Bloody hell that’s sad. Going by those posts the players absolutely loved the Doc.
2 Likes
For some reason, whenever I hear of outstanding people in the medical profession succumbing to terminal diseases, it’s hits hard. It’s a true tragedy, and the worst sort of irony.
Bruce has been with essendon since I’ve been following the club, and legitimately every person who speaks of him gives him the highest adulation both personally and professionally.
A real loss.
3 Likes
14 Likes
Mark Robinson pays tribute to long-time Essendon doctor Bruce Reid after his death aged 74
A tearful James Hird has paid tribute to long-time Essendon doctor Bruce Reid after his death at the age of 74. Mark Robinson remembers a man every Bomber has a positive story about.
Mark Robinson , News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
Subscriber only
|
October 28, 2020 4:38pm
HERALDSUN.COM.AU0:47
Essendon mourns long-time club doctor Bruce Reid
Bruce Reid who has been hailed as a person Bombers staff and players loved so much has passed away aged 74
Everyone who met Brue Reid has a positive story to tell.
That says what you need to know about the character of the bloke they called ‘’Reidy’’.
He was not only the Essendon team doctor for 36 years, but also the club doctor, and there is a difference.
Believe it when you’re told everyone loved Bruce Reid.
He was caring and engaging and infectiously funny and outside of the business of doctoring Essendon players and staff, and their families and the wider community, perhaps the best of times was had in his company when sharing stories over a glass of red wine.
He was fond of a Penfolds 389.
Tributes arrived on Wednesday laden with deep affection, love and sadness, and also with genuine hilarity.
For sure, he had an impish grin, but it was always rascal and not devil.
And in death, Reidy still made people smile.
FROM OUR PARTNERS 
Basketball is back on Foxtel with the NBA and NBL Foxtel Now 10 day free trial*
Kayo is your ticket to the best sport streaming Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
Bruce Reid and Kevin Sheedy watch over a training session at Windy Hill in 2003.
James Hird puts an arm around Bruce Reid at training in 2013.
“Reidy gave more to the world than he took,’’ Bombers great James Hird said.
“Reidy and I formed a bond through 25 years of the ultimate highs and in the end terrible lows.
“He was not only my doctor but a man who enabled me to be the best I could be.
He was surrounded by his amazing wife Judy and five adoring children and they helped make him who he was.
“A few red wines with Reidy was one of the things I have enjoyed the most in my life.
“He loved to bring the cheap stuff, but we always upgraded to a Penfolds 389. That was his sweet spot.
“Occasionally when he felt generous he bought over the 707.”
In tears, Hird said: ‘’He was father figure for me for 25 years and I will miss terribly. He was my best mate.’’
Bruce Reid, Kevin Sheedy and Mark Harvey share a laugh during a game at the MCG.
Former Essendon staffer Sue Anderson posted this on Wednesday:
“You were a highlight in my 17 years at Essendon. Your sense of humour, your support during that horrible saga, and our day to day highly inappropriate conversations were always a highlight.
“I shall crack open my 2012 389 and drink in memory of a wonderful man
“The corridors of Essendon have lost a legend.’’
Kevin Sheedy said Reidy always believed red wine was a different kind of medicine.
“He’d say, that was medicine in the old days … he was a very funny guy.’’
Reidy joined Essendon in 1982 and was, with Dr Ian Reynolds, Sheedy’s first major — and best — recruits and together they delivered to Essendon four premierships.
‘’He was just a fun guy … he and Rubber (Reynolds) … Rubber never spoke and Reidy never stopped.’’
On Sunday, Sheedy and wife Geraldine visited Reidy at his home in the inner east of Melbourne and on Monday, Sheedy tried to organise to have the four premiership cups visit Reidy for a final photo. It wasn’t to be.
Bruce Reid tends to Bomber Michael Long.
Bruce Reid chats with Joe Daniher.
“When we were there, he said: ‘Mate, I’m stuffed, it’s been a great life’ and was thankful for getting to Essendon.”
Reid, who was 74, was elevated to legend status on Monday his week…
“You talk about the heart and soul of a footy club, he’s definitely in the ball park,’’ Sheedy said.
“To become a legend at Essendon means we rate him with John Coleman and ■■■■ Reynolds.
“Everybody rates him, there’s not one negative about Reidy, never will be.
“We had a 45-year friendship.
“I could talk about Bruce Reid and make everyone laugh all night.
“I always feel that when I talk about Bruce … he will live with me forever.
“It was great to see him Sunday, it was the best thing I’ve done this year.’’
At Essendon, Reidy worked hamstrings and groins, wives and babies, and the bigger stuff, too.
Like, side-by-side with Adam Ramanauskas when had cancer, with Mark Harvey when he battled bulimia and with Hird when Hird’s face caved in.
There would be countless other stories of people’s private hardships.
Personally, I called him on the Friday before a Diamond Valley league preliminary final on the Saturday in ’95 because my knee had swollen. He said get to Windy Hill pronto, where he sucked the fluid out with the biggest needle I had seen.
MORE AFL NEWS:
Heartbreaking moment Pickett broke vicious cycle of despair
Trade talk: Hawks make call on stars
Stand-off: Dodoro’s wishlist to drag Saad deal out
Another time, I had a fever before a pre-season night game in Darwin in 2004, after having recently been back from Africa, and he drove me to hospital. About midnight after the game, he came back to the hospital to check-in.
No red wine that night, just care and concern.
Reidy was a player before he was a doctor. He played a handful of games at Hawthorn and then was a runner-up in the Liston Trophy while playing at Preston.
‘‘He got beaten by two very good rovers called Peter Crimmins and Leigh Matthews,’’ Sheedy said.
For his size, he had to be goer and that was on display yet again when, at the end of the drugs saga and the AFL tried to hang him high, Reidy was all in on his innocence and reputation. The AFL folded.
His final public offering, just when cancer had gripped him again, was part of an Essendon podcast with Hird, Jobe Watson and Bombers chief executive Xavier Campbell.
“I miss Essendon … I miss taking the mickey out of each other and I miss being a doctor,’’ he said.
Likewise, everybody will miss everything about Bruce Reid.
28 Likes
That’s a good idea Josh.
1 Like
…and we all know what the plaque should say.
11 Likes
Rest in peace Bruce. His mourning is a tragic loss to the club and football more broadly.
For me, Doc Reid is up there with Kevin Sheedy for making our club so successful.
Genuinely gutted.
8 Likes
Wow, I never knew Doc Reid was actually Richmond’s club doctor before us… hmmm, so our recent long period of success was after both Sheedy and Reidy came over from Richmond.
Now we’re getting Richardson, Rutten and Cara over from Richmond. Hope that’s a good thing to come 
1 Like
Sad news. Vale Doc Reid.
Condolences to the family.
Stood his ground against the big end of town and they folded.
1 Like
It was such a clever speech and unfortunately the video of it disappeared. I remember he also made a gag about Hirdy’s concern before an Anzac Day match that if he didn’t play “I won’t be able to win MY Anzac Day medal.” RIP Doc Reid
3 Likes
Gutted.
Vale Doc. A man among men. The heart of our footy club.
1 Like
Amazing to see tributes from so many players of different age, background and demographic. I wonder if he would have made a good coach!
‘We could tell our darkest secrets to him’: Bombers’ tribute to Reid
By Daniel Cherny
October 28, 2020 — 3.36pm
Bruce Reid once had Kevin Sheedy arrested in London and took an impromptu swim at James Hird’s wedding.
Reid, who died at his home with his family on Tuesday night at 74 after a two-year battle with mesothelioma, was so much more than Essendon’s long-serving club doctor. He was a friend, prankster, confidant and essentially a family member.
Bruce Reid and James Hird in 2013
Bruce Reid and James Hird in 2013 SEBASTIAN COSTANZO
On Wednesday, former Bombers captains Gary O’Donnell and Matthew Lloyd remembered a much-loved man who was with the Dons for 36 years between 1982 and 2018, at which time he fell ill.
Lloyd spoke to Reid for the last time only a couple of weeks ago. The club’s all-time leading goalkicker noted how Reid was able to perfectly strike the balance between the lighthearted and the serious.
Bruce Reid.
Bruce Reid. THE AGE
“From the moment you first walk into the footy club, he makes you feel so welcome in his way. He had that perfect balance between being funny and cheeky but then being so warm and empathetic to you. We could tell our deepest and darkest secrets to him,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd perhaps owes his life to Reid. In 1996, Lloyd suffered a horrendous injury in the preliminary final loss to Sydney. It was Reid who correctly diagnosed the issue after the game.
“I was lying in bed and I was in a lot of pain,” Lloyd said.
“His expertise. He said to me, ‘Matt, I know you’re in pain but just stop for a second, have you got any pain in your shoulder?’ So I stopped for a second and said ‘my shoulder’s killing me, why is that?’ He said ‘get him to the hospital, he’s got a ruptured spleen.’”
O’Donnell had started at the Bombers in the mid-1980s. Reid saw him come and go, and then come back again later as an assistant coach.
RELATED ARTICLE
Legend status: Neale Daniher.
AFL 2020
Daniher part of quartet named Essendon legends
“He transcended eras. A lot of players used him as their family doctor as well,” O’Donnell said.
O’Donnell remembered how Reid would fire the Essendon players up on muddy nights at Windy Hill during the late '80s. By the end of training, Sheedy would be getting dragged through the bog by players. Reid’s urging had provided the impetus.
He had more than his fair share of cheek. O’Donnell remembers an incident before an exhibition match at The Oval.
“We were in Hyde Park. It was 1989 or 1990. You weren’t supposed to have organised training in groups in Hyde Park,” O’Donnell said.
“Reidy had organised a couple of bobbies to come and arrest ‘Sheeds’. This little divvy van pulled up and they arrested Sheeds and put him in the back of the van and drove off!”
Bruce Reid
Bruce Reid PAT SCALA
Then there was Reid’s tendency to end up drenched.
“He invariably ended up in pools. He’d be fully clothed and they’d push him in,” O’Donnell said.
“He even ended up in the pool at Hirdy’s wedding. I think it was Harves [Mark Harvey]. Later on in the night. It was hilarious. He was drinking a red. Harves pushed him into the pool. I can’t remember the reception centre we were at. He got out, was handed back his red wine and started sipping on it as though nothing happened. Soaking wet.”
RELATED ARTICLE
Dr Bruce Reid.
UPDATED VALE
Bombers mourn long-time club doctor Bruce Reid
Lloyd recalled another such instance.
“Barry Young came hobbling in one day,” said Lloyd.
“Reidy says ‘you didn’t have that hobble before the runner was told to drag you.’ Youngy said, ‘Reidy, you say that one more time and I’m throwing you into the ice bath.’ He couldn’t help himself, and next minute Youngy’s dunking him headfirst into the ice bath at Windy Hill. When Youngy was dunking him in, he was hanging onto Youngy’s gold chain around his neck. So he’s ripped Youngy’s gold chain off his neck, but at the same time he’s dislocated his finger.”
It was his style to stir up the players.
“We’d be all sitting in a room the day after a game. We’d lose by 10 goals. He’d walk in there and say ‘weren’t you blokes shithouse yesterday!’ It just broke the ice,” Lloyd said.
Reid also tagged along on end-of-season jaunts. He would even help opposition players in need.
“We were in Hawaii,” said O’Donnell.
"I think it was Ryan Pagan. He hit his head on something in a hotel room and split his head. The North Melbourne boys knew that we had a doctor with us and he stitched his head as well.
“He was virtually the welfare bloke at the club. A shoulder to cry on. A safe haven.”
He was there for players when they needed a favour. O’Donnell laughed when remembering that Paul van der Haar would hide in Reid’s office to get out of training.
Reid became embroiled in the supplements saga that crippled the Bombers last decade. He famously penned a letter to then-coach Hird and football manager Paul Hamilton expressing his concerns with the rogue elements introduced into the football club. He was charged by the AFL but the league ultimately dropped its case.
“[He was a] proud man and professional man,” O’Donnell said.
“He’d obviously be disappointed that happened when he was there and on his watch. By the sounds of things, he was quite opposed to what was going on, but they went over his head.”
Reid was a competent footballer himself. He played three VFL games for Hawthorn across 1966 and 1967 before forging a VFA career with Preston. Having graduated from medicine, he worked for four years as Richmond’s doctor until 1979 before beginning a stint at the Bombers that culminated in him being elevated to legend status at the club on Monday, the day before his death.
He is survived by his wife Judy and their five children.
6 Likes
The photo made me tear up a bit
38 Likes
Just feel so sad, man of great honour and integrity and I will share a wine 
with friends for him
3 Likes
Doc Reid is really exactly what the real Essendon is all about. Every club needs a person like him and are ultimately even luckier to have someone like him. Virtually 4 decades of service, you simply cannot buy or trade for that.
Vale Bruce Reid.
11 Likes
Doc Reid embodied the Essendon spirit. A lovely man and wonderful servant of the club.
5 Likes
He stood up to the system during the saga which was one of the few joys of that period.
RIP Doc.
4 Likes
The S Madden tribute for B Reid on the Andy + Bob show earlier today was really good. Can’t say I’ve heard or seen this much universal goodwill for an individual in quite a while.
4 Likes
Sitting on the boundary, bag in hand, ready to run on the field to help.
5 Likes