West Coast premiership player Will Schofield has called out the “borderline insanity” criticism of emerging AFL superstar Harley Reid.
The No.1 draft pick has made an impressive start to this career with a string of eye-catching performances in his seven games.
He’s helped lift last year’s wooden-spooners to two victories, including a stunning three-goal performance against cross-town rivals Fremantle in Round 7.
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The 19-year-old was rested after the match against the Dockers, but returned for Saturday night’s clash against Essendon, which the Eagles lost by six points.
Reid produced a stunning double fend-off to delight fans, but was forced off late in the contest with cramp.
Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes questioned Reid’s training standards in comparison to fellow young gun Nick Daicos.
“I understand there is a couple of years difference (between them) but Daicos was doing this from day one. The hype and all of that is real, if he wants to be Jordan De Goey that’s fine then that’s what he’ll get to,” Cornes said on Channel 9.
“(But) if he wants to be the best, if he wants to be Nick Daicos, he’s got to have his training standards to a level that is (like Daicos).
“I’ve seen him (cramp) in the last five minutes of a game. I don’t know what his training standards are.”
When asked if he’s saying that Reid is not fit enough, Cornes said: “I’m saying that was a concern for me to see how out on his feet he was late in a game that was nowhere near as high pressure as the Collingwood one.”
“After a week off with five minutes to go that he had to come off the ground … He’s not injured, he’s cramping. A cramp is a sign of conditioning after a week off.
“If you want to be as good as Nick and that’s the comparison and rightly so … and I’ve praised Harley Reid, I think he’s been enormous for West Coast and made them relevant again, I love the fact of how competitive he is and how much of a winner he is.
“But that doesn’t mean you get away with poor efforts and poor training standards. He’s got to make sure they are high.”
Former Eagle Schofield, who retired after the 2020 season, slammed Cornes’ take.
“It’s really difficult to highlight this sort of coverage without brining further attention, but isolating a bloke in his 7th game is borderline insanity. Understand everyone wants to talk about Harley, so do I, but this is absolutely unwarranted,” he tweeted.
Essendon legend and Channel 7 commentator Tim Watson and Melbourne great Garry Lyon described Cornes’ comments as “ridiculous”.
“Is it legitimate in any way to question somebody after seven games who had a disrupted pre-season and is being asked to play in the midfield as a first-year player?” Watson asked.
“Is that a legitimate criticism?”
Lyon responded: “In his mind it would be, but it’s just ridiculous. I’m sorry.
“I think Kane has spoken in the past about the unbelievable pressure that the Western Australian media are putting on this kid.
“This is a kid who is still trying to work out the training standards. Do you expect him to know at seven games where he needs to be as an AFL midfielder?”
Watson agreed, saying Cornes missed the mark with comments.
“It is a ridiculous thing to zero in on,” he said.
“He may not have the engine yet. He may not physically have that.
“It may be that our explosive friend over in the west, Harley Reid, has great ability but he may not necessarily have the endurance capabilities yet. That will build over a period of time.
“I just think it’s a ridiculous thing to be saying so early in someone’s career.
“He (Cornes) had a miss last night.”
Reid and Daicos will come head to head this weekend when the Eagles take on Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday.
