The unravelling of former young AFL star Harley Balic

The grieving father of Harley Balic arrived unannounced at AFL House seeking a meeting with then chief executive Gillon McLachlan in the days that followed the ex-footballer’s death.

According to two sources with knowledge of the visit, who would not be named because of the sensitivities of the case, an emotional and angry Eddie Balic felt the AFL should own some responsibility for how his son’s life had spiralled.

On Sunday, January 9, 2022, Harley, a former AFL player, had been found dead in a Highett hotel from a suspected drug overdose. He was 25.

Two senior AFL officials had no recollection of Eddie Balic’s visit when they were contacted by this masthead, and the league declined to comment on a Herald Sun report that the former Fremantle and Melbourne player’s death was being investigated by Sport Integrity Australia as part of its probe into the AFL’s illicit drug policy. Balic snr did not get in to see McLachlan.

The coroner has not yet made a finding after police compiled a report into Balic’s death.

Balic sidesteps Sharrod Wellingham in a western derby back in 2017.Credit: Getty Images

This masthead has spoken over many months to former friends and teammates from Balic’s school and junior football days, and to five people who were close to him during his time at Fremantle and Melbourne, none of whom wished to publicly discuss Balic out of respect for his family.

Without exception, they spoke of him as a warm and loved person but also of the difficulties he faced.

While Balic’s name is mentioned in a statement from former Melbourne doctor Zeeshan Arain, which is at the centre of a debate over the effectiveness of the AFL’s illicit drugs policy, these interviews paint a picture of a complex young man who experienced mental health problems through his life, and battled serious substance abuse.

He remained in the care of AFL Players Association psychologists in the weeks before his death.

Balic grew up in Melbourne’s bayside south, attending Parkdale Secondary College and playing footy for Mordialloc-Braeside. He was a gifted athlete, played point guard for a succession of Sandringham Sabres basketball representative teams, and was a talented player for the Sandringham Dragons in the under-18 league that feeds the AFL draft. He was athletic, good-looking and charismatic. People liked him.

Harley Balic warming up before a Dockers match. He played four senior games for the club.Credit: Getty Images

While he was gregarious and fun, Harley acknowledged in later interviews that he carried a burden of anxiety and mental health difficulties through his life.

When his name was called out in the 2015 national draft at pick 38 by Fremantle Football Club, Eddie jokingly offered him $70,000 – the price of a first-year playing contract – not to go across the country to play football.

His manager Matt Bain of TLA was sure Harley would be drafted – some even figured him at one stage a chance to be a top-10 pick – but a wrist injury in his draft year saw him slide in the draft.

Ten different AFL clubs called on the family home in that year to talk to him. His parents, Eddie and Nancy, are now estranged, but Harley had spoken in media interviews of being “a bit of a mummy’s boy”. He had two brothers, Cooper and Jesse. Cooper is an artist who has worked with his dad Eddie, who runs an art school in Mentone, while Jesse is a doctor and medical researcher.

At Fremantle, Balic shared a house with Harley Bennell, who had arrived at the club via the Gold Coast, where he was linked to alleged drug use when media ran photographs of him with white powder. The two Harleys were also good friends with Dockers teammate Shane Yarran, who later died by suicide. This masthead is not suggesting that Bennell introduced Balic to drugs.

Harley Bennell played 88 AFL games across stints at the Gold Coast, Fremantle, and Melbourne.Credit: Getty Images

In his time at the Dockers, Balic took an indefinite break from the club a couple of times for personal reasons and returned home to Melbourne. He only managed four games in his two years in Perth before he was traded at the end of 2017 to the Demons for pick 65. After just one year on Melbourne’s list, he gave the game away. He just couldn’t do it any more.

“It was an easy decision in the end, as I’ve thought about it for a little while now,” he told the Melbourne website of his retirement decision.

“It’s something I’m not going to regret, and I’m very appreciative to Melbourne for letting me come to the club for a second chance. I’ve always loved football, but my heart’s not in it and everything ends up being a grind and I think it’s just the right thing to do.”

Four sources with knowledge of his situation confirmed Balic had been a drug user at Fremantle and again in Melbourne. He was later open about his life-long battle with mental health issues in several newspaper articles. Fremantle were contacted but could not comment on issues from 2015. Melbourne were also contacted for comment.

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“I was wasting away doing something I didn’t love at the time, and I think I was very immature, not mature enough to realise what I had, how lucky I was,” he told Leader Newspapers more than a year after his retirement.

“I guess the way I left football, unfinished, left me lost in the world. That brought on depressing episodes and things like that.

“Getting to the highest level, which you’d dedicated your whole life to, and then all of a sudden, being a nobody, I found that pretty challenging.”

After his retirement, Balic remained in regular contact with and in the care of Dave Williams, who had been the psychologist at Melbourne and was later the AFLPA’s psychologist. Balic was also cared for by another AFLPA psychologist, Matt McGregor.

Post-football he tried real estate for a period, but his mental health and drug problems were escalating.

Several times he went into drug-rehabilitation clinics paid for by the players’ association, but when he came out, he was drawn back into drug use.

In the weeks and days before his death he was in regular contact with Williams and McGregor, who were still working to get him back into rehab, as was his manager Bain. His long-term girlfriend, Ebony, had battled to help him get through his addiction.

Eddie Balic says the AFL system failed his son, telling the Herald Sun that his death was avoidable.

“I believe that the AFL has a duty of care to formally intervene early into young vulnerable players who have been identified as having substance abuse issues,” he said.

“I also feel that had better support been put in place early for my son, it may have prevented this tragic outcome.”

Others say it is hard to disentangle his mental health problems from his drug addiction.

On Tuesday the Herald Sun reported Arain’s letter to federal independent MP Andrew Wilkie in which he pointed to Balic’s death as an example of the AFL’s failed drug policy.

“It gets to the point where they [AFL clubs] are like, ‘Well, if we can’t help this player, we will move them on,’” Arain is reported to have said in his statement.

“And the problem is that the player doesn’t cease to exist to be a person once they are not in your club, the duty of care still goes on. Take Harley Balic, for example. A few years after Harley Balic left the Melbourne Football Club he was dead related to drug use.”

Former Fremantle coach Ross Lyon, now at St Kilda, said he had a deep understanding of Balic’s issues.

Lyon added, however, that the AFL and clubs could not shoulder the full burden of player welfare.

“My experience and what Harley shared with me, he clearly sat in where he needed support and medical attention,” Lyon said on Wednesday.

“I have no visibility on what occurs behind the scenes, but you make that judgment that that occurred. Who wants to lose a son, a daughter? It’s very emotional talking about him ... He was a pretty special young man.”

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