A road full of injuries, time on the sidelines and VFL spells has curtailed a promising career with just 40 games under his belt.
But the 21-year-old is starting to make inroads, with a senior recall perhaps not as far away as many would think.
Harper’s recent stint for Werribee has proven to be more fruitful than most. Under the guidance of senior coach John Lamont (former North Melbourne development coach), he's starting to find form.
“He’s (Lamont) had a big influence on my career,” the North youngster told NMFC.com.au.
“He’s really instructive in what he says to do and he gives you the confidence to go out there and play.”
Lamont worked with Harper at North as recently as last year, with his move to the club's VFL affiliate meaning he still has close contact with club's emerging talent.
“I had a lot of development coaching from him when he was here (at the Kangaroos). Now that he’s gone to Werribee it hasn’t been hard to transition at all.
“He helps me out more because he knows where you’ve been, where you’ve come from. Hopefully he knows my potential and where I can be at and he’s pushing me hard to get back into the senior side and better myself.”
For Lamont, the situation with Harper can be simplified to a very straight-forward trait, going back to the time the two spent together at Arden Street.
“It’s about belief for him,” he said.
“It’s about the belief that he’s a good player and his strengths are hard to combat for any opposition side.
“Part of it is about staying in the game. It’s about seeing the ball, joining in at the appropriate time and then using his speed, change of direction and good kicking skills to benefit the team.”
As the Tigers' coach, Lamont no doubts harbours his own ambition to push into the finals, but he'll be more than happy to see Harper take the step up to AFL level.
“We just want him to play well, get through the games and then have good weeks on the training track. That’ll mean he can put plenty of hard work in, and with that work comes the understanding that he’ll play well.
“We’re seeing overall improvement. Hopefully he’s not too far away from having that consistency that means he’ll be right in the firing line for selection (for North).”
Considering Lamont saw the number 23 firing as a dangerous goal sneak before succumbing to an ankle injury, he's better placed than most to know what he can produce.
It’s an ankle that has troubled Harper for the better part of the last 12 months. He had surgery to debride scar tissue. In layman’s terms, debridement is the process of removing unhealthy tissue.
It was an issue caused by what basically boiled down to an overprotective body function.
“I over-scar compared to most people. So after games as a healing process it produces more scar tissue,” Harper revealed.
“The scar tissue tends to jam up a joint, so it creates less movement in the ankle. It’s a matter of doing all my recovery processes to keep it clear. Generally speaking, eventually it’ll get right.”
While some injuries are easier to play with than others, anything related to an ankle can rob a player of their explosiveness, a feature of Harper's game when he's at his best.
“It mainly affects side to side movement. Going in straight lines isn’t too bad, but when I go to my left it’s the strength and mobility that’s just hampered a little bit.
“It’s just about getting that last little bit out of the ankle.”
Harper’s most recent clean-up was in early February. While the thought process was initially to make sure the ankle was clean and ready to go, other factors intervened to make it a bigger job.
“They found a bit of cartilage that had calcified (hardened) when I went for my clean out. It was about the size of a pea so they took that out.
“It didn’t show up on the scan so it was sort of a blessing in disguise that we did the operation. They ended up finding something they didn’t think was in there.
“That’s been taken out as well as the excess scar tissue that was floating around.”
Harper has played six VFL games this season, and with each week the increased confidence in his ankle has been noticeable.
However, a minor setback, although not costing any game time, illustrated the toughness in coming back from a re-occurring injury.
“Down the track, in a couple of weeks, it won’t be an issue anymore. Like, I felt really good in it two weeks ago but then there was a slight incident with five minutes to go in a game.
“I got caught in a tackle and my ankle was jammed a little bit. But we’re nearly there and back to 100 per cent.”
In his time at Werribee, Harper has worked his way back into the role he likes to play in the royal blue and white. Spending the majority of his time at half-forward, he has shown flashes of the speed which made him a human highlight reel during the early part of his career.
There has been an extra addition to his game in the last fortnight, all in the name of helping him long-term.
“I’ve played a lot more wing the last couple of weeks just to try and get my aerobic capacity back up to scratch,” Harper added.
“It was a little bit down in previous weeks so I’m doing extras on the track to get that back up.”
Considering so much of Harper’s game is based around the ability to burst off the mark regularly, it's an area pivotal to cutting it at AFL level.
“I’ve had some good first halves, dropped away in the third quarter and then come back in the last.
“It’s a matter of being consistent over four quarters. And I can feel it in my body, in the third I can feel a bit flat and then I come back out and I feel OK because I’ve had a bit of a recovery in a way.”
The half-forward role is often regarded as one of the tougher challenges. Possession counts are often of secondary importance.
“It’s a role where you can either have a really good day or a really bad day. You can be in the right place at the right time but still not get the ball.
“I’m going into games focusing on tackling pressure, and that’s what’s getting me a game. If I’m doing the right stuff defensively the rest of it will come.”
