AFL mid-season draft: Why Frankston VFL ruckman Liam Reidy is making a strong case

The first was with Andrew Kahofer, the coach of local club East Brighton in the Southern league, during the 2021 pre-season.

“He gave me a call and said, ‘I’ve got a kid playing with us who is too good to be here; he should be with you playing VFL footy’,’’ Ryan says.

“I thought that was a pretty good thing to do, send the kid on to us.’’

The second, more an exhortation than a conversation, came a few weeks later with Frankston assistant coach Lachie Oakley.

Having watched the 204cm Reidy at training, Oakley told Ryan: “Quick, get that guy signed up.’’ Now Ryan is having other conversations about Reidy, with AFL clubs and player managers.

The 21-year-old ruckman has developed into an AFL mid-season draft hope, as was made clear this week when his name was included in a list of state league players granted exemptions to nominate for it.

The left-footer joined the Dolphins in 2021 and played one match in a season cut short by Covid-19. He’s played in every game this season with increasing assurance and influence; his ruck work is coming along and he’s nifty inside 50.

Reidy is growing as a player, just as he grew in his teenage years when he was in the juniors with bayside club Beaumaris. Always tall, he “really shot up’’ one year and the spurt brought on growing pains. His knees, feet and ankles ached.

He felt he could never show his best and, frustrated, at one stage he switched to basketball.

“That was in the under 17s, I think, when I stopped playing footy,’’ he says. “My body kept breaking down on me. I had every problem you could imagine. It wasn’t a great time, going through that. Every game I came back, I’d get injured. I couldn’t get going. My muscles seemed tight. I was growing and everything was pulling.

“It was an awkward stage of my life.’’

Beaumaris director of coaching Steve Nash says Reidy was dogged by injuries - “He always seemed to be sore, the kid’’ - but his ability and potential were obvious.

In recent years tall and talented young players have come out of Beaumaris juniors as if by assembly line.

There was Hayden McLean, now at Sydney.

There was Joe Amartey, also a Swannie.

And last season in the mid-season draft there were Jacob Edwards - drafted at No 1 by North Melbourne - and Max Heath, nabbed by St Kilda.

Now it’s Reidy catching attention. He played at an age level above Edwards and Heath at Beaumaris but he’s got to know them recently.

“During the off-season we go to the same gym,’’ he says. “Both of them have done really well with their footy.’’

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Reidy attended Brighton Secondary College and crossed from Beaumaris to East Brighton Vampires to play in the under 19s.

He finished third in the league medal. It wasn’t the greatest standard of football, he says, but he was playing with mates, avoided injury, got back to enjoying the game and started to think about a higher level.

Kahofer, new to the club but old on the idea of promoting youngsters, steered him to Frankston.

Reidy was already hard at work on his body under leading bayside fitness coach Jarrad Kay. At 19, he weighed 85 kilograms. Three years on he comes in at 103 kilograms and has confidence in what he can do with his filled-out frame.

He needed every bit of it to match Greater Western Sydney big man Matt Flynn in Round 2.

“He’s super-strong and I was surprised at how good a runner he is,’’ Reidy says. “I think that was my awakening to VFL footy. It opened my eyes. I’m like, ‘Geez, this is a fair step-up.’ It grew my hunger to improve and get better. It was like a benchmark challenge.

“I was pretty hard on myself after that game because I want to get on an AFL list and to do that you’ve got to be better than the guys you come up against. But ‘DR’ [Ryan] got me in for a review at his place and said I competed well and to stick with it and the energy and effort were there.’’

With James Rendell missing the early exchanges of the season, Reidy was Frankston’s No 1 ruckman. They’re now sharing the load as ruck-forwards.

“I haven’t really played much ruck in senior footy,’’ Reidy says. “I’m taking it on board and I’m enjoying it. You learn a lot in this league playing against AFL talent.’’

As for the mid-season draft, Reidy, a third-year apprentice electrician, says he will be surprised if he’s picked up.

“There are slight murmurs,’’ he says. “The door is slightly ajar.’’

Ryan points out that Reidy has played little football in the past three years - he never heard a starting siren in 2020, and he had one VFL game and three for East Brighton Vampires in the 2021 season that finished early – and has much improvement ahead of him.

He says his young ruckman is worthy of a story ahead of the draft, rather than being anything like the finished article as a ruckman.

“He’s a work in progress. Craig Hucker [Frankston assistant coach] is doing a lot of work with him with his ruck craft, because he’s still pretty raw,’’ Ryan says.

“He’s new to it. There is a lot of nuance for him to pick up. But his repeat effort, his follow-up work, his competitive nature, really makes him stand out for a guy his size.

“Every week he’s high in our grit actions, chase-down tackles and things like that. He’s a fairly impressive big unit.’’