AFL great Peter Sumich quits after The West pulled Harley Reid article
A WA footy great has quit his gig and slammed Perth media over the state’s adoration for West Coast’s top draft pick, Harley Reid.
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The bio of Peter Sumich, a West Coast goalkicking great and columnist for The West Australian, states he gives a “no-holds-barred perspective on all footy matters”.
Unless, it seems, the former Eagle is critical of West Coast’s No. 1 draft pick, Harley Reid.
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Sumich, 56, who played 150 games with West Coast, has been a columnist with the Perth paper for 18 months, according to the Herald Sun.
But he has quit after the publication refused to run Sumich’s article giving his take on Reid, the highly-touted 18-year-old prospect from Tongala in country Victoria.
Sumich hit back hard at the comparison between Reid and West Coast premiership player and dual Brownlow Medallist Chris Judd.
“I’m not writing for The West anymore,” Sumich told the Herald Sun.
“I had a bit of a run-in with them. I wanted to put this article in and they reckon I was too harsh.
“It was on Harley Reid, I gave the kid a pump-up and said he is going to be a good player, but everyone is carrying on like he’s going to be Chris Judd.
“I put down, he is no Chris Judd. I was there when Chris Judd was there and what I saw of Chris Judd in his first two or three years, this kid doesn’t even compare to Chris Judd so I don’t know why people are carrying on.
“The kid is going to be a good player, don’t get me wrong, but you are no Chris Judd mate.”
Sumich kicked a club-record 514 goals for the Eagles and played in West Coast flags in 1992 and 1994 before moving into coaching.
He feels his home state’s reporting of Reid is way over the top and revealed some of what he’d written in the fateful article.
“I said he has got a little bit of puppy fat and he needs to tidy up this and that, but that was it,” Sumich said.
“Other than that I pumped the kid up, there wasn’t anything disastrous or bad.
“(Reid) has been here since December or so, let’s say 50 days, and I reckon he has been in the paper for 40 of those 50 days.
“And on the back page probably 20 of them … seriously come on, where is WA football going? It’s not a good sign.”
Having coached South Fremantle in the WAFL, Sumich was then an assistant coach at West Coast and Fremantle and to date has been overlooked for AFL head coaching roles.
He has great fears for the Eagles, who are coming off a wooden spoon season and have won a total of just five games over the past two years.
“I love the club and I want them to do well but at the moment it is really a basket-case and there is no light at the end of the tunnel on what I saw on Saturday night (in a pre-season match against Fremantle),” he said.
“If anyone can tell me any different, well, please.
“Fremantle are going to be OK, I don’t think they are a top-six side, yet they put West Coast to the sword without even trying.”
Originally published as AFL great Peter Sumich quits after The West pulled Harley Reid article
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