Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
West Coast coach Andrew McQualter marvelled at Harley Reid’s willingness to battle on in the contest despite the superstar being hindered by a badly corked quad in their 19-point defeat to Collingwood.
Reid was heavily restricted for much of the Eagles’ 17.15 (119) to 15.8 (98) defeat to a now finals-bound Magpies at Optus Stadium after he was injured in the first quarter.
The 21-year-old not only struggled to kick but also lacked his trademark power from stoppages as a result, but battled on to still have a significant impact, finishing with a team-high 29 disposals as well as six clearances, seven score involvements and a goal.
McQualter was full of praise for Reid post-game, who several times looked like he might not be able to continue only to fight on as his side fell to a ninth-consecutive defeat.
“I thought he was so tough. He obviously got hindered pretty early, maybe even a couple of times, but his contest work was just amazing as the game went on,” he said.
“He probably lacked maybe a touch of power to be able to get out of the tackles today, or Collingwood tackled well.
“But his ability to just to put himself in the spot over and over. We moved him forward in the last quarter, and he looked pretty threatening at times as well, he just couldn’t quite finish it, but again a huge step forward for the young man.
“Ed Allan’s done quite a few tagging jobs throughout the year and went to him at stoppage, and he had to work his way through that at different times as well.”
While Reid battled, Collingwood stand-in captain and Brownlow Medal favourite Nick Daicos flourished, with his 39 disposals, 10 clearances, 11 inside 50s and a goal arguably the difference in the game.
McQualter said while the 23-year-old was clearly the best player on the ground, he felt their tagger in Brady Hough did an admirable job.
“He’s extraordinary. In my opinion right now he’s the best player in the competition by a long stretch. I don’t think there’s anyone close to him at the moment,” he said.
“But funnily enough, he was the best player on the ground today, he was amazing, but I actually thought Hough actually did a reasonable job.
“He didn’t play full game time on him, there were times of the game when Houghy was off, and Nick got off the chain a little bit. There were periods of the game, and this is crazy, but he (Hough) actually kept him (Daicos) to 67 per cent disposal efficiency, which is a little bit lower for Nick. If you do not tag him, it’s probably at 100 (per cent). He was too good today and a large part of why they won.”
While West Coast were competitive, McQualter lamented a 15-minute patch at the start of the third term when Collingwood burst out to a 34-point lead which proved costly.
“I think the game was quite even for most parts, but it was probably 15 minutes at the start of that third quarter, we just didn’t come out with the same life that we had,” he said.
“I thought we had really strong spirit today for large periods of the game, but just for that 15-minute period we looked just a bit lifeless, which was a shame because they kicked five goals to our one in that period and I think that’s really the difference in the game.
“We missed tackles, we couldn’t pressure them, we couldn’t get our hands on the ball for that period. It just shows that you have to be able to play four quarters of football to win games.”
