Harley Reid: Football analyst Abbey Holmes tips West Coast Eagles star to go ‘full beast mode’ this season

Football analyst Abbey Holmes has warned second-year West Coast tyro Harley Reid is ready to go “full beast mode” this season. Reid — the most highly-anticipated No.1 draft pick in league history — took the competition by storm last year. He played 20 games in his first season at the club, kicked 10 goals and averaged almost 19 disposals a game. Three of those goals came in a showstopping western derby performance against Fremantle, the biggest game he played in. That game and a performance against Melbourne a month later where he kicked goal-of-the-year and bullied the Demons’ midfield were the closest the Eagles got to seeing him properly unleash on a game. Holmes predicts we will see more Reid’s best in 2025. “Harley Reid, he burst onto the scene last year with a bang and he gets another pre-season under his belt, I’m sure he’s going to go to another level and go full beast mode as a second-year player, which is very exciting,” the Channel 7 expert told The West Australian. Holmes also said the experience of Liam Baker and Jack Graham, who have both crossed from Richmond to play for former Tigers assistant Andrew McQualter. “The experience of the recruits that they got in Baker and Graham, you can’t underestimate the experience those guys — coming from a super successful program over the last kind of five or 10 years — are going to inject into the younger players at West Coast,” she said. “They’re another (team) that you kind of need to see in the first couple of weeks of the season to really get a feel on what Mini (McQualter) is trying to bring over and what gameplan and systems and processes he is trying to bring in.” Reid is the hottest property in the sport, with every Victorian club falling over themselves to lure him away from the Eagles after his first contract with the club ends at the end of next season. The West Australian exclusively obtained an image of Reid sat next to Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell at former teammate Tom Barrass’ wedding last week.