TAYLA LEVELS THE FIELD

New doco Kick Like Tayla helps “straighten out the story”, AFLW star Tayla Harris tells Siobhan Duck

IF her critics have voiced it, Tayla Harris has heard it. The footy star, immortalised mid-kick in a 2019 image that became an iconic photo in the annals of Australian sport, has seen all too well how her naysayers haven’t been exactly shy. “I know what they say,” she says. “I’m overrated. Overpaid. I’m just some girl who got lucky with a photo. But they have no idea who I am.”

From the well-publicised online sexual harassment she faced over that photo to the negative commentary over her supposed pay demands, Harris’ AFLW career has been more heavily scrutinised than any other.

Now, she’s taking control of her own narrative and staring down those online trolls with a plea to be kinder in her revealing new documentary Kick Like Tayla.

“I really trust the crew who put this together, and I think that was a key part of it in order to have that vulnerability,” she says of filming the documentary, in which she shares her story and discusses – sometimes tearfully – how that negative attention made her feel.

“I think to be able to actually tell the truth without it being manipulated in different ways is a real rarity at this point.”

While the 25-year-old sports star – who’s also a successful professional boxer – had creative input into the film’s content and editing, she hasn’t shied away from tackling some painful and controversial terrain, albeit within reason.

“Well, no-one else is going to do it for me, so I guess I had to straighten out the story,” she concedes with a shrug, especially in regards to the emotional fallout from the media storm over her final season with Carlton in 2021. “But then, the details of how certain things have happened along the way aren’t necessary to tell the public. Some things [like salary] are important to keep to yourself.”

While the documentary certainly gives viewers far more insight into what makes Harris tick – her close relationship with her family and partner, her beloved pet dogs, and her early beginnings as a player – she’s under no illusions that it will make her detractors think twice before they speak or post, or watch it at all.

“I’m not really interested in their opinion,” she declares.

“If it changes someone’s mind, then that’s a good step. But it’s not my job to change other people’s minds.”

KICK LIKE TAYLA

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