Best since Fyfe: The young Docker earning superstar comparisons

Fremantle have released the shackles on their prized young gun, shifting Murphy Reid on ball ahead of the 2026 season.

And it could be a move that proves all the difference.

Playing career-high midfield minutes within the AAMI Community Series, Reid accumulated 30 disposals, six score involvements, five inside 50s and over 500 metres gained in a best-on-ground performance against the Crows.

Winning the 2025 Rising Star award, the teenager was selected out of Sandringham at Pick 17, joining the Dockers as part of the loaded 2024 draft class headlined by Sam Lalor and Jagga Smith.

Just a year into his career, Reid is proving more than just an avid selection by Freo. In fact, according to Sam Edmund, it could stack up as one of the best draft decisions the Dockers have ever made in their short history.

“I want to talk about Murphy Reid,” Edmund said on SEN Fireball.

“He was Pick 17 of the 2024 draft. We’re prisoners of the moment, and I’m perhaps in a mood to unnecessarily go well into the future here.

“Nat Fyfe was Pick 20 – I reckon (Reid) is going to be the best draft pick Fremantle have ever nailed aside from Nat Fyfe.”

“(What about) The Pav (Matthew Pavlich)?” Fireball co-host Kane Cornes asked.

Edmund: “He was (pick) four – you expect quality at four.

“I know he is still a first-round pick, Murphy Reid, but for him to transition as he is going to do this year, between a first-year goal sneak to an elite level AFL midfielder, I think it’s going to unfold a lot quicker and a lot more successfully than what we have envisaged.

“We look at (Caleb) Serong and (Andrew) Brayshaw, and when Hayden Young is not there… they just lack a point of difference. This guy comes in, and he has produced 530 metres gained like that in that game.

“The way he moves and the drive he gives them is something that – as good as Serong and Brayshaw are – they don’t.

“This guy is going to produce something different this year. He had 30 touches, 530 metres gained – he lit a fire under them on Saturday.”

Cornes couldn't help but chime in on the subject, likening the young gun's traits to those of some of the game's greatest ever players.

“I couldn’t take my eyes off him,” he said.

“I don’t know what it is about him. There’s some Stevie J quality about him, whether his vision, how clean he is, his ability to find a player in open space with a handball over the top of his head and they don’t break stride…

“He gets up and he loses his opponent, and he gets back. He is just so crafty and smart… just a pure footballer.

“When you look at the draft, (Sam) Lalor, (Finn) O’Sullivan, (Jagga) Smith – the top three is excellent. Then you start to go, hang on, have people overlooked him here?

“We’re not sure because it’s early. (Sid) Draper, (Levi) Ashcroft, (Harvey) Langford is a star, (Josh) Smillie we haven’t seen, (Tobie) Travaglia a star, (Leo) Lombard is going to be a star, (Alix) Tauru the same… it’s a great draft. The 2024 draft is a great draft, so maybe it is a fraction early.

“But at 17, for a player that has some Gary Ablett Jnr-ish, Stevie J-ish, (Scott) Pendlebury-ish… I’m not saying he’s going to be as good as Gary Ablett or Pendlebury, but he has those types of traits.

“He has got time, he is clean and what he did last year was extraordinary, particularly in big games. He is not flustered and he loves the big moments. Freo have got an absolute ripper.”

Reid and the Dockers open their season against the Cats in Round 1 - a fixture that Geelong won by 78 points in 2025.