Harley Reid will be a Blue again, but will not be with his beloved Tongala in the Murray league.
Reid will play with Carlton’s VFL team in a fortnight and despite the Bendigo Pioneers having a month-long Coates Talent League break that begins this weekend he will not be allowed to play with Tongala during the break.
He was a star for the AFL Academy against Port Adelaide’s SANFL team at Mount Barker during Gather Round in South Australia last week and in the next four weeks will play with Carlton and Vic Country.
The month long talent league break is as a result of Vic Metro and Vic Country trial games (which Reid is not required to contest) and a Young Guns match where Reid will play with Vic Country.
Last season he was a star of the Under-18 national championships and was one of only two bottom-age players selected in the All Australian team.
Kyabram has received confirmation from Bendigo Pioneers that they will have the services of Coates Talent League defender Mitchell Dodos during the next four weeks as the competition goes into a short recess.
Dodos may, however, yet earn a spot in the Young Guns and Vic Country game on May 14. It will mean Dodos and Reid could be opponents for the match, with the Young Guns made up of 19-year-old players.
Several Pioneers players, notwithstanding Reid, will spend four weeks playing in the Murray and Goulburn Valley leagues as the talent league does not resume until Sunday, May 21.
Reid is expected to play next with Carlton’s VFL team on April 29 or 30, yet to be finalised, against the Western Bulldogs.
“I was going to play this weekend, but there was a late change of plan,” he said.
“I will gave a week off this week to re-set.”
In four weeks Reid, captain of Bendigo Pioneers this season, will make a second appearance for the AFL Academy — ironically against Carlton VFL — at Marvel Stadium.
Carlton’s VFL team is due to travel to Brisbane the following week, but Reid won’t be travelling withthe Blues.
At Adelaide on the weekend Reid and the AFL Academy players watched the Fremantle and Gold Coast game, then met with Adelaide players and coaches during a tour of their facility before having an informal lunch with the AFL recruiters at the Adelaide Crows facility.
Reid will be at this weekend’s Tongala game and said, if allowed, he might run water for the Blues.
He said he had played his last game, at least in the immediate future, for Tongala.
Given his high profile the Blues could have expected boom attendances if the potential number one AFL draft pick was able to show his wares at his home club.
That pipe dream is, however, up in flames. Reid has played four games with Tongala at senior level, in 2021-22, after kicking 130 goals in 2019 in the Murray league’s Under-14 competition.
Tongala has Cobram this weekend, before meeting Rumbalara (April 29), Tocumwal (May 6) and Numurkah (May 13).
Dodos, who played his best game with the Pioneers on Sunday against Gippsland Power, would be available for Kyabram matches against Shepparton, Tatura, Mooroopna and Euroa.
Several Echuca-Moama-based players have been starring for the Pioneers this season, including Oliver Poole, Hugh Byrne and Tom Evans.
Lachlan Hogan, from Moama, also made his 2023 debut on the weekend, after playing two games last season as a bottom-age player. He is the son of Tongala Primary School principal Rob Hogan.
He has played two games at senior level with the Murray league Magpies this season.
Bendigo Pioneers are sitting third on the Coates Talent League ladder after winning three of the opening four rounds.
After a 15-point round one loss to Greater Western Victorian Rebels the Pioneers have had wins against GWS Giants (82 points), Tassie Devils (38 points) and, at the weekend, against Gippsland Power (17 points).
Following two weeks of byes the Pioneers will face fourth-ranked Geelong Falcons in the first of two successive Queen Elizabeth Oval matches on Sunday, May 21.
The Pioneers have two more byes, on June 10 and July 29, for the national championship rounds.