There was a collective sigh of relief in the western suburbs on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
I had the honour of being the first one to tweet the news, doing so just seconds after the Eagles sent their 100,000 members a message on the West Coast app. It simply said \u201cHe\u2019s staying\u201d above a squiggly autograph which had become one of the most sought-after signatures in AFL history.<\/p>\n
It was posted on a blue-and-gold jumper and of course \u2014 being the good journo that I am \u2014 I knew instantly what had happened and tweeted the good news to my 15,000 followers.<\/p>\n
To be honest, I had heard two days earlier that at the club\u2019s Silly Sunday, the G-man (great man) had been toasted a few hundred times during the afternoon.<\/p>\n
And then there was talk at the Perth Football Club on Monday of a massive roar emerging from the bowels of West Coast headquarters next door, with many of the Demons staff assuming it was the \u201cofficial\u201d Harley announcement being made to the entire club.<\/p>\n
Yes, Harley Reid is staying. Yes, the boy wonder from Victoria, the lad who looks like he was grown in a secret AFL lab somewhere out the back of Bendigo, has signed on until 2028.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s another three years of western suburbs parents pretending their kid might one day be \u201cthe next Harley\u201d, even though little Hugo can hardly kick over a Milo tin.<\/p>\n
Another three years of ladies-who-lunch boasting to their Pilates instructor they once saw Harley at the Herdsman Market, where he has a \u201crelationship\u201d and not of the rumpy-pumpy type.<\/p>\n
And another three years of real estate agents whispering \u201cIf Harley ever wants a riverside view, I\u2019ve got just the place\u201d.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s not muck around: the figure being thrown about is eye-watering. Two million a year. At 20 years old. When I was 20, the closest I got to two million was the number of reasons I came with for skimming uni.<\/p>\n
Harley, on the other hand, is now Perth\u2019s most eligible bachelor: four million bucks, a dog and no girlfriend. That\u2019s the dream housemate right there.<\/p>\n
Some cynics in Melbourne thought he might head home. Poor dears. They lost a lot of credibility betting against him staying.<\/p>\n
Harley\u2019s official line was polished: \u201cI\u2019m incredibly excited to sign on with this great club\u2026 I love representing the club\u2026 I can\u2019t wait for the 2026 season and beyond\u201d. Lovely stuff. But what he really meant was: \u201cI\u2019ve been to Cottesloe Beach, tasted a chicken parmi at the Wembley, and someone just told me two million a year actually buys you a house in Subi. Why would I leave?\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Eagles hierarchy is understandably thrilled. Head of list management Matt Clarke was practically doing backflips around Lathlain, declaring Harley \u201cembodies everything we want in a West Coast Eagle: skill, determination, and a fierce competitive spirit\u201d. Which is true, though let\u2019s be honest, at this stage most fans would settle for a bloke who wouldn\u2019t dislocate his shoulder just putting on his boots.<\/p>\n
But Harley\u2019s more than that. He\u2019s hope. He\u2019s the glimmer of sunshine breaking through after four years of dark clouds. He\u2019s the player who makes Eagles fans think \u201cmaybe, just maybe, the worst is behind us\u201d.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Juddy of 2004 all over again. Now to just find a Ben Cousins, Daniel Kerr and Dean Cox.<\/p>\n
But in the suburbs that this paper can be found, Harley is enough for now. That\u2019s enough to order another round of charddies at Freshie. Or, for the average man, a beer on the back deck as we whisper \u201cWe might just be alright\u2026. Maybe Pykey does know what he\u2019s doing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Now, I know what you\u2019re thinking: two million a year is outrageous, almost immoral. That\u2019s more than a Qantas CEO earns. That\u2019s more than three GPs get combined. That\u2019s enough to buy three parking bays at Claremont Quarter. But if you\u2019ve seen the way Reid bursts from a centre clearance, you realise it\u2019s a bargain. Let\u2019s just say, if Harley was at a mining company, he\u2019d be on two million a month.<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s not forget, this is a kid who\u2019s played only 39 games and won just six matches. That\u2019s the kind of win-loss ratio you\u2019d usually associate with old Fitzroy. But Harley makes losing look fun. The crowd comes to Optus just to see him break tackles, fend off blokes and give plenty of cheek.<\/p>\n
His signing also saves the AFL a headache. Can you imagine the PR nightmare if the golden boy headed home after just two years? The draft would be even more compromised.<\/p>\n
Now the challenge is building a team around him. Because right now, Harley\u2019s like a Lamborghini amongst a heap of Commodores. The Holdens need to be souped up and he needs to lead them.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the Eagles fans in the western suburbs can strut with pride. They\u2019ve got Harley. They\u2019ve got the future.<\/p>\n
And next time you see a young bloke that looks faintly familiar walking a cavoodle around Lake Monger, give him a wave. That\u2019s Harley Reid. The four-million-dollar man. The face of the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a collective sigh of relief in the western suburbs on Tuesday. I had the honour of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,44,1721,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-100565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-opinion","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}