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Important update on 1476AM“Feel his pain”: Hodge open to chatting with Harley
Jaiden Sciberras • April 15th, 2026 9:10 am
Harley Reid is being urged to seek advice from the game’s elite, and Luke Hodge has revealed the advice he’d offer the Eagle if given the chance.
Reid’s on-field misdemeanours have hampered what has been a career-best year thus far, caught up in several bust ups with players and umpires alike across West Coast’s opening fixtures.
During the Eagles’ 128-point thrashing at the hands of Sydney, Reid’s frustrations were on show, conceding a costly 50-metre penalty while being well held by tagger James Jordon.
Reid was unable to rein it in in Round 5, conceding another five free kicks against Geelong on Sunday and has now given away 14 frees in 2026.
Speaking on his continued troubles, Essendon superstar Matthew Lloyd suggested that Reid should seek out a conversation with the likes of Hodge.
“I just wonder if they've tried a different voice outside of the West Coast Eagles,” Lloyd said on Footy Classified.
“Imagine sitting Harley Reid down with a Luke Hodge when they're next in Melbourne, or Jonathan Brown - he used to be that undisciplined where he used to get suspended two, three times a year and then changed all that because he was hurting his team.
“I just think that maybe a different voice for him. West Coast sees it, have probably pandered to him for a long time and not wanted to upset him and they don't want to lose him.
“I think he's shown that he's a West Coast Eagles person now but giving him a different voice to speak to outside of the West Coast could be the best thing for him.”
As revealed by Hodge himself, Reid has reached out in the past, and Hodge is entirely open to a conversation with the Eagles star.
“Harley reached out through Alex Witherden last year,” Hodge told SEN Whateley.
“When he was in Brisbane, we were supposed to catch up, but I had my son’s Grand Final. I was supposed to go and see him afterwards, but everything got pushed back with all the presentations and I had to cancel on him.
“He has reached out to have a chat, I am headed over to Perth in late May, so if the diaries align, I might be able to sit down with him as a pay-back.
“I feel his pain; there are stages where he is showing a lot of maturity with the way he plays his football, but there’s obviously that young guy in him.
“He used to push and shove his away around junior football and get away with it. Now, teams are picking at him as a 20-year-old, which would be frustrating. I showed the same frustrations as a kid as he has.”
Given he experienced a similar level of pressure to Reid, fellow former No.1 draft pick Hodge believes that the methods to moving beyond the mishaps don’t just lie on the shoulders of the Eagle himself.
“There’s different tactics that he could try to get away, but it’s also a little bit on his team as well,” Hodge said.
“He needs a lot of help from those senior players, just to give him a little bit of a chop out.
“There are certain things you’ve got to look at. If I sat down with him, I would show him incidents of what I did, and how it does hurt the team and the culture and all of that other stuff.
“Also, you’ve got to open your eyes that as soon as you do it once, one person is going to see it, then the team is going to see it, then the next team is going to see it… all of a sudden you’ve got a whole side targeting you in a certain area.
“It’s the same as clapping at the crowd. If you start clapping at the crowd as he’s done in the past, people are going to say that he’s easy to get to, and it’s a mindset thing.
“This comes with pointing things out to him, but it also comes with natural maturity. In four years’ time, he’s going to sit back and go, ‘I was silly doing that’, but he went through it and he learnt through it.
“Hopefully for his sake and for West Coast’s sake, he can fast-track that.”
Harley and the Eagles take on Fremantle in a Western Derby this Sunday afternoon.
