Few can boast of having witnessed as much as Dr Bruce Reid.
Since being appointed medical officer in 1982, Reid has been at Essendon for 34 season and 737 games and treated countless players, countless players’ families and countless ailments.
If anyone can take credit for prolonging the careers of Essendon players, helping them recover from injury and providing wise counsel it is Bruce Reid.
Reid arrived at Windy Hill in 1982 after being approached by former Richmond player and then Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy. Sheedy had worked with Reid and his medical colleague Ian Reynolds at Richmond and both men made the cross to Windy Hill from Punt Road. It was to prove a great move for both Reid and Essendon.
When Reid arrived the club had won 12 flags. Today the count is 16. Windy Hill would host games for another 10 seasons, Bomber Thompson, Mark Harvey and Gary O’Donnell were yet to make their senior debuts and Dustin Fletcher was in grade 2.
The first person to debut after Reid’s arrival was Stephen Copping who was Essendon’s 887th player. Our latest, Jason Ashby, is number 1114. That’s 228 players who’ve debuted during Reid’s tenure to say nothing of those that were here before he arrived and continued to play. And he’s not done yet.
But the stats only tell part of the story.
Bruce Reid is among the game’s most experienced, well-liked and respected professionals; thorough, dedicated, capable, and discreet.
Essendon conferred life membership upon him in 1994 and in 2010 the Australian Football League in recognition of his contribution to the League honoured him with the Jack Titus Recognition of Service Award for his outstanding services to football.
Countless players have had their careers saved or lengthened owing to Doc Reid and Essendon great Matthew Lloyd may indeed owe his life to him. For it was Reid who treated Lloyd him for an undiagnosed ruptured spleen after he was injured in the 1996 preliminary final. It was only after Reid checked in on Lloyd who was recovering in his hotel room that the seriousness of his injury became evident.
Reid was on hand too to treat then-captain James Hird after he fractured his skull and eye socket in Perth in 2002 suffering injuries described as consistent with a car crash.
An there have plenty before and since for who he’s applied the same care, attention and commitment.
But it hasn’t been all work and no play for Bruce Reid. There are many who’ve enjoyed a glass of red wine with him over the journey and some here in this room might recall the story of a long session at a London pub called the Bag of Nails during an end of season trip some years back when Dr Reid was seen running down the street doused in vodka and pursued by a posse of overly refreshed players.
Through three decades of ups and downs, wins and losses flags and failures Bruce Reid has been a comforting fixture, a sounding board and medical marvel.
