List Mgmt. Nic Reid: Taking the competition back to school

Remove this Banner Ad

Aug 14, 2004
5,458
22,899
Brisbane
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
Cardiff City
In a year riven with bad news and despair a genuine Cinderella story has taken place right before our eyes.

Nic Reid in two years has gone from ammos at North Beach to debuting for the AFL premiership favourites.

Nic-Reid-debut.jpg

When he walks out on Sunday against Hawthorn, the school teacher will become the 252nd player to represent the club at senior level.


Congratulations Nic, some dreams do come true.

It's going to be massive when he kicks his first.
 
Last edited:
From Gary Stocks

https://www.westcoasteagles.com.au/news/794624/from-the-ammos-to-the-big-time-reid-earns-his-wings

From the ammos to the big time: Reid earns his wings
Former North Beach star Nic Reid will become Eagle No.252 when he dons the blue and gold against Hawthorn this Sunday


Nic Reid’s journey to the AFL has been the antithesis of the smooth ride from the TAC Cup or WAFL colts to elite football.

No luxury vehicle or sealed highway on his path to the top.

He started on that manicured route, missed a couple of turns, found himself in a beat-up four wheel drive in the middle of nowhere but has eventually made it to the desired destination.

He could have been excused for being disillusioned by those frustrating, unplanned detours. Abandoning his AFL dream was more logical than clinging to thinning hope.

Especially when it drifted from arms-length as a member of WA under-age squads to a barely visible image far on the dusty horizon of the gravel tracks he was navigating in early adulthood.

But on Sunday, when he fulfils his long-held AFL ambition, making his debut for the West Coast Eagles against Hawthorn, it will all seem worthwhile. The brown pebbles pounding the undercarriage on his drive to the top had kept him alert, rather than drifting completely off target.

And he will become a unique and compelling football story when, at age 24, he steps out as the 252nd player to represent the West Coast Eagles in its 34-year history.

Reid has always had talent, but he never quite fitted the neat template that the AFL industry expects of its aspiring youngsters. He wasn’t besotted with the game, had a couple of cracks with WAFL club Claremont, but in his late teens he wasn’t quite ready for that structured and routine way of life.

He preferred to play with his mates at amateur club North Beach.

He liked the freedom of just playing footy. The game came naturally to him and he mirrored it in the way he played. Instinctively.

It is possible for me to offer some insights into this young man because I was coaching the colts at North Beach when he opted out of the Claremont program. I wouldn’t say I, or Dave Barwick, with whom I shared the role, coached him as much as plonked him in the centre and asked the umpires to start the game.

He dominated, often kicked three or four goals out of the middle, and we just enjoyed the spectacle. We weren’t the only ones. A-Grade players would come to the ground early to watch him play.

That was 2012 and Reid was clearly a class above all others at that level. The senior coach at North Beach, Bill Duckworth recognised it too, and Reid’s stint in the colts was short-lived.

Duckworth, a two-time Essendon premiership player and 1984 Norm Smith medallist, injected him into the seniors and played a nurturing role with the talented youngster.

A year later, another AFL premiership star, David Hynes, a significant part of the 1994 West Coast Eagles premiership team, assumed the senior position at North Beach and he continued to mould an evolving young man who was among the most talented, if not the most talented, players in the competition.

In 2018, with former Subiaco utility player Shane Paap at the helm, Reid underlined his talent by kicking 48 goals in an injury-affected season. He was runner-up to Joel Ashman in the WA Amateur Football League A-Grade competition and was also runner-up in the North Beach award (tied with Dan Leishman) to Sam Lamont.

Reid had become a local football hero. Kids were going to Charles Riley Reserve to watch him play, wearing his No.19 on their backs. Among that throng of youngsters was Callum Jamieson, another product of the North Beach Junior Football Club, who is now on the Eagles list.

It was post that 2018 season that Reid found himself back on the path to elite football.

The West Coast Eagles had been granted a licence to play in the WAFL, allowing all of its players not selected in the AFL team to play together in the second tier competition. The alignment with East Perth had disintegrated and the Eagles wanted to go alone.

They were granted a licence and joined the competition, albeit handcuffed by severe recruiting restrictions.

It meant they needed to get creative with the list structure for their WAFL Eagles and all of Reid, Lamont and Ashman were so-called “top-up” players. Pigeon-holing them in that manner hardly did them justice, but it gave all of them an opportunity to play at the next level.

The embers of desire had again been fanned within the man they call 'Dos'. Hope that had been almost extinguished rose again. Reid probably didn’t know how much he wanted it until he began mixing with AFL talent, recognising he was not entirely out of place.

For Reid, it was a platform to show a captive audience what he could do. He impressed General Manager - Football Craig Vozzo, Eagles coach Adam Simpson and other coaching staff who were dedicated to the WAFL team.

After a 2019 campaign when he demonstrated a capacity to influence WAFL games, the Eagles were given permission for him to train over the summer. Although his appearances on the track were limited because of shoulder surgery, he put everything on the line, even taking a year’s leave of absence from teaching to give it all of his attention.

Where he was not ready for the structured life a WAFL player – let alone AFL football – in his late teens, the more mature version of Nic Reid craved it in his early 20s.

He is yet another example of a young man who would never have received this opportunity with a compressed senior list. Now he is ready to capitalise on his footy lifeline and take another quantum leap forward on his football – and life - experiences.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

For those who haven't been paying attention...

Reid is a hero, teaches kids how to do school properly, saves bereft forward lines and probably fights crime during the night just to keep swole.

Nic-Reid-hero.png


He is a pressing type of forward that marks well and can roll up the ground on occasion.

Played Claremont colts alongside Barrass but walked away from it and has since admitted that at that time his life was not in the right place for the levels of professionalism demanded at that level.

Went back to North Beach, enjoyed his football again, became qualified as a school teacher and gained the maturity and perspective that were missing previously.

Decided to give football one last crack - moved from D1 to A and kicked 54 goals in 20 matches, the second-highest in the competition. Played the following season through the midfield which caught the eye of the Eagles and led to him being signed as a member of the standalone team in the WAFL.

In his 15 matches at WAFL level playing almost exclusively up forward, he averaged more disposals than X.O'Neill or Foley and was outscored for goals by Waterman alone. Apart from Waterman and Williams, his 49 scoring shots was more than double the amount recorded by any other player in the squad.

Where he let himself down was his finishing: 23.26 - if his goal kicking had more polish, I have no doubt that he would have debuted already.

Missed the end of last season after requiring surgery to address a preexisting issue with his shoulder, including the opportunity to present at training for the supplemental position. That the club decided to take him on anyway perhaps speaks volumes of how highly rated his impact has been in a short space of time.

In two years he has gone from ammos to the biggest team at the highest level of competition. His mature frame (188cm, 86kg) allows him to have a physical presence up forward and provide pressure. There is no question that he is exceptionally raw and his execution needs improvement - but he also seems to be the type of player that knows how to be in the right place at the right time and has so far demonstrated an ability to improve when raised to a higher level.

I reckon he could adapt quite readily to the promotion and surprise many with what he can offer.
 
I'd like to offer my suggestion for a nickname.

The Professor

i.pinimg.com/originals/fb/9d/2f/fb9d2f2c42a5a6d...
 
Can’t wait to watch him run out on Sunday. Terrific story. I like the fact he’s kind of been encouraged to keep trying and when he realised he could do it, has then taken drastic steps to make it happen. Bodes well.

So many mature age recruits get their chance through pure motivation and persistence but then the reason(s) they were overlooked originally becomes clear when they get to the next level. it doesn’t seem like the case here.
 
Played a lot of footy with the bloke and he was the kinda guy who drank his own bathwater when he was in his teens, glad to hear he's changed

Something I haven't seen mentioned is his athleticism. he's pretty quick and has a good change of direction for a guy 188cm
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

The Moai stone head one is an absolute belter. Lost it in the changes thread.
I reckon Easter would bd a good nickname ( Easter Island being where those stonr carvings are).
Hope he had the same success as another school teacher turned mature age sports professional- Jeff Horn.
 

Some absolute cretins in the YouTube comments on this video. I can't tell if they're Eagles fans or not, as one of them refers to Jetta "and the other bloke", which I guess he means Aboriginal, who is clearly Cameron, and who also smiled at the announcement.

We didn't get to hear what was said prior to this but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a meeting about how shit the small forwards have been and thus some sour looks. Not an unlikely segue into the announcement. "Small forwards, absolute trash and you all know it. Nic Reid will debut this week"
 
Some absolute cretins in the YouTube comments on this video. I can't tell if they're Eagles fans or not, as one of them refers to Jetta "and the other bloke", which I guess he means Aboriginal, who is clearly Cameron, and who also smiled at the announcement.

We didn't get to hear what was said prior to this but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a meeting about how sh*t the small forwards have been and thus some sour looks. Not an unlikely segue into the announcement. "Small forwards, absolute trash and you all know it. Nic Reid will debut this week"

There is every chance they were in the same training group with him also - and that maybe it was announced to them earlier (maybe he had the customary kick for goal?).

Sure, a smile and clap would look nice - but a snippet of 10 seconds of time doesn't actually tell the story of the reaction...
 

Remove this Banner Ad

List Mgmt. Nic Reid: Taking the competition back to school

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top