Today marks the 80th anniversary of the debut of Essendon’s greatest player of all time, Dick Reynolds.

Reynolds was an outstanding teenage footballer at Woodlands in the EDFL before he was invited to train with Essendon.

He made his debut, just a couple of months short of his 18th birthday, on this day in 1933 in the round 1 game against Footscray at Western Oval.

A match report from the game states ‘Reynolds from the Woodlands club in the Essendon Junior League, is not yet aged 18 years but on Saturday his smart, dashing play and accurate passing made him a valuable wing man.’

Essendon lost that game, and another 15 that season, to finish bottom with only two wins for the year.

It was the last time the club finished with the wooden spoon. But Reynolds went from strength to strength and the following season the young prodigy won both the Essendon best and fairest award as well as the first of three Brownlow Medals.

He is still the youngest Brownlow Medallist in history.

Reynolds went on to play a League record 320 games and to captain/coach Essendon to four premierships. He remained at the club as coach until 1960.

We’ll never see his likes again.