok account, but Harley Reid is red hot on the social media platform.
Some highlights packages of the freakishly-talented footballer have racked up over a million views.
One young fan even posted a video of Reid picking up some groceries at his local Woolworths supermarket in January this year.
It was the moment that Reid realised he was quickly becoming famous.
“I saw the bloke videoing. It was a little kid,” Reid said.
“I looked up and started smiling. That was the moment. I was like, ‘Oh wow, he’s videoing me’.”
Reid doesn’t seek fame but knew it would come with being an AFL footballer — and that was the only career path he ever wanted to go down.
When he was playing for Tongala’s under-14s as a 12-year-old in 2016, club president Darren Moloney asked Reid a question about his future career ambitions.
“I had a conversation with him one day and he said he wanted to be an AFL footballer,” Moloney recalled.
“I said, ‘What’s the second choice?’ and he replied, ‘I haven’t got a second choice, I’m just going to be an AFL footballer’.
“I thought, ‘Geez, he’s driven’. Whenever you’d go down to the footy oval he was always there practising kicking goals or going for a run. He loves it.”
It wasn’t unusual for Reid to play up an age group throughout his juniors at the Murray Football League club in northern Victoria.
As a 14-year-old in 2019, Reid regularly doubled-up and played for both for the under-14s and under-17s teams on the same day.
He kicked 130 goals from 21 games in the under-14s, despite featuring through the midfield and resting on the bench for the last quarter most weeks.
“The majority of the games I’d only play three quarters and then have a rest in the last quarter and warm up to play with the thirds,” Reid said.
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In the under-17s that year, he kicked another 25 goals from 19 matches for a season total of 155 majors.
The local newspaper — the Riverine Herald — was already stating that Reid looked “to be the real deal with a big future” ahead of him.
As much as those around Reid tried to keep a lid on things, excitement was building in the tight-knit community.
JUST A SMALL TOWN BOY
A small dairy farming town, the 2021 Census showed Tongala’s population numbered just 1331 people.
Aside from dairy, the town’s most famous export has been Sir Doug Nicholls — the former Fitzroy footballer and Governor of South Australia who the AFL’s Indigenous round is named after.
Nicholls was born over the border in New South Wales, but first played senior football at Tongala before making his way to the VFL.
The Tongala Football Club is today accessed via Doug Nicholls Drive — and if Reid continues on his current trajectory he too could one day have part of the precinct named in his honour.
Former Melbourne and Carlton midfielder Brock McLean played three games of senior football with Reid over the past two years at Tongala.
He was left astonished by the teenager.
“The first game that I played with him last year you could just tell how much of a special talent he was,” McLean said.
“He’s probably going to go on and have a 15-year career if everything goes according to plan.”
McLean was playing in defence and was taking a kick-in during the last quarter of Reid’s ‘farewell’ game for Tongala in late July when he spotted the young star with his hand up.
“He just pointed up to the sky, almost like markers in the pack when you used to play as a kid and you’d say, ‘Just put it on this kid’s head’,” McLean said.
“I did and he just took an absolute hanger, which was probably the third that he took for the day.
“He was taking a piss in the end. I just remember at one point he ran down the ground, he took four or five bounces and he was fending off blokes and then he stepped inside to his right and snapped a ball on his right foot around the corner from about 40 metres out for a goal. Everyone just went ‘Wow’.”
The crowd at Echuca South Recreation Reserve for the match against Echuca United that day was a lot bigger than expected, after word spread that Reid had been cleared to play at late notice.
“There were kids holding up signs at the last game he played saying, ‘Harley, can I have your boots?’” McLean said.
“We wouldn’t have got a crowd like that if he wasn’t playing. That’s the type of drawcard that he is before he’s even stepped out onto an AFL footy field.”
IN GOOD COMPANY
It’s not just boots that Reid has been asked for this year.
He’s regularly found himself signing autographs — while attending games and even at airports.
“It’s very flat out now. It’s ramping up,” Reid said.
“I need to work on the signature.”
If he needs inspiration for the scribble, Reid need not look further than the book he took around a room at Marvel Stadium in September last year.
After starring for the Bendigo Pioneers and Vic Country as a bottom-age player to already be viewed as the No. 1 draft pick for 2023, Reid was awarded the AFL Life Members scholarship.
He made an acceptance speech on stage in front of a room filled with AFL greats — including the late Ron Barrassi, Kevin Sheedy, Des Tuddenham and David Parkin — before making his way around to collect some autographs.
“He was unfazed by it,” AFL talent ambassador Kevin Sheehan said of Reid’s encounter with the greats.
“Just the way he stood up and spoke in front of those guys was remarkable for a kid of 17 at the time.
“He went around talking to them all and absorbed all of that. He met most of the people in the room and he got them to sign his book.
“He certainly got those people on-board for his journey.”
AT ANOTHER LEVEL
Not many AFL draft prospects can say they had their own sponsors before the end of their bottom-age year — but Harley Reid can.
He inked a boots deal with Puma last year.
“I’m not a plain boots man,” Reid said.
“I’ve found that I’m a bright boots man. All through my juniors I’ve always worn bright colours so I think that’s going to stick with me.”
Leading into the 2022 national draft, one recruiter remarked that Reid would be “treading water” playing another season of underage football.
“He’s ready to be drafted now,” the recruiter said.
“There’s not much he can’t do.”
AFL rules stated that Reid had to wait another year, but his senior football appearance for Tongala was not his only game of 2023 where he played against men.
He was best-on-ground in an AFL Academy exhibition match against Port Adelaide’s SANFL side in April and starred in three VFL games with Carlton and Essendon.
After a 24-disposal, seven-mark and six-clearance showing for the Bombers in the VFL in August, Essendon senior coach Brad Scott declared that Reid was a “very complete player” and that “the hype is real”.
Reid has long drawn comparisons to Richmond superstar Dustin Martin — who similarly hailed from the Pioneers’ program.
Like Martin, he is an explosive forward-half player who wins clearances, kicks goals and has a strong fend-off that has become synonyms with his game.
“At one point this year he went the double-barrel,” Sheehan said.
“He pushed off one opponent with the left hand, changed the ball to the other hand and then pushed off another with the right and just passed two opponents. I don’t think we’ve ever seen that before. He just exudes confidence and that’s a great thing.
“You hope in time that people are travelling across town or around Australia just to watch him play. He’s an exciting player, a unique player and he has ticked every box along the way.”
STAYING GROUNDED
Reid grew up a Geelong supporter, but Tongala Football Club and its people have always been his biggest passion.
“They’re more excited than I am,” Reid said.
“I started playing Auskick there and I went through the ranks.
“It’s great to have such a small community who is very supportive of me and always have been for my whole footy journey.”
When he couldn’t play for Tongala this year but had a free Saturday, Reid ran the water or filled in as a runner delivering messages for the seniors.
“He just loves being around the footy club,” McLean said.
“You could just tell he was really connected to the club and his mates.
“We had a few chats and he’s a really good kid with a really good head on his shoulders.”
It hasn’t been easy being Harley Reid this year.
He played for six different teams — all while completing Year 12 studies at St Joseph’s College in Echuca — and has dealt with plenty of hype and speculation.
However, it has largely been water of a duck’s back for the laid-back country kid.
“I’ve got a great support network and people around me back home and they’ve kept me who I am,” Reid said.
“Something I value is to stay who you are and remember where you come from.
“A few years back when Nick Daicos was going through his draft year I thought, ‘Wow, that’s sick, imagine if that was me, I want that to be me one day’.
“It’s at a point now where it is me, but it doesn’t really feel like it is me. I just get on with my day-to-day life and try to think of ways that I can get better and reach that next level.”
THE BIG NIGHT
Reid will be at Marvel Stadium on Monday night for the national draft, which West Coast heads into holding the prized No. 1 pick.
However, the option for clubs to live trade selections means that Reid’s future home remains far from locked in.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty at the moment, but I’m just trying to enjoy the ride and soak it all up,” Reid said.
“At the end of the day it doesn’t bother me where I end up. It’s just a huge opportunity to get drafted, so you’d be mad to worry about where you go.”
Back home in Tongala on Monday, there will be another sizeable event taking place.
The football club is hosting a colour run, followed by a barbecue dinner and a live stream of the national draft.
“There will be people come from left, right and centre,” Moloney said.
“Wherever he goes — whether its pick 1 or 100 — it doesn’t matter. His dream was to play AFL footy as a 12-year-old. That’s all he ever wanted to do. Hopefully he realises his dream.”
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