West Coast great Peter Sumich has explained the rejection of an article he wrote critical of No.1 pick Harley Reid caused him to cut ties with Perth’s major newspaper.
Reid has been the centre of attention in the west since joining the Eagles, more often than not being placed on The West’s backpage no matter what he was doing.
But the Herald Sun reported the dual Eagles premiership player quit his part-time writing gig after they said they would not publish a piece questioning comparisons between the yet-to-debut Victorian and dual Brownlow medallist Chris Judd.
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“The West has been pumping this kid up unbelievably and I actually feel for the kid,” Sumich said on SEN’s The Run Home.
“I thought to myself (before writing the article), come on, ‘40 days he’s been there and I reckon 30 days would have been him on the back page’. I thought, jeez, a ball hasn’t even bounced yet.
“They were comparing him to Chris Judd and I wrote the story about how he’s no Chris Judd. I was there when Chris Judd got drafted at West Coast, I was there when he played his first game, his second game, his first 30 games and I haven’t seen anyone since play like Chris Judd ever at that age.
“I just said in the article … this kid is no Chris Judd. He’s going to be a very good player, don’t get me wrong, he’s going to be very, very good. But don’t put him in the Chris Judd category.
“He’s still got a bit to learn, he’s still got a bit of puppy fat, he’s a country boy, he’s got to work through that over the first few years of pre-seasons and get fully fit and all that type of tuff, and The West knocked it back. I thought alright, if that’s the case, I’m out of here.”
Sumich was responding to an article by fellow Eagles premiership player Drew Banfield who believed Reid would follow a similar on-field path to Judd by starting at half-forward before moving on-ball.
He questioned whether the highly-rated prospect would really perform well in his first season given how bad the team will be.
“I just think the kid needs more time. He might be one of those kids that at the age of 20 or 21 you might see him blossom,” Sumich said.
“The other thing is, West Coast aren’t going too well, I don’t know about their development program so that’s the other thing you have to take into account.
“West Coast unfortunately are on the bottom and I can’t see them moving too far this year. The kid is going to be stunted a bit.
“If he was at a club that was mid-range slash in the eight slash top four, his development would be better, there’s no doubt about that, because you’re surrounding yourself around better players.
“West Coast are in that development phase and unless you’re an exceptional player, you’re going to get lost a little bit. That’s where I see it at the moment.
“He’s going to be a great player, I never said in the article he wasn’t gonna be a good player, but don’t pump him up where you’re gonna to really force the kid out of WA. That’s what I’m afraid of, you’re going to force him out of WA because there’s too much pressure on him already.
“He’s on the back page again today … the kid had five or six touches on the weekend and got found out a little bit with the Nat Fyfes and the Brayshaws and the Serongs, and they’ve put him on the back page again with a crown on his head as King Harley!”
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