{"id":475061,"date":"2026-02-12T12:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T12:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/475061\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T12:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T12:26:14","slug":"west-coast-star-harley-reid-calls-austin-appelbee-a-legend-after-meeting-with-teenage-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/475061\/","title":{"rendered":"West Coast star Harley Reid, calls Austin Appelbee a legend after meeting with teenage hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

He may be the West Coast\u2019s hero, but Harley Reid was humbled by 13-year-old Austin Appelbee as the Eagles star paid tribute to his lifesaving efforts.<\/p>\n

Appelbee captured headlines around the world after he swam more than two hours and 4km to shore to alert authorities and save his mother and two siblings after they were swept out to sea on a paddleboard in WA\u2019s south west.<\/p>\n

Invited to Channel Seven\u2019s AFL Origin countdown event, Appelbee said he still isn\u2019t quite sure how he pulled off the miracle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more like oh my gosh, how was I on the beach right now? \u2018 It was such a tough swim. I\u2019m there, and then I have a decision to hit the ground running,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, it\u2019s been an awesome couple of weeks after, but it was hard recovering, obviously, I was in the crutches for a couple of days and in the wheelchair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s mother, Joanne, 12-year-old brother Beau and eight-year-old sister Grace were saved about 10 hours after they entered the water.<\/p>\n

His father, Justin, said he couldn\u2019t be prouder of his entire family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no words to describe how proud I am of him and all the family because they were all in a very tough situation, and they all hung in there and saw the job through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"AustinCamera IconAustin Appelbee with mum Joanne Appelbee Credit: Unknown\/Supplied<\/p>\n

An avid West Coast fan, Appelbee was given a signed jumper from Reid, who said his efforts have been inspiring for the Eagles players.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the boys are super proud of you and your efforts; it\u2019s incredible to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible, it\u2019s the talk of the town and talk of the world, so you should be very proud of yourself and the sacrifice you made for family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t swim in the club pool, so you\u2019ve done an incredible job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reid also invited Appelbee to tour the club facilities and meet with more of his Eagles fans.<\/p>\n

Australians are being urged to nominate Austin Appelbee for a bravery medal after listening to the teenager\u2019s emergency call that saved his mother and siblings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He may be the West Coast\u2019s hero, but Harley Reid was humbled by 13-year-old Austin Appelbee as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,44,588,85,45,7067],"class_list":{"0":"post-475061","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-sport","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-wa-news","17":"tag-west-coast-eagles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475061","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=475061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}