Best-laid plans...
EMMA QUAYLE
April 10, 2010
DON'T worry, Daniel Harris told himself. Yes, North Melbourne had just told him he wouldn't be re-signed. Yes, he had recently turned 27. True, no other club seemed to need him. But Harris could still play football, for Coburg. He had a landscaping business almost ready to launch. He had two small children who didn't care which team he played for, and a wife who would get to see more of him. He was fine. Everything would be all right.
Then, suddenly, things were better than all right. Harris was at home, on the couch, convincing himself that careers don't always have to end well, when his phone rang. ''How would you feel,'' wondered the midfielder's manager, ''about going to the Gold Coast''? and the next thing Harris knew he was on the Gold Coast, at a coffee shop with coach Guy McKenna.
When he heard the new club was interested in him, Harris was surprised, and ecstatic. ''It was better news than I could have ever hoped for,'' he said. ''I never thought they'd be looking for guys my age.''
After meeting with McKenna and recruiting manager Scott Clayton, he no longer felt like football didn't want him any more.
''When I went back home I had such a good feeling from that meeting, just from the way we were talking,'' he said. ''The way they spoke to me, and the things they asked me, made me feel like I was almost a part of the club already. It just made me feel really good.''
In the second week of December, it became official: after 149 games, Harris was the first player chosen in last year's rookie draft. The next week, as Christmas loomed, he was in Queensland, with checklist. ''I needed to find a house, find a car and find a childcare place for the kids within one week, or else I was going to be in trouble.''
Harris' children, Sam, 2, and Lila, 10 months, did not have friends and schools to leave. But his wife, Adele, had just begun a nursing job, needed to find somewhere to work, and had adjusted her own life, he said, for him. ''She's pretty much put everything she wants to do on hold so that I can keep playing footy, keep chasing my dream,'' said Harris, who signed a two-year contract with the Gold Coast.
''She's really close to her parents, and she hasn't been able to walk into a footy club filled with people, filled with friends like I have. I'm really lucky that she just said, 'Yep, let's do it, let's go'. She's been really supportive. I'm really happy right now and a lot of that's because she's happy up here too.''
Harris didn't necessarily enjoy his last two years at North Melbourne - spending much of the season in the VFL will do that to you - but he wasn't too surprised when told his time there was up, and not in any way angry.
Before he moved to Queensland, he took Sam in for a look around the Kangaroos new facilities he won't get to use. Funnily enough, he is living in a place he didn't want to move to when it looked like North would be headed north, and working out of portables.
''It's funny how it's worked out, but I'm just glad it's worked out,'' he said. ''People talked about there being a rift between me and Dean Laidley, but that wasn't the case. I think what sometimes happens is that people just can't find a way to get the best out of each other. It happens all the time, to lots of people.
''I was 25 or 26, I wanted to be a better player and to improve on what I was doing, and I knew the supporters and everyone around the club wanted me to do that too. It didn't really happen, and sometimes people just need a change to get that out of themselves. I'm hoping that's what I can do now.''
The thought that his 150th game is still a season away feels a little odd, but Harris just wants to play football. He wondered, before signing, whether he would be walking into a group of teenage heroes with egos to match their talent, but has found the Gold Coast boys to be anything but cocky.
In fact, they have been inquisitive, not afraid to admit their innocence. He's also found them to be ''good''. Training has been sharp since he moved up for good after Christmas, and it has only become faster, and more skilful. ''It's actually given me some confidence, in a way, because they ask questions all the time, they want to know everything I can tell them,'' he said.
''They also call me Pop, which isn't so good, but they've been filled with questions and I've sort of found that nice. At North Melbourne, I was never really needed like that, I suppose, so it's been a bit of a surprise to have it happen.
''We had Drew Petrie, Adam Simpson, Brent Harvey, and you don't really need anyone else after guys like that, they're so good. So the young guys didn't ever really ask me questions, but up here I've been a bit more useful like that, they've been asking me all sorts of things.
''I knew I'd be coming up here as an experienced player, but that's surprised me a bit. It's been good, but it was important to me as well that I didn't go somewhere that was going to be a fair way off, that was going to take ages to get going and win games.
''These kids are really good. I came up wanting to play finals again before my time's up, and I think we will. I think we'll be a good team. Even in the last two weeks, training's gone up another level, because now all these guys are realising how much they want a game. I can't wait to see where they're at in another 12 months. It's not really all that far away.''
EMMA QUAYLE
April 10, 2010
DON'T worry, Daniel Harris told himself. Yes, North Melbourne had just told him he wouldn't be re-signed. Yes, he had recently turned 27. True, no other club seemed to need him. But Harris could still play football, for Coburg. He had a landscaping business almost ready to launch. He had two small children who didn't care which team he played for, and a wife who would get to see more of him. He was fine. Everything would be all right.
Then, suddenly, things were better than all right. Harris was at home, on the couch, convincing himself that careers don't always have to end well, when his phone rang. ''How would you feel,'' wondered the midfielder's manager, ''about going to the Gold Coast''? and the next thing Harris knew he was on the Gold Coast, at a coffee shop with coach Guy McKenna.
When he heard the new club was interested in him, Harris was surprised, and ecstatic. ''It was better news than I could have ever hoped for,'' he said. ''I never thought they'd be looking for guys my age.''
After meeting with McKenna and recruiting manager Scott Clayton, he no longer felt like football didn't want him any more.
''When I went back home I had such a good feeling from that meeting, just from the way we were talking,'' he said. ''The way they spoke to me, and the things they asked me, made me feel like I was almost a part of the club already. It just made me feel really good.''
In the second week of December, it became official: after 149 games, Harris was the first player chosen in last year's rookie draft. The next week, as Christmas loomed, he was in Queensland, with checklist. ''I needed to find a house, find a car and find a childcare place for the kids within one week, or else I was going to be in trouble.''
Harris' children, Sam, 2, and Lila, 10 months, did not have friends and schools to leave. But his wife, Adele, had just begun a nursing job, needed to find somewhere to work, and had adjusted her own life, he said, for him. ''She's pretty much put everything she wants to do on hold so that I can keep playing footy, keep chasing my dream,'' said Harris, who signed a two-year contract with the Gold Coast.
''She's really close to her parents, and she hasn't been able to walk into a footy club filled with people, filled with friends like I have. I'm really lucky that she just said, 'Yep, let's do it, let's go'. She's been really supportive. I'm really happy right now and a lot of that's because she's happy up here too.''
Harris didn't necessarily enjoy his last two years at North Melbourne - spending much of the season in the VFL will do that to you - but he wasn't too surprised when told his time there was up, and not in any way angry.
Before he moved to Queensland, he took Sam in for a look around the Kangaroos new facilities he won't get to use. Funnily enough, he is living in a place he didn't want to move to when it looked like North would be headed north, and working out of portables.
''It's funny how it's worked out, but I'm just glad it's worked out,'' he said. ''People talked about there being a rift between me and Dean Laidley, but that wasn't the case. I think what sometimes happens is that people just can't find a way to get the best out of each other. It happens all the time, to lots of people.
''I was 25 or 26, I wanted to be a better player and to improve on what I was doing, and I knew the supporters and everyone around the club wanted me to do that too. It didn't really happen, and sometimes people just need a change to get that out of themselves. I'm hoping that's what I can do now.''
The thought that his 150th game is still a season away feels a little odd, but Harris just wants to play football. He wondered, before signing, whether he would be walking into a group of teenage heroes with egos to match their talent, but has found the Gold Coast boys to be anything but cocky.
In fact, they have been inquisitive, not afraid to admit their innocence. He's also found them to be ''good''. Training has been sharp since he moved up for good after Christmas, and it has only become faster, and more skilful. ''It's actually given me some confidence, in a way, because they ask questions all the time, they want to know everything I can tell them,'' he said.
''They also call me Pop, which isn't so good, but they've been filled with questions and I've sort of found that nice. At North Melbourne, I was never really needed like that, I suppose, so it's been a bit of a surprise to have it happen.
''We had Drew Petrie, Adam Simpson, Brent Harvey, and you don't really need anyone else after guys like that, they're so good. So the young guys didn't ever really ask me questions, but up here I've been a bit more useful like that, they've been asking me all sorts of things.
''I knew I'd be coming up here as an experienced player, but that's surprised me a bit. It's been good, but it was important to me as well that I didn't go somewhere that was going to be a fair way off, that was going to take ages to get going and win games.
''These kids are really good. I came up wanting to play finals again before my time's up, and I think we will. I think we'll be a good team. Even in the last two weeks, training's gone up another level, because now all these guys are realising how much they want a game. I can't wait to see where they're at in another 12 months. It's not really all that far away.''
