Getting a read on Harley: What the Eagles ace can learn from a Hawks legend

The thing about being a man-child is people assume you are older than you are. The thing about being precociously talented is people assume your maturity matches your talent.

When you are bigger and stronger than most men but still a teenager and play with the assuredness of a veteran while still on your P-plates, it creates a disconnect of expectations.

West Coast Eagles star Harley Reid.Credit: AFL Photos

Still a teen when this season started, Harley Reid plays with the self-assurance of someone who has already arrived, but in truth he is barely through the door. The same applied to Jason Horne-Francis, and still does.

They were so physically ready to play when they were drafted, arriving in the AFL like schoolboys boarding a late bus.

Their head-to-head physical and verbal battle in the last quarter of last Sunday’s match between West Coast and Port Adelaide was great football theatre.

It was the peer contest within the contest. Both wanted to get at the other player and assert their place in the pecking order. An amateur lip-reader could deduce Reid mocking Horne-Francis for lasting one year at North and going home as he wagged a single finger at him (admittedly, it was brave for Reid to hold up a sole digit, when a similar gesture has already got him in trouble this year, but this time it was wisely not the bird finger he was offering).

Horne-Francis beat him on the day. He kicked two brilliant goals in that last quarter, and one of them started at a ball-up with Reid standing at his shoulder. Still, Horne-Francis got a step ahead into space and snapped the goal. The other was a dribbled goal on the run across his body from the boundary that somehow nutmegged an Eagles player in the goal square. And Horne-Francis’ team won.

There was a period of play where Reid seemed central to everything happening on the ground, good and bad. He was the one Eagles player with physical presence and creativity, but also the one giving away free kicks and flapping his arms at umpires, opponents and teammates in despair or complaint. It was not a new thing – his year has been marked by as many free kicks and remonstrations as moments of brilliance.

Why? He is 20.

He looks like a man, and plays with the skill, power and talent that draws comparisons to Patty Dangerfield. The difference is he is still a kid, while Dangerfield has three kids.

Jason Horne-Francis was fired up after kicking a crucial goal against Reid’s Eagles.Credit: AFL Photos

Reid has the temperament of a world-weary uni student who is technically an adult but still gets their parents to do their washing and explain insurance to them. Again, he is 20.

“I don’t know if every game Harley Reid spends this much time talking to the umpires and the opposition and crowd, but it must be distracting,” Mark Ricciuto said in commentary with an evident degree of restraint.

“He has got bucket loads of talent, but he is spending so much time worrying about other things other than communicating with his own players, or focusing on what he should be doing, or how can he help his teammates. He can’t do everything.

“He is not fit enough to be a gun mid yet. He is going to work on that over the next couple of years, but he should just channel a bit more effort into the football side of things. I love watching him, I am not trying to be too negative, but he is just channelling too much energy into the wrong spots at the moment.”

It was the game where a trend became a problem. Reid has given away more free kicks (52) than any other player this year. There were six given away in Sunday night’s game alone. In the same round, fellow No.1 draft pick Matt Rowell – a smaller man but also another precocious teenager who arrived in the game physically ready to play – drew seven free kicks and gave away five. He is a less animated figure on the ground than Reid.

Reid has been fined numerous times this year – including for the bird – and on Sunday should have been suspended for tripping Travis Boak with a kick to both shins. Yet, somehow he drew just another fine. Fortunately, he is already quite well paid.

“He clearly crossed the line too many times tonight,” his coach Andrew McQualter said after the game, most likely with the trip in mind.

“I’ve had that chat with Harley already. He knows it, and he’s going to play up to that line every single week, and that’s where we want him... we want it to be a dance with the line that he doesn’t step over.”

Reid gave the Brisbane crowd the finger earlier in the season and was fined $1000 for misconduct.Credit: Fox Footy

Some, such as Kane Cornes – a strong defender of Horne-Francis – criticised Reid for being too selfish in the way he plays and giving away free kicks. Being criticised by Cornes does not put Reid in a small club in the AFL, but while Cornes’ critique was more strongly worded, the sentiment was similar to Ricciuto’s in saying the Eagles youngster should focus more on just playing.

This week on the TV show Cornes shares with Luke Hodge and Dale Thomas, the former Hawthorn and Collingwood premiership players stepped to Reid’s defence. Hodge is possibly the best-credentialed person to talk about Reid. He was Reid before Reid – a No.1 draft pick with the body and ability to play immediately, he took time to work the bigger AFL world out.

“He is 20!” Hodge pleaded.

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