Channel 7 expert Daisy Pearce says Harley Reid needs to work to be ‘bulletproof’ to beat taggers

AFL expert Daisy Pearce says while West Coast young gun Harley Reid must put the work in to make himself “bulletproof” to cope with taggers, it is up to the rest of the team to exploit the added attention on one player.

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson made no secret of their plans to try to curtail the influence of “real igniter” Reid when they take on the Eagles at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

Elliot Yeo declared the Eagles were prepared to “stand up” for the 20-year-old superstar should the Kangaroos pay extra attention to him, with Finn O’Sullivan touted to be the man charged with tagging Reid.

Pearce — who will return to the Channel 7 commentary box for Port Adelaide’s clash against Essendon on Sunday — revealed in her role as Eagles AFLW coach, they had combated a similar issue with their young star in Ella Roberts, and the solution had been multifaceted.

“The way we go about it with Ella is constantly trying to upskill her with tools and strategies to combat her direct opponent. Through her own development and improvement, the better and better we get as a team in supporting the structures and players around Ella, the harder it gets to put your attention into one person,” Pearce told The West Australian.

“It’s something we’re building more and more, which is a less reliance on Ella and setting up your strategy so you allow all players to play to their strengths, so they complement and work together, so that if they come after one, it gives you some liberties with other players that they know how to exploit.

“I am sure the conversations that they’re having with Harley are similar, but at the end of the day, it all just comes back to putting the work in and making yourself more and more bulletproof so that when teams try to combat players like that game in a certain way, they’ve got other tools and strategies to go to.

“It sounds like that’s something they’ve seen in Harley this year in terms of the way he went away and prepared himself for the season, and being a young player, I’m sure he’ll keep adding to that toolkit as I’ve seen with Ella.”

Reid has been widely praised for his work this off-season, returning to training in career-best shape as he looks to take his game to another level in his third season at the Eagles.

Pearce spent limited time with the men’s program over the pre-season and said in her limited interactions with Reid, she was confident he’d be a star for the long-term.

“He’s just a guy who loves his footy, is super competitive, super talented and he’s going away and working on his game because he wants to be the best player he can and wants to see the team he’s committed to win and have success,” she said.

“What you see is behaviours around that. He’s a loved teammate, he’s easy to get along with around the club, and you see the way he goes about his business, you can tell he’s passionate about his footy, and he wants to win.

“He’s pretty special to watch, really easy to interact with around the club, and I think he’s going to be a good player for a long time in the competition.”