How will West Coast star Nic Naitanui react to Adelaide ruckman Reilly O’Brien’s accidental tweet?
O’Brien described Naitanui as “lazy and unfit” in his pre-game notes that were posted to social media by mistake.
Former Eagles skipper Shannon Hurn thinks it will “fuel” Naitanui to get one over his Crows counterpart.
“He’s quite competitive and I think that will fuel him a little bit for sure,” Hurn told SEN Breakfast.
“But also, it’s not a surprise, he knows that’s what teams try to do against him and they think that’s where they can beat him in that area.
“He’s aware of that but I think certainly he’ll be keen to get out tomorrow and compete and I’ll suppose we’ll see what the end result is.”
Will there be words exchanged between O’Brien and Eagles players during match?
“There’s a couple of blokes in our midfield that don’t mind having a chat every now and again,” Hurn said.
“I think once the game’s going I think it’ll just be you’re playing from there.
“Sometimes if teams start getting on top they can get a little bit talkative. I don’t think there’ll be too many blokes, Nic will just let his footy do the talking.”
Crows defender Jake Kelly says O’Brien has copped “a lot of stick” from teammates after his social media mishap.
“He (O'Brien) said to me last night (Wednesday) that my phone’s a bit funny and it’s doing some weird things,” Kelly told SEN SA's Kymbo and The Rooch.
“Unfortunately it had a mind of its own and started tweeting things on his behalf.
had a mare, apologies 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/9j2BPe2vD9
— Reilly O'Brien (@reillyob) July 9, 2020
“The boys have given him a lot of stick this afternoon. He was a bit rattled obviously, he didn’t mean any disrespect. He’ll be copping it tonight I’d imagine.
“I think Reilly’s got the utmost respect for Nic Nat and he’s one of the great people, Reilly. He meant no disrespect I think by those comments.”
West Coast and Adelaide meet at the Gabba on Saturday.