Harley Reid is being paid for the name, not the ability

Harley Reid is being overpaid. Yep, I said it. The funny thing is I go for the Eagles, I love them, I love Harley Reid but lets be real, 2.2M per year for a second year player who isn’t even in the top 50 AFL player debate is a wild concept to me.

Sure, he’s a good player but its the name I think, At the end of the day, are teams just buying him because of what he financially brings to the club, or is it the raw ability? It just gives me the same vibes as lots of NBA trades, think Allen Iverson or Shaquille O’Neil who in my opinion were traded for their Marketable image to an extent, ticket sales go up, jersey sales go up, it’s a franchise after all and money is the goal for many of these owners as opposed to winning.

As of right now, the highest paid AFL player is Tom Lynch on a whopping $1.45M annual salary, he has 2 won premierships, multiple best and Fairest for the club and an all Australian team pick, he’s established, we know his capability and skill. Harley is 20, he has been a good player but struggled with consistency and his ability to stay level headed with an absurd 52 free kicks and 13 fines across 17 games, terrible. $2.2M, shocking, and I love the bloke. Imagine you’ve been established at your job for well over 10 years, and then a young kid comes through and gets paid double, even triple your wage without the experience or even the ability, like come on, seriously, I can only imagine every other “Talented” AFL player is punching the air right now.

When we look at Harley statistically, he averaged 19 disposals and 4 clearances on 69% efficiency, but then we can look at say Nick Daicos for comparison, he is 2 years older then Reid being 22, averaging 31 disposals a game, with 6 clearances on 70% efficiency. His wage? 900K. I mean come on, he is a ball magnet, the defenders don’t have a single chance, whilst Harley on the other hand, just waiting for him to slip up and get another $6250 fine, but at the end of the day, the AFL is a business, Harley’s team is privately owned, it’s about money and he’s only worth as much as people are willing to pay, if I was Harley, I’d be loving every second of that 7 figure salary being thrown away, good on him.