Former Fremantle star Shaun McManus has gone head-to-head with The West Australian’s sports editor over a string of Harley Reid back pages, but Jakeb Waddell says the newspaper is not backing down.

Waddell penned an opinion piece which went viral on Monday night, opening up on death threats he has received over the coverage.

Expanding further on the newspaper’s extensive coverage of the West Coast young gun, the Dockers great and co-hosts Nat Locke and Nathan Morris attempted to grill the sports boss.

Reid has been commonplace on the paper’s back pages during his debut season, depicted as part of a mock Harvey Fresh ad, ‘Mr Incredible’ and a golden statue. The back page was even left blank one day when the Eagles decided to rest their star.

“I have been really critical of this and I will stand by my thoughts on it, which is this is an individual which you are putting under extreme pressure and you are only going to heap pain on him as time goes by,” McManus said.

“This is my opinion, why do you think it is important, or why is it important to The West Australian, to make sure he is back page and every other page in the paper as the year goes on.

In response to questioning, Waddell said the focus on Reid was part of the Eagles’ new direction and the popularity the 19-year-old is gaining on social media and in the football community.

“At the start, definitely there were a lot of people that had that view. Our thing is, the Eagles are clearly going in a positive direction at the moment,” he said.