West Coast Eagles coach Andrew McQualter defends Harley Reid over Tom Green, Toby Greene run-ins

West Coast coach Andrew McQualter says they will continue to work with young star Harley Reid about finding the balance between getting the best out of his competitive nature and keeping his attention in the game.

It comes as the frustrated first-year coach revealed they would do a deep dive into their first quarter woes at home after a second consecutive poor start at Optus Stadium.

Reid had one of his best games of the season, racking up 24 touches, seven tackles and seven clearances to be one of the best in the Eagles’ 59 point defeat to Greater Western Sydney on Friday night.

However, Reid found himself in the middle of several scuffles with Giants stars Toby Greene and Tom Green that took him out of the action.

McQualter praised the former No.1 pick’s performance but conceded he lost his focus on multiple occasions.

“I thought it was a game of what ifs almost. He was really close,” he said.

“He was in the game, he was up for the fight tonight. Potentially lost his attention a couple of times which we’ll keep working with him.

“He’s an ultimate competitor. If we get every player to compete like Harley and want to go about their business like that, we’d be happy.”

McQualter said Reid wasn’t the only player who had the issue of not being focused on the game as they struggled to stop the rampant Giants.

“I haven’t spoken to him and I’m not sure what it is, but I thought a few of our players lost their attention tonight which we’re going to have to work on and make sure that we’re putting our attention in the right spot,” he said.

“You always love the best players in the competition going up against each other and they (Reid and Green) spent a lot of time on each other at the stoppage tonight. I think that’s great, we want to see that and we want to see it in the right spirit.

“As long as it doesn’t cross the line, I love the competitiveness of the game and I hope all our players do.”

The Eagles failed to back up their competitive outing against Collingwood in Melbourne last weekend, with the Giants kicking six of the first seven goals.

It came after they conceded 10 of the first 11 against Carlton at home before the bye, with McQualter saying it was a problem they had to solve.

“There’s clearly something going on playing here at Optus in our first quarters the last few times we’ve played here,” he said.

“We’re going to have do a really deep dive on our planning during the week and how we’re going with that because it didn’t look like we quite turned up in quarter one tonight and it was the same in the Carlton game.

“We’re going to look inwardly and find out what’s happening there. But it was a comprehensive beating tonight, we got beaten in every phase of the game. I thought the Giants were sharp and I thought they exposed us in every way.”