AS A DRAFT prospect with the Sandringham Dragons, Murphy Reid was the type of player who would leave his coaches laughing and "enjoying the ride" as they watched his footy IQ at work with an assortment of clever taps and creative disposals.
It's one thing to do it in the Coates Talent League or National Championships, however, and another thing entirely to pinpoint Michael Frederick at AFL level between three opponents or dish an effective handball over your head when two Western Bulldogs players are trying to tackle you.
Four games into his AFL career with Fremantle, it is becoming clear that Reid's unique and creative approach to the game is translating at the top level and improving the Dockers' forward line.
His four goals in six minutes against Geelong in round one were thrilling, but the 18-year-old has continued to improve each week and ranks No.4 at the Dockers for overall score involvements (6.8 a game), No.2 for goal assists (1.3) and No.1 for groundballs won inside 50 (2.3).
Sandringham Dragons and Vic Metro coach Rob Harding has watched his former midfielder closely through the first month of the season and was confident the 18-year-old would be able to continue his habit of rising as he stepped up at the next level.
"He's found his place in that team already and the attributes that he showed at under 18 level are already showing out today at AFL level," Harding told AFL.com.au.
"He's only four games into a career, so there's a long way to go, but he's just a joy to watch and there were games at Dragons level where we would just laugh in the coaches' box at what he could do and you just enjoy the ride a little bit.
"Fremantle supporters are going to love watching him and he's going to do things in every game where you tap the person next to you that you're watching the game with and say, 'Did you see that?'"
Those moments against the Bulldogs for Reid included goal assists to Frederick through a perfectly weighted inside 50 and a handball over his head, as well as a two-versus-one win on the boundary line that set up his own match-sealing goal from a stoppage.
They're the types of highlights Fremantle recruiters clipped up over and over again at under-18 level last year before drafting Reid as a steal with pick No.17.
"He's an unbelievable talent and I would say in every training session we saw little bits of this stuff from 'Murph', like the little taps and bits of creativity," Harding said.
"He'll handball along the ground underneath someone and be able to get it back himself or get it to a teammate, and it all comes from having such great awareness of what's around him and where the traffic is.
"There was one in the last quarter of the National Championships game against Vic Country where he kept the ball in along the boundary line, got it back inside and Levi Ashcroft ended up kicking the goal."
A skilled junior basketballer, Reid's spacial awareness and footy IQ allows him to put players into better positions by delivering the ball where they need to be, Harding said.
The 182cm forward/midfielder also has an ability to arch his body and move through traffic, using a wide variety of handballs to get out of trouble and find a teammate if he is cornered.
"Some of the conversations with clubs at the back end of last year leading up to the Draft were around his speed and whether or not that would be an issue at AFL level," Harding said.
"He's not slow by any means, but his awareness is so good that he feels when pressure or contact is coming, and he knows when to release the ball or when to hold onto it.
"Then every time he went up another level, he just kept finding the pace of it and being able to adjust to it, so I certainly expected that he would be able to do it again (at AFL level)."
Coach Justin Longmuir spoke after the Bulldogs' game about Reid's thirst for knowledge as he works with forwards coach Jaymie Graham to improve his game this year.
His growth was already evident, the coach said, with how he handled the dying moments against the Bulldogs, forcing the ball over the boundary against two opponents in the match-sealing play.
"What he did against Geelong was a five- or six-minute burst and he showed his what he's capable of and his brilliance," Longmuir said.
"But over the last three weeks he's grown his game to be able to impact more often and in different ways.
"The maturity he showed in that last moment in forward 50 to get a stoppage, in another moment he got done for deliberate but his intent to do the right thing was there and think his way through that situation.
"In the end it shows a maturity greater than his age."
