Harley Balic takes the plunge for mental health awareness
Former AFL player Harley Balic admits he was “lost in the world” after losing his desire to play and walking away from league football. But the ex-Docker and Demon now has his life in order — and it started with a dip into the bay on a cold day.
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It was a miserable Monday morning, grey and cold and wet.
“It was pissing down,’’ Harley Balic remembered.
The former Fremantle and Melbourne AFL player did what most people would not do.
He walked to Mordialloc beach and went for a swim.
And it made him feel alive for the first time in a long time.
This was three or so months ago, and Balic later decided to do 30 dips in 30 days to raise awareness of mental health.
Every morning he would rise early and plunge into the water. Footage posted on his Facebook page brought encouragement; even strangers offered to jump in with him.
When he went away for a few days in northern Victoria he even took a dive into creeks and dams.
“It was a Monday, and with the way things are in the world at the moment and how grim everything is, I was pretty bored and I thought I’d just go across to the beach and clear my head,’’ Balic said.
“I took a towel and I was like, ‘Why not?’ I just loved the feeling. Then I went the next morning, and it cleared my mind again. It did make me feel happier, connecting with the ocean and being at the beach, my happy place.
“I feel like myself and it makes me feel alive. It doesn’t matter what the weather’s doing, if I’m jumping in every single day it makes me feel good. So I thought I’d dedicate myself to that (30 dips) out of respect of some things people are going through. Everyone’s got chaos in their lives but I’ve come to learn people make it a lot worse than what they should.’’
For some times Balic, 23, had been in an unhappy place, “wandering around, feeling pretty lost’’, especially since leaving the AFL.
Drafted from the Sandringham Dragons at pick No 38, he spent two years at Fremantle, playing four senior games.
Traded to Melbourne ahead of 2018, he left before the season was out, no longer having the desire to play big football.
Balic was grateful the Dockers drafted him, but he says now he wasn’t ready for it.
A wrist injury kept him on the sidelines in his first year in Perth. He felt isolated and had “a lot of times of weakness’’ and some “really bad moments of anxiety’’.
He would vomit before games and during training; he attributes it to the pressure he put on himself to do well. “I wanted to make my family proud, I wanted to make myself proud,’’ he said.
Dockers coach Ross Lyon was always in his corner; Balic saw him as a father figure.
Lyon took him out for dinner on the night before his AFL debut and was always a “tremendous support’’.
Returning to Melbourne brought Balic back to the family home in Mordialloc.
But his heart wasn’t in it, he said. “I was wasting away doing something I didn’t love at the time, and I think I was very immature, not mature enough to realise what I had, how lucky I was,’’ he said.
“I guess the way I left football, unfinished, left me lost in the world. That brought on depressing episodes and things like that. Getting to the highest level, which you’d dedicated your whole life to, and then all of a sudden being a nobody, I found that pretty challenging.’’
Balic did one year of a plumbing apprenticeship, then tried selling real estate with Ray White at Patterson Lakes. It wasn’t for him but some good came from it: he met life coach Stephen Hill, the author of Climbing the Happy Hill.
Hill has helped him through some tough patches, encouraging him to keep a “gratitude journal’’. Every day he writes down five things for which he’s grateful.
“He’s been a huge force in keeping me going, getting me up every morning. I dedicate a lot to him,’’ Balic said.
Now he’s doing youth work, helping young people with mental health problems.
Balic uses the word “lost’’ to describe his life after leaving the Demons, but he’s found himself again through his daily dips and exercise (he’s running 10km a day), the support of his family and reconnecting with his football coaches, including Lyon.
“I’ve reached out to people who wanted the best for me, because I was stuck with a few people who didn’t want the best for me,’’ he said. “I think it takes a bit of growing up to realise that.’’
Balic, an AIS AFL Academy member when he was in the TAC Cup with the Dragons, believes his football career has another kick in it.
He has a “new-found motivation’’ and a “fire burning within me’’. He would not like to get to the age of 40 and think he squandered an opportunity for which most players would crawl over a bed of broken glass.
Last year he played for Parkdale Vultures in the VAFA, in one match being credited with more than 50 possessions.
Now he’s setting his sights on a return to higher football. On Wednesday morning he caught up with Frankston VFL coach Danny Ryan, one of his coaches at the Dragons, and there’s a good chance Balic will join his great mate Will Fordham at the Dolphins in 2021.
“I just want to get my name back out there again,’’ he said. “I’m hungry to get back to how I was playing in the WAFL. If nothing comes of it, at least I know I tried and connected socially with a few mates.
“I just want to get back to enjoying footy again, enjoying the grind — that’s something Ross always said, enjoying the grind — and working on my craft.’’
In the meantime he’ll continue to take his daily dip.
“Nothing makes you feel more alive than jumping in the water when it’s eight degrees and pissing down,’’ he said. “It’s better than a coffee.’’
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