Eliza Reilly - CODE Sports (09.06.2026)

**Mark Duffield** (0:00)
Welcome back to the SENWA studio out here at Optus Stadium. We're here thanks to Beaumont Homes, award-winning design built to be loved forever. It's 12.6 degrees outside. It is wet and raining, and it's gonna not get much hotter than 17 degrees today. Eliza Reilly joins us from CODE Sports. We're gonna talk about all things WA footy, touch on a few other matters as well. Eliza, welcome.

**Eliza Reilly** (0:28)
Good morning, Duff. Yeah, definitely a grizzly day out here at the moment.

**Mark Duffield** (0:32)
Good water for ducks today. Eliza, I was watching Andrew McWalter on Seven News last night. He said that Reuben Ginbey has dodged surgery, and they're hopeful that he will play again this year, which was, it looked like an unlikely scenario when we saw Reuben leave the field on Saturday night.

**Eliza Reilly** (0:51)
Yeah, exactly that. The Hearts of Eagles fans were just squarely in their mouths when they saw Reuben fall to the turf, and it was that sniper incident where you don't really know what's got them, but suddenly they're on the ground and they're in immense pain. And watching him limp from the ground, I think there was a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty about what that would mean for the rest of his season. But to dodge surgery is a massive result.
Obviously, he still will miss a period of time as he recovers from that court injury. But the fact that surgery has been ruled out is a great result for the Eagles and a great result for Reuben's chances of returning this year.

**Mark Duffield** (1:29)
Would you expect him to be back inside eight weeks, Eliza? It feels like it's gonna at least be that anyway.

**Eliza Reilly** (1:37)
Yeah, I mean, he's such a power athlete, isn't he? That you're gonna wanna take absolutely no risks with him. If it is at eight weeks, Mark, that seems like a pretty good timeframe, but I'm no doctor, I'm no physio. I'm not certain about the intricacies of a quad recovery, but certainly you wanna make sure that he's 100% right to go, given he has a big aspect of his game, is that power and that strength and that running. It just shows you how hard he actually runs. The fact that he was tearing quads, sprinting after Mitch Georgiades, it tells you a bit about the athlete he is, and you wanna get that muscle right back up to full capacity before you risk him going out there again.

**Mark Duffield** (2:19)
So, how do you expect them to reshuffle their defence, given that he was basically the defensive lynchpin for the entirety of this season? Do we expect Tyler Young and Rhett Basso to be asked to step up one spot in the pecking order and take the power forwards, or are we expecting them to shuffle around a bit and maybe Jobe Shanahan go back?

**Eliza Reilly** (2:45)
I think first step first, you have to ask more of Tyler Young and Rhett Basso, and that's going to be a big watch to see how that plays out, because Tyler Young looks a lot more comfortable in recent weeks when he's been the second or the third tool behind Reuben, who does take the opposition's best key forward every week.
And that's been partly, in fact, the Rhett Basso selection, him finding his way back in the side and being another big body down there in defence and a key tool. So obviously, the Eagles are going to have to think pretty closely about how they handle this, given that Tyler Young has sort of struggled a little bit when he's been given those big pass on the big key forwards going around the competition. But there's also a Sandy Brock, who's obviously got running around in the waffle at the moment. And obviously, was a little shaky at points when he was playing senior games earlier this year. But Brandon Stasovich as well, there was an indication from Andrew McAulter post game on the weekend that he might be asked to play a bit taller than he perhaps normally would to try and help fill that void. And then I think the break glass in case of emergency is a job shanahan behind the ball. Obviously, the Eagles have been really reticent to do it. And he did play in the waffle a little bit in his first year as a key back, but he's just shown so much potential as a key forward that I think the Eagles would want to keep pursuing him as a attacking option, given he does have such strong hands and has been a real focal point for them down there so far this season.