West Coast coach Adam Simpson has confirmed the news fans have been waiting to hear — Harley Reid will officially return to footy this week after 29 days.
The No. 1 draft pick and fan favourite is raring to go this week after serving a two game suspension handed to him for a dangerous tackle on St Kilda’s Darcy Wilson in round 12.
The return of Reid — as well as last year’s club best and fairest Tim Kelly and premiership hero Dom Sheed — is set to bolster the Eagles side, who failed to win a game in the absence of the young gun.
Simpson told 7NEWS the returns came at a good time for a side who showed positive signs in Sunday’s Essendon loss.
“I think they both Tim and Harley ticked off what they needed to on the weekend, obviously Harley suspended but Tim’s been out for a few weeks with that hip flexor/knee so he trained fully on Saturday and I think he’ll be available this week,” he said.
“It was self inflicted that suspension and that combined with the bye its sort of been four weeks between games.”
Reid’s sling tackle had been ruled by the MRO as careless contact, high contact and high impact, which triggered the ban, which the Eagles unsuccessfully attempted to have downgraded.
With the suspension straddling the Eagles mid-season bye, Reid will have spent 29 days out of action by the time Sunday’s game against Hawthorn rolls around.
“In that four weeks he’s been in the opposition side in match sim on a Thursday, which hasn’t been good for the senior side to be honest so we look forward to getting him into the senior side both on Thursday and on the weekend,” Simpson said.
Simpson said he was disappointed in Sunday’s 30-point loss but optimistic about the direction the team was heading in.
“I thought we were pretty competitive for most of the day and we tried a few different things that worked reasonably well and some things didn’t but overall disappointed we didn’t win,” he said.
“(We) probably conceded too many goals from our front half but overall I thought we took a step forward with our travel form and hopefully we can take it into this week.”
The Eagles injury woes appear to be finally behind them, with Kelly and Sheed’s expected returns bringing their injury list to just three in Elijah Hewett, Noah Long and Rhett Bazzo.
“We’re heading in the right direction, its taken a long time and it probably started last year to be honest — what we had to do with our players and their bodies — so done a lot of work on that,” Simpson said.
“We are no where near the finished product with where we want to be in that side of the game but the availability’s looking pretty healthy, we only have three or four guys on the injury list which hasn’t happened for probably three years.”