AFL Draft 2015: Harley Balic joins Fremantle Dockers but moving away from family will be tough

HIS mother was in tears and his father, tongue in cheek, offered him $70,000 to stay in Melbourne. But Harley Balic says he’s “one of the lucky ones” despite having to move to the other side of the country.

TAC Cup: Sandringham Dragons v NSW/ACT Rams at Trevor Barker Oval , Sandringham. Dragons #6 Harley Balic. Picture: Chris Eastman

FOR Harley Balic, it was a waiting game, played out with a knot in his stomach.

Pick was following pick, but nobody was picking him.

He and his family had been flown over to the Adelaide Convention Centre to watch Tuesday night’s AFL national draft, and there were expectations he would be chosen in the top 20 or 25.

But 25 had come and gone and he was still without a club.

When it got to pick 30, one commentator expressed surprise Balic had been overlooked and had become what the draft aficionados call a “slider’’.

Finally, the Mordialloc-Braeside Junior Football Club product’s name came: pick 38, to the Fremantle Dockers.

Balic, sitting with his girlfriend, Georgia Ward, his parents, Eddie and Nancy, and brothers Cooper and Jesse, felt a rush of emotions.

The first, he said, was relief. Then came the realisation of an interstate move. It daunted him and quickly reduced his mother to tears. Next was the excitement of fulfilling an ambition that took a burning hold of him last year, to make an AFL list.

“After pick 25, we were all looking at each other and we’re going, ‘What’s wrong, have I done something, why aren’t I getting picked up?’,’’ Balic said.

“A lot of clubs who said they liked me were passing. It got to mid-30s and I was like, ‘Am I getting drafted?’ It got to the stage where everyone was looking at each other and wondering if it was possible to get invited but not get drafted. You’ve got so much media, so much speculation, your whole neighbourhood watching for you and texting you … I didn’t feel embarrassed, but I was very anxious about what was going to happen.

“So when my name did get called out, the relief was the first thing. Yeah, that was definitely the biggest thing, because I was just so nervous and anxious. A few seconds later it kicked in, Fremantle. I got a bit nervous and looked at the family. The next feeling was happiness, sort of a dream coming true, about to start a new chapter in my life.’’

Harley Balic’s decision to pursue football ahead of basketball has paid off.

Balic calls himself a “bit of mother’s boy’’. He’s particularly close to his mother and she was overwhelmed at the thought of him relocating to Perth.

After his selection he went off to do some media with Fremantle. When he returned he saw his dad on the phone in tears. He joked he would pay him $70,000 to stay in Melbourne. Later, as the family gathered for a dinner with Dockers officials, his mother’s eyes were red as she arrived in the foyer.

But Balic said he was happy to make the move.

“At the start I was a bit worried but thinking about it all night and this morning, it’s going to be a good thing for me,’’ he said.

“I won’t have all the distractions I may have here, friends, the antics, everything like that. I’ll be over there training and getting better … at the end of the day it doesn’t matter, because it depends on what you do with it (draft selection). If I can prove the clubs wrong who didn’t pick me, that’s the first thing I want to do.

“But overall I’m just grateful. I was one of the lucky ones. A few of my mates didn’t get picked up.’’

Balic was an accomplished under-age basketballer — he played as a point guard for a succession of Sandringham Sabres representative teams — before making the decision last year to focus on football with the Sandringham Dragons.

He rose quickly: a few months later he was in the AIS AFL Academy. This year he was an All Australian Under 18 player before a wrist operation ended his season early.

Balic attended Parkdale Secondary College and was in the AFL program overseen by former Carlton player Paul McCormack.

McCormack said this morning that Balic was one of the most athletically gifted young players he had seen and had “huge upside’’.

He believes Balic’s best position is at half-back.

“You have a look at what he does now and think of what he might be able to do in two years, when he’s bigger and stronger … it’s exciting for him,’’ McCormack said.

The college also produced a draftee last year in Tom Lamb (West Coast Eagles).

Originally published as AFL Draft 2015: Harley Balic joins Fremantle Dockers but moving away from family will be tough