WEST Coast coach Andrew McQualter says he loved the competitiveness between Harley Reid and Tom Green in Friday night's clash, with the star pair repeatedly tangling during an entertaining duel at Optus Stadium.
Reid played a combative game and was among the Eagles' best players in their 59-point loss, catching the Giants' attention early and starting a running battle with Green that saw both players land body blows on each other.
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They had a particularly fiery exchange after Green swung an arm backwards at Reid and appeared to catch him in the midriff, with McQualter happy for his young star to engage in the battle and show his competitive spirit.
"It's awesome. That's what footy is about, as long as it doesn't cross a line. I love the competitiveness of the game, and I hope all of our players do," McQualter said on Friday night.
"You always love the best players in the competition going up against each other, and they spent a lot of time on each other at stoppage tonight. I think that's great. We want to see that, and we want to see it in the right spirit.
"He (Reid) is an ultimate competitor. If we could get every player to compete like Harley and want to go about their business like that, we would be happy.
"He was in the game, and he was up for the fight tonight. He potentially lost his attention a couple of times, which we'll keep working on with him."
Reid finished with 24 disposals and seven clearances as well as a game-high 21 pressure acts in one of his best performances this season. Green, meanwhile, was outstanding for the Giants with 35 disposals and nine clearances.
Giants coach Adam Kingsley, who was pleased with his team's ability to get on top in the midfield and create front half turnovers, played down the contest and praised the excellent performance of Green, who had a game-high 18 contested possessions.
"I didn't really pick up on anything. They (Green and Reid) were back and forward and playing on each other at stoppage and I noticed some centre-bounce stuff where they both had the moments," the coach said.
"But I didn't really notice anything untoward at all … I didn't notice anything where he was frustrated or lost his cool.
"Tom had his normal Tom game, great in contest, gets heaps of the ball and clears it. I think he had 35 touches or something like that, so it's still a pretty good game, I'm not sure if there was anything else in it."
Kingsley said key defender Jack Buckley had suffered a "badly rolled ankle" and would need to undergo scans after being substituted out of the game on Friday night.
Asked about a controversial free kick paid against Leek Aleer for what appeared to be a fair bump on Jack Hutchinson, the coach said: "It wasn't for a kick in my view, I thought it was a fair bump that didn't hit his opponent in the head. Should have been play on".
Coleman medallist Jesse Hogan missed Friday night's clash with illness and a lingering foot injury, with Kingsley saying he was not a lock to return against Geelong next Saturday.
"He trained today, did a 4km session today back at headquarters in Sydney and had no pain. He's feeling fine and recovered from the bout of gastro that he had," Kingsley said.
"There's no pain in his foot that's been troubling him for a little while. That's positive, but we'll just manage him as per the symptoms.
"He had a screw put in there, six years ago perhaps, and so at times he becomes irritated and it's something that he's managed.
"He managed it last year, he's managing it this year, and sometimes it just tips over the edge where we've just got to just got to give him a spell."
