There’s always pressure and hype that comes with being the AFL’s No. 1 draft pick. But there’s arguably been a more intense spotlight on Harley Reid than any before him … from well before he was drafted.
Joining West Coast after a horror season – despite ample conversation Pick 1 might’ve been traded – and seemingly being splashed all over Western Australian press for most days thereafter, there’s serious buzz out west surrounding Reid.
Indeed, the 18-year old has been the centre of attention for a whole state – and beyond – even prior to the Victorian ever stepping onto an AFL field, making his first unofficial appearances for the Eagles in practice matches over the past fortnight.
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But the extreme focus on Reid has at times seemingly superseded football.
So is such enormous interest justified given the huge wraps on the consensus top draft pick? Or has it gone over the top?
“The footy world is fascinated with Harley – not as much as the Western Australian newspapers are,” Demons legend Garry Lyon told Fox Footy’s On The Couch.
“‘Bucks’ (Nathan Buckley) and ‘Browny’ (Jonathan Brown), you both came into the game with a lot of hype around you … it pales into what this bloke has been confronted with at the moment.
“I’ve spoken to people in Western Australia and people who have walked through airports with him and see him get mobbed – it’s at another level.
“Should we be concerned about it? Or should we just sit back and watch at what he did on the weekend against Adelaide and go: ‘I don’t think it’s worrying this bloke too much. He’s running around doing all the things the No. 1 draft pick is expected to do’.”
Like the last two Rising Star winners, Harry Sheezel and Nick Daicos, Reid is expected to start his career across half back and rotate in the midfield.
Many at West Coast have heaped praise on Reid for his special talents, suggesting he’ll already be one of the rebuilding club’s most important players in 2024.
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From a pure on-field perspective, however, former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley highlighted the challenge facing Reid in living up to his huge reputation.
“He’s been a winner all his life, if you talk to his teaches and coaches – everything he does, he wants to be really good at,” Buckley told On The Couch.
“He’s going to be tested this year, we don’t know how he’s going to respond to that. But I don’t know if the conditions for performances or success, if we’re going to see the best out of him in the first 12 to 24 months.
“He will be tested in a way he may not have been tested before. For an 18-year old kid, that’s understandable.”
Buckley emphasised the added difficulty Reid faced in playing on an Eagles side coming off such a dour two-win season – a season coach Adam Simpson came under significant pressure and a campaign that ended with ample turnover of staff in multiple areas at the club.
“If you put him against some of the other top 10 picks, the environment he’s going into is going to be a lot more difficult to perform in than some of the ones they’ll be in,” Buckley noted.
To which Lyon added: “Or he might be that damn good, he just elevates himself on the way through.”
Reid is set to make his official AFL debut in Round 1 when West Coast faces Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.
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