2 days ago
How Tom Harley traded up from one game at Port Adelaide to holding the keys to AFL House
One kick. One goal.
That's where it could have ended for new AFL COO Tom Harley.
Almost exactly 27 years ago, the then-20-year-old debuted for Port Adelaide in a round 14 game against Geelong that has every right to be forgotten.
It was mid-season at Football Park, between two teams that would go on to miss finals — one on a trajectory up the ladder, the other crawling towards years of uncomfortable irrelevance.
Amid a score of future Port premiership stars like Gavin Wanganeen and Warren Tredrea and Stuart Dew, the unfashionable, slow-moving number 27 was all but a footnote in a game that was an annotation in a season that was an aside in the history of both the Power and the Cats.
He came on. He got a kick. That kick was a goal. He never played for Port again.
For many, that would have been the end of it.
Harley had worked hard to get to that point. He was hardly a star in his juniors, and lacked the skills, the speed, and the sheer athleticism to be considered any sort of game-changer on the field.
He was the type of player that would be one of the last picked, and should have been grateful for the opportunity.
One kick. One goal.
Enough to be satisfied that he had made it to the AFL and at least got his hands on the pill.
By the end of the season, he was surplus to demands at Port. He was studying for a Bachelor of Commerce in Adelaide, and a life of full-time work with a bit of part-time footy glanced around the changing room doors at Alberton and waggled its finger, as it had waggled at thousands of players before him.
But that one kick. That one goal. Somehow, it had done enough to capture the eye of someone at Geelong.
Maybe it was "master recruiter" Stephen Wells, who was early in his journey at the club, back when he was just "recruiter" Stephen Wells. Or maybe it was coach Gary Ayres, who had a habit of making unfashionable decisions at a club that had for so long relied on fashionable players.
Whoever it was, they decided that Tom Harley was worth a punt. They gave Port Adelaide pick 37, Port Adelaide gave them Harley, and in an odd reminder of what he was worth to them, the Cats gave Harley the number 37 guernsey.
He would debut for the Cats — as he did for the Power — in a round 14 game that had little bearing on the season. A Geelong team in the midst of its burgeoning irrelevance, an Adelaide team on the way down the ladder after two premierships.
Three kicks. No goals.
The next week he'd get the ball nine times.
By game three, he'd found the Sherrin on 13 occasions.
Carefully and gradually, he built on his trade.
By 2000, and under new coach Mark Thompson, Harley had turned himself into a key defender whose magnet remained permanently attached to the centre half-back position on the white board.
Slow, but clever, undersized, but strong. He was a reader of the game, a watcher who only inserted himself into the story when it absolutely demanded it.
There was nothing glamorous about him. Geelong didn't need more glamour. The new kids on the list — Gary Ablett Jr, Steve Johnson, Jimmy Bartel — they had enough glitz to make Moorabool St feel like Sunset Boulevard.
But Harley was different to the old Geelong. That Geelong cherished style above substance. That Geelong could make the Grand Final in a glorious halo of after-the-siren heroics but fall apart when it mattered.
Harley was the in-betweener who had the respect of the players around him as a more-than-reliable general in the backline, and the respect of the administrators as a well-spoken, intelligent footballer who was fast learning what the business of footy was all about.
That every man persona was part of the reason Thompson made him captain in 2007, the year Geelong broke its 44-year premiership drought.
Ask any Geelong supporter and they'll mention a few names as being the key architects in turning the club around.
Wells as recruiter will certainly be there. Thompson as coach deserves more plaudits than most. President Frank Costa and chief executive Brian Cook will always get a nod.
When they talk about players, they'll mention Ablett and Bartel, Brad Ottens in the ruck, Matthew Scarlett at full-back. But a special mention will be left for Harley.
That yes, he was the leader of an exceptional backline on the field. But it was what he did off it that was key.
He understood that kicking the ball was one small part of a successful club.
Having retired at the end of 2009, once again lifting the premiership cup to the Geelong faithful, Harley dabbled in media, he worked at the AIS-AFL Academy, and he played in role in the establishment of the GWS Giants.
He got a taste for it all, before joining the Sydney Swans in 2014 as their general manager, becoming the CEO in 2019, and overseeing a club that has seen record crowds, record memberships, and sustained on-field success in the heart of rugby league territory.
Now, Harley faces his greatest challenge of all, becoming the second banana behind Andrew Dillon.
One of the great knocks of the AFL of late has been a perceived disregard for the clubs and the fans. Whether right or wrong, discord has been growing.
The clubs and the coaches have felt unheard and unloved. The fans have felt pushed aside for the almighty dollar, as costs skyrocket and games scream out from behind a paywall.
Harley's status as an in-betweener has never been more important.
His knowledge of the clubs, his understanding of playing the game, his acute awareness of what success means to long-suffering fans will be put to the test over the coming years.
One kick. One goal.
In 2005, a Canadian blogger traded a red paper clip for a pen. He traded the pen for a doorknob. And he kept trading up until he eventually owned a house.
From one kick, one goal, Tom Harley has traded up to almost holding the keys to AFL House.
He might only have one shot at getting it right once he has them.
The AFL can only hope that he kicks truly.
