Liddy, 16, is the nephew of NRL star Matt Bowen, the lightning quick North Queensland Cowboys fullback who has represented both Australia and Queensland.
Liddy, also from far north Queensland, represented his state in rugby league before switching to Australian football five years ago.
So what does Uncle Matt think about that?
“I don’t know, he’d probably be disappointed,” Liddy told afl.com.au in South Africa.
Liddy, like his uncle, played fullback during his junior rugby league days, but at 182cm stands much taller than Bowen.
And after just a few years in AFL Queensland’s talented player pathway system, his decision looks to have been a good one.
His Australian football journey started when AFL Queensland’s state indigenous programs manager Rick Hanlon offered him a scholarship to join an AFL KickStart program – which involved moving from the Cape York Peninsula to attend school in Cairns.
A stand-out athlete, winning state titles over 100m and 200m, Liddy quickly showed his skills with the Sherrin, representing Queensland and earning an All-Australian jumper at under-15 level.
Hanlon said Liddy’s all-round skills made him a prime candidate for the KickStart program.
“He was a really good leader,” Hanlon said.
“It was more about leadership than anything because he didn’t know much about kicking a footy or the game either [at that stage].
“He loved to run. He didn’t know a lot about it, but he just showed outstanding leadership potential because the first thing we look at with our KickStart kids has always been their attributes as a leader.”
Liddy is part of the Indigenous Youth Team’s four-man leadership team while it travels in South Africa.
The team has two more matches to play on its tour after beating a South African Youth team by 100 points in a game that acted as a curtain-raiser to the Carlton-Fremantle exhibition match in Centurion on Saturday.
And Hanlon said Freo’s presence was fitting, given Liddy’s striking resemblance to one of the AFL’s current stars.
“I’ve been saying for a couple of years that he’s a Des Headland type,” Hanlon said.
“He’d be quicker than Dezzy, but watching him [Headland] the other night, it was just sort of resemblances of things that Rex does.”
