New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nIn a heated contest, it was Comben\u2019s off-the-ball strike at Reid that sparked a massive all-in melee at three-quarter time.<\/p>\n
The Kangaroos defender had taken Elliot Yeo high with a swinging tackle that tossed the Eagles player over the sideline. <\/p>\n
The Eagles veteran went back and kicked a classy goal after the three-quarter-time siren. <\/p>\n
Reid then appeared to run towards Comben as Eagles players celebrated the goal before Comben appeared to hit the former No. 1 draft pick with a stiff forearm to the head. <\/p>\n
The contact was enough to flatten Reid, who spent time on the ground looking worse for wear as Eagles players ran in to shove Comben. <\/p>\n
The rush of Eagles players towards Comben prompted North Melbourne players to react before a mass melee ensued. <\/p>\n
After tensions simmered down and players walked to their three-quarter time huddles, Jake Waterman was one of several Eagles players who continued to sledge Kangaroos players.<\/p>\n
The Eagles had the last laugh, despite North Melbourne mounting a fourth-quarter fight back. <\/p>\n
Even after getting to a 31-point lead in the final term, the nerves kicked in as Kangaroos forward Nick Larkey dragged the margin back to 11 points with his sixth goal. <\/p>\n
Despite an error-riddled finish, the Eagles held on for their first win in 308 days.<\/p>\n
Reid was all smiles after the final siren, but said he had been \u201cfrustrated\u201d in the moments leading into the three-quarter-time melee. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t expect that,\u201d Reid told Fox Footy. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was a bit frustrated at that point, but I was just trying to get over the \u2018Yeoy\u2019 after he kicked an amazing goal and just copped one straight to the chin.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good being on the other end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about the incident with Comben, Reid shifted away from his first comment. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t frustrated, I just thought dog eat dog out there. He went for (the) head, so, a bit dog,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut oh well, we move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
After just six wins in his two seasons with the club, Reid admitted he was \u201cgrateful\u201d to be part of the rare win. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bloody awesome. You miss it, no doubt about it,\u201d he said on Fox Footy. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just super grateful that we played to our system and we got the job done tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Eagles won just one game in 2025.<\/p>\n
The Eagles had nine players with 15 games or less of experience at the top level, plus Reid (40 games), Tylar Young (36) and Deven Robertson.<\/p>\n
That group kicked 10 goals between them against the Kangaroos, and each of them had their moment to contribute.<\/p>\n
The early form of number 4 draft selection Cooper Duff-Tytler is gaining some attention.<\/p>\n
He kicked two goals on Sunday and had a hand in two others. He is showing more versatility that a 200cm ruck-forward should in his second game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I saw Gout Gout running across our forward 50 there at one stage with Cooper,\u201d McQualter joked. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was incredible, the speed that he had. I just thought he had really big moments in the game. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe kicked a couple of important goals. He stood up, took a contested mark and finished the goal. I thought it was important. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s a young man, really driven to be a great player.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s getting some great teachings from Jake Waterman and Harry Taylor, our aerial coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s going to be a pretty special player.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 with NewsWire<\/p>\n
Read related topics:Melbourne<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harley Reid says Charlie Comben went for his head before tensions boiled over during the Eagles\u2019 drought-breaking win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-343369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}