Harley Reid faces AFL ban as race for league’s Rising Star Award wide open

The race for the AFLThe Rising Star Award was blown up, with Sam Darcy must be suspended for two games and Harley Reid is likely to suffer a similar fate. Darcy was suspended on Saturday afternoon for his nasty collision with Brayden Maynard on Friday night.

The Western Bulldogs junior appeared to be in contention with Reid for the Rising Star award, but a player who is suspended during the year cannot win it. But just hours after Darcy’s suspension, disaster struck for Reid.

The Phenomenon of the West Coast Eagles faces a suspension himself after making a dangerous tackle on Darcy Wilson in his team’s 14-point loss to St Kilda. The back of Wilson’s head slammed into the turf after he was thrown backwards by Reid in a tackle that has been dropped from the game in recent years.

Darcy was tested for concussion and was able to return to the field, but Reid faces a suspension. “That’s a tackle we need to take out of the game,” David King said in commentary for Fox Footy. “That’s the slingshot. The head hitting the ground – that’s everything we don’t want. I’m sorry.”

“If that leads to a suspension – we hope first and foremost that the young guy is OK – if he has suffered a concussion, I think the Rising Star favorite will be in a lot of pain. The tackling, the action – that’s a problem for him.”

King said Reid should at least face a one-match suspension if the AFL is serious about head protection. “We don’t want that. But we don’t want concussion either,” he said. “As an industry, you have to choose your path. I think we’ve made it clear that (tackling) is a no-go and unfortunately it looks like we’re not going to have the two favourites for the Rising Star (Reid and Sam Darcy) eligible to play this weekend.”

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Harley Reid frustrated after St Kilda’s tough tagging

Reid looked frustrated throughout the game after taking a tough hit for the first time in his young career. The 19-year-old shredded St Kilda in the second quarter with 13 possessions and six clearances and went into halftime with a total of 17 possessions and seven clearances.

Saints coach Ross Lyon then ordered Marcus Windhager to run a tight tag on Reid in the second half and it worked perfectly. Reid only managed three more turnovers in the game as St Kilda stormed to victory.

West Coast coach Adam Simpson said he did not want to talk about the Reid tackle in detail, but said nothing much came of it. “I thought there was nothing to it, I’ll say that,” Simpson said. “I spoke to him and he said, ‘mate, I thought there was nothing much to it, so keep going, keep working on the day’. That will sort itself out. Whatever happens there, we’ll deal with it.”

Simpson said tagging Reid would be a learning experience for the teenager. “He was sensational in the first half so understandably he’ll get some attention,” the coach said. “We’re behind him, he’s got to deal with it as we play. I hope we’re not too critical of his second half.”

“He’s going to learn a lot. We talked about it a few weeks ago: ‘You’re going to get some attention, buddy, so how do we deal with it together?’

“There were stretches where he handled it really well and then there were stretches where we can learn from it. We all knew it was coming. He’ll be fine. If you win the ball yourself, that’s fine. If you’re a wing player who relies on getting the ball, it’s a little more difficult.”

Whether Reid should be banned or not was a major topic of discussion on social media. The majority felt he should be banned, but many felt it was unfair to strip him of the Rising Star title because of it.

with AAP