West Coast coach Andrew McQualter has labelled Harley Reid “a force” after the midfield ace matched it with Bulldogs great Marcus Bontempelli in an engine-room showdown.

It comes as the Eagles breathed a sigh of relief following a late scare for Brandon Starcevich, with the luckless recruit set to be cleared to take on former club Brisbane next week.

Reid nearly drove the Eagles to their biggest win under McQualter, taking it up to Bontempelli and Ed Richards in a 13.8 (86) to 9.16 (70) defeat at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.

While Reid’s 27-disposal, nine-clearance and outing that included a spectacular goal edged him closer toward a maiden John Worsfold Medals as club champion, it was not enough to get his team over the line.

“He’s definitely becoming more consistent, and I think he’s had a super year,” McQualter said of Reid.

“He was powerful again (on Sunday). He impacts games heavily. He’s just in the game so much, isn’t he? I thought he had another really strong game.

“He’s a force, and we love him in our team. He’s certainly a large part of the reason why we’ve improved our football this year.”

While Reid and Bulldogs superstar skipper Bontempelli were not directly opposed to each other, they often found themselves going head-to-head in a contest which was one of the highlights of the match.

McQualter said Reid relished going up against the best the competition had to offer.

“I saw him at one stage fend off Ed Richards and (was) again proud of himself with that little moment there,” he said.

“He loves competing, he loves playing on the best players in the competition, and it’s great exposure for our players to play against these guys.

“They’ve got to walk away with lessons though on how and why they’re the best players and keep trying to implement them in their game.”

West Coast took it up to the Bulldogs for three quarters before fading late. McQualter said the contest came down to moments and to take them would be the next step in the Eagles’ evolution.

“I am definitely disappointed to lose. I thought today was a winnable game for us and we gave ourselves a great chance to win. Accuracy hurt us in the end,” he said.

“It was an arm-wrestle... it became a game of just taking your moments, and I thought the Doggies probably just did that a little bit better than us in the end.

“For a while now we’ve been OK now and in games, but unfortunately we just couldn’t quite get over the line. We’ll butter up, and we’ll take some learnings out of this.

“There were some positives for sure, the way we played. We’ve got a six-day break now into Brisbane, so a good opportunity again to play against another great team.”

McQualter confirmed recruit Starcevich was OK after he injured his ankle late, while pre-season sensation Milan Murdock would also be good to go against the Lions after hurting his shoulder in the final quarter.

Starcevich has played just five games this season after a series of leg injuries.