No.1 draft prospect Harley Reid ‘annoyed’ by reports he doesn’t want to be drafted by West Coast

The coach of likely No.1 draft pick Harley Reid has responded to reports the teenage prodigy has expressed a preference on which club he wants to play for next year.

Harley Reid in action for Vic Country at the under-18 national championships. Picture: Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Harley Reid’s coach says the No.1 draft prospect is annoyed by reports he’s reluctant to head to West Coast.

Bendigo Pioneers coach Danny O’Bree said on Thursday that Reid and his family were keen to set the record straight and make clear the emerging talent had no qualms about being drafted by West Coast, or any AFL club.

“That is what he has said in the past and I spoke to him yesterday and he said exactly the same thing,” O’Bree said of Reid.

“He is a bit annoyed. He said he has never talked about this to anyone and he has never said it. We don’t want the attention to keep going on. We just want to put this to bed and let him keep playing footy. That’s all he wants to do. Go out and have fun and play footy,” he told the Herald Sun.

“He is happy to go anywhere as long as he gets an opportunity to play footy. The comments (in the report) were that West Coast had been told (he didn’t want to play there). That is not just not true.

“He will thrive in any program he gets into. Interstate or Victoria. It wouldn’t matter with Harley. He is just a great kid and I am sure whatever program he gets into he will love.”

Harley Reid is being touted as the likely No.1 draft pick. Picture: Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The Coates League does not start up again until next weekend and Bendigo has a bye in that round, so there are options for Reid to play VFL again in coming weeks at either Essendon or Carlton.

O’Bree said Reid was determined not to squander his momentum in the final weeks of the season, still as keen as ever to prove he is the best kid in the land.

“I think (VFL is) an option. That is what discussions are going on at the moment. We will try to map out a plan for him. He is happy getting back to playing footy for the fun of it and continuing his improvement, we won’t stray off those plans. Hopefully it will lead into a strong back-end for the Pioneers so he can lead us into the wildcard series and we can go a step further.

“We have alignments with Carlton and Essendon. He had an experience with Essendon at the start of the year (through the pre-season), he loves it at Carlton. Whichever one gets chosen, as long as Harley is happy that is the only thing that matters.”

Reid finished the Under1-8 carnival for Vic Metro with a spectacular 11-clearance game but in a packed field rivals including Jed Walter, Nick Watson and Xavier Duursma also put their names up in lights.

Originally published as No.1 draft prospect Harley Reid ‘annoyed’ by reports he doesn’t want to be drafted by West Coast