The journey to get to Tigerland has been full of ups and downs for 21-year-old big-bodied VFL midfielder Harry Scott, but after a tumultuous draft year in 2023, he found his way to Punt Road. 

Although Scott spent his later school years boarding at Scotch College, he didn’t have the typical Melburnian upbringing, growing up on a 500-acre farm in Inverloch, almost two hours from the hustle and bustle of the city. 

“I grew up on a farm down there (Inverloch), my dad and his brother owned it together,” Scott said.

“They bought it off their dad, so it has been in our family for a little while, and they ran a dairy down there, which is now a beef farm.

“I got shipped off to boarding school at Scotch (College), and I did my last year and a half of schooling there and ever since then I have stayed in Melbourne.”

Scott thoroughly enjoyed his upbringing and still uses his family's property in Inverloch as a way of escaping from football and connecting with family.

“It (my upbringing) was very different to some of the kids I went to school with,” he said. 

“Lots of freedom to do some fun stuff, I grew up riding motorbikes and running around the farm. 

“Being in Inverloch we were close to the beach too, so we had that part of it as well.”

Scott played his junior football with Inverloch-Kongwak Football Club, winning premierships in both the Under-11’s and 12’s competitions, before moving to Leongatha in the Gippsland League to further his footy.

Also an extremely talented basketballer, Scott had a choice to make after being selected for Vic Country’s Under-16 team to compete at the 2020 Australian Junior Championships.

But with Covid-19 cutting that campaign short, the then 16-year-old decided to focus on footy, a sport that he was nowhere near as good at, from his own admission.

“Before I could even do my top-age year I had kind of chosen to go the footy route, so that is when my basketball stopped,” Scott said. 

“Growing up I was definitely a lot better at basketball than I was at footy, but that has kind of swung around now.

“If you choose basketball you have to be pretty good at it, and it is pretty tough to make it into the big leagues, so that is probably a big reason as to why I ended up going with footy.”

Around that time Scott began to realise football was something he also really excelled at, finding his way into the Gippsland Power junior teams.

“I was lucky enough to get selected to play for the Under-16s Gippsland Power side, and I ended up being selected as captain of that team,” he said. 
 
“I played pretty well in that first game and got best on ground.

“That was my first real taste to see that I could compete at that level and that is probably when I thought, maybe I will give this a crack.”

The classy midfielder progressed through to the Under-18s team, playing a good first season before adversity struck early in his draft year of 2023, getting glandular fever which rocked him physically for the entire season. 

“I went into that top-age year feeling pretty good and played a good practice match against Dandenong (Stingrays), before playing in Round 1,” Scott said. 

“Literally the week of Round 2 I got really crook, and I wasn’t sure what it was at the time.

“I missed that week and then went and got checked out, it turns out that I got glandular fever, which was pretty unfortunate timing.

“I was bedridden for a couple of weeks and remember just lying on the couch and sleeping most days."

Throughout those few weeks Scott lost around eight kilograms and got tonsillitis on multiple occasions, before returning to the training track. 

But upon returning, the youngster hurt his quad and completely tore it that weekend, putting him back on the sidelines for an extended period of time. 

“I went out on Wednesday to train, and I felt my quad go a bit, I was like, that is a bit sore, maybe it’s just a bit tight,” Scott said. 

“I didn’t really tell anyone and ended up playing that weekend against Northern Knights and had one of my better games for the year.

“After that game I got it checked out, and it ended up being a 20-something centimetre tear straight down my left quad.”

That whole ordeal knocked the rising star around for the best part of a year after that, regularly feeling fatigued and lethargic while trying to work out what was next in his football journey. 

It also fazed out any chance of being drafted into the AFL, after having initial chats with multiple clubs at the beginning of the 2023 season. 

“I am all good now, but definitely for 6-12 months after I got glandular fever, there were side effects,” Scott said. 

“Going into my first pre-season here (Richmond), I was definitely able to get back to where I was beforehand, but it almost felt like it was a year too late.

“I would rather have had that clear run in my top-age year, but I am happy to be here.”

An insurance broker by day, Scott was approached by the Sandringham Zebras before the 2024 season and almost joined the club before Richmond came knocking. 

A family connection to the club helped get Scott across to Tigerland, with his father Allister having played 19 games for Richmond in the AFL across four seasons in the early 1990’s.

“Ollie Grant (Richmond’s Victorian Recruiting Manager) gave me a call and asked if I wanted to come down. I think it was about a week before pre-season training was starting and I just kind of took a leap,” Scott said. 

“I was lucky enough to get a contract before Christmas, so that took the pressure off me and I could just focus on getting better at footy.

“He (dad) and my whole family were pretty stoked when they found out that I got a contract, because after my top-age year there were no expectations.”

Scott had to really work for his opportunity to play in his first season at Richmond, getting his chance in Round 9, 2024, against Essendon at the MCG in a curtain-raiser to the annual Dreamtime at the 'G clash.

“The first half of the year I was playing a lot of local footy at Old Scotch,” he said.

“But then I was lucky enough to get my debut in the Dreamtime game, it was probably the best way to debut that I can think of. It was a dream of mine to play on the MCG."

He played the next five games before breaking his wrist, but managed to get back and play in the Wildcard Round clash against Williamstown to round out the 2024 season.

But it was getting the chance to play in a premiership with some of his closest mates at Old Scotch that really capped off an amazing year for Scott, repaying him for his hard work in getting back from injury. 

“It was the first flag that they (Old Scotch) had won in 60 years, so it had been a massive drought and a long time coming,” he said.  

“The club members, sponsors and all of the people that help the club run were probably more excited than a few of us playing.”

After an extremely positive first season at Tigerland, Scott took his game to newfound heights last year, playing in all 19 VFL games and putting himself on the draft radar once more.

He averaged 21 disposals for the season and showed his wares as a natural ball-winning midfielder, with great foot skills and running capacity. 

A career-best season was rewarded with a top five finish in the Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medal, sitting among some of the best young players in the VFL competition.

The 21-year-old also finished third in the Club's best and fairest and put his name up in lights.

Scott believes a positional shift in the first half of the 2025 season helped his game evolve and added more strings to his bow. 

“I really built my outside game and my running power, which was good, and when I got that chance to go on-ball, I felt like I had so many more weapons,” he said. 

While wins haven’t been a regular occurrence in 2026, Scott has enjoyed another strong season, playing a mix of midfield and in defence and will be aiming to finish his season off strongly in the yellow and black.