To say the 2009 AFL trade and draft period was busy for the Sydney Swans is like saying the Sydney Harbour Bridge is a little structure that links the Central Business District to the North Shore. And the Sydney Opera House is small functions centre nearby.
Yes, after the Swans had finished 12th with an 8-14 win/loss record, winning just three of their last 13 games in their worst season since 1995, October and November of that year was positively frantic.
Paul Roos had already announced that at the end of 2010 he would step down, and outcomes of the 2009-10 off-season would be critical to the club’s prospects moving forward.
Barry Hall, Sydney’s 2005 premiership captain, had already announced in July 2009 that he was leaving the club after a string of suspensions. He didn’t trust himself not to re-offend, and had settled on a new start at the Western Bulldogs.
Darren Jolly, the club’s 2005 premiership ruckman, had requested a trade to Collingwood, and Amon Buchanan, yet another 2005 flag-winner, was on his way to Brisbane.
And time was up for five more members of the ’05 side that had ended the club’s 72-year premiership drought: Michael O’Loughlin, Leo Barry, Jared Crouch, Nic Fosdike and Luke Ablett. A total of 1592 games worth of AFL experience was out the door.
Recruiting and list management boss Kinnear Beatson brought in 2006 West Coast premiership ruckman Mark Seaby and picked up Geelong rookie Shane Mumford in the first trade period when clubs were allowed to trade rookies.
And he sent picks 39, 46 and 70 in the upcoming draft to Hawthorn for a 24-year-old Ben McGlynn, who had played 44 games in four years, and a 21-year-old Josh Kennedy, highly rated at the Hawks but restricted to 13 games in two years by a star-studded Hawthorn midfield.
Then, after an AFL schedule change that saw the draft moved from its customary Saturday morning timeslot to Thursday evening, 26 November 2009, Beatson and his team went to work.
It was the year Melbourne preferred Tom Scully (#1) and Jack Trengove (#2) to Dustin Martin, who went to Richmond at #3. Anthony Morabito was pick #4 to Fremantle and North Melbourne took Ben Cunnington at #5.
At #6 the Swans chose Geelong Falcons speedster Gary Rowan, who had been described by Falcons boss and ex-Geelong star Michael Turner as “the most exciting player I’ve ever seen”.
At #7 West Coast took Brad Sheppard, before Port chose John Butcher and Andrew Moore at #8-9, Essendon went with Jake Melksham at #10, Melbourne took Jordan Gysberts at #11, Carlton took Kane Lucas at #12 and at #13 Daniel Talia went to Adelaide.
At #14, firmly focussed on speed, the Swans chose Lewis Jetta from Swan Districts in the WAFL. Originally overlooked in 2007, he’d played in his home town of Bunbury in 2008 before starting again at the Perth-based Swans in 2009 before joining the Sydney-based Swans. And then Beatson and the recruiters took a break. Their next pick was at #38.
Nat Fyfe went to Fremantle at #20 and Jake Carlisle and Travis Colyer to Essendon at #24 and #26 before three guns were drafted at #28, 29 and 30 – Mitch Duncan to Geelong, Jack Gunston to Adelaide and former St Kilda player Luke Ball, the 2001 #2 draft pick, went to Collingwood.
Melbourne chose Max Gawn at #34, Richmond took David Astbury at #35, and at #36 Fremantle took a punt on Joel Houghton, who didn’t play a game. At #37 Jamie MacMillan went to North Melbourne.
The Swans had identified as a preferred option through the 30s a well-credentialled and athletic key forward from the Murray Bushrangers, who, born on 27 December 1991, was only just inside the 31 December cut-off.
So they were delighted at pick #38 to claim Sam Reid, who had grown up at Bright in north-east Victoria and finished his education in Wangaratta at Gaden Catholic College, which counts among its alumni ex-Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, Olympic cyclist Baden Cooke, who won the green jersey (points classification) in the 2003 Tour de France, and 244-game Carlton/North Melbourne AFL star Jarrad Waite.
Reid’s grandfather Bruce Reid Snr had played 28 games with Footscray from 1949-51 and his father Bruce Reid Jnr had played 119 games at Footscray and Carlton from 1977-85. His uncle John Reid had played 91 games with Melbourne, Footscray at the Swans from 1972-83, and his brother Ben, 32 months older and later to share in the 2010 premiership with Collingwood, was showing promise after being drafted at pick #8 in the 2006 draft.
So began a 15-year partnership between a club that always prioritises ‘good people’ in the draft and a player labelled “one of the best people in football” by Swans coach John Longmire.
Reid’s football journey ended on Tuesday this week when he told his Swans teammates that he was hanging up the boots. It came after a 22-month battle with injury since his 181st game in the 2022 grand final, with a bad hamstring injury in his fourth comeback game requiring surgery.
So, a career that began in 2010 playing with the Swans Reserves in the AFL Canberra competition ended with the Swans Reserves at Springfield, training headquarters of the Brisbane Lions.
There was no fuss or fanfare. He just walked. Brisbane folk hadn’t thought much of it.
It was an emotional time in the Swans club rooms on Tuesday when Reid announced his retirement to teammates before Longmire spoke glowingly of the 2012 premiership star, who retires sitting 46th on the club’s all-time games list at 181 and 32nd on the goals list at 183. He’s one of 93 premiership players and one of 37 Swans among 1453 players all-time to play in three grand finals.
Somewhere down the track it will come up in conversation that he played more games in red and white than Lewis Roberts-Thomson (179), Peter Bedford (178), Nick Malceski (176), Matthew Nicks (175) and Lance Franklin (172).
Such was the emotion of his retirement, and so strong is the player/coach bond, it was said that Reid had played his entire career under Longmire. He did … after his first game in Round 22, 2010 against Brisbane at the Gabba in what was Paul Roos’ 200th game at the helm. He had 13 possessions and kicked a goal in a 38-point win.
Player #1366 on the Swans list, Reid inherited the #20 Swans jumper worn most often by Jim Cleary, a 222-gamer from 1934-48 who played in the 1936 and ’45 losing grand finals, and was the last Swans player to debut under Roos,.
He was on hand to farewell 37 players who came before him, including such names as Adam Goodes, Jude Bolton, Brett Kirk, Ryan O’Keefe, Craig Bolton, Tadhg Kennelly, Lewis Roberts-Thomson, Jarrad McVeigh, Nick Malceski, Ted Richards, Heath Grundy, Kieren Jack, Marty Mattner, Nick Smith, Heath Shaw, Dan Hannebery, Lewis Jetta and those two boys from Hawthorn – Ben McGlynn and Josh Kennedy. And he’s seen the debut of 87 players under Longmire, through to player #1453 Caidyn Cleary.
That’s a direct connection to 124 Swans players, or 8.5 per cent of the full list over 128 years of the VFL/AFL and 2559 games.
Never one for personal glory, Reid will be most proud of his 116-2-63 win/loss record – 64.8 per cent. That’s elite. He’ll be proud to have played 14 finals in six finals campaigns, and will always remember the 2012 grand final win over Hawthorn, when he had 13 possessions and a goal as Sydney came from 19 points down at quarter-time to win by 10 points. And that he kicked the second-quarter goal that put his side in front.
He’ll be proud of six 20-game seasons but disappointed to have missed 105 games while playing 181, and that he didn’t play at all in 2016, played one game in 2018 or 2023, and couldn’t get back on the paddock in 2024. Not that he didn’t give it his best. Longmire said he’d never seen a player work harder in rehabilitation.
And after his father and uncle played together at Footscray 49 times from 1977-81 and once against each other in Round 17, 1982, when John’s Sydney beat Bruce’s Footscray by 13 points at the SCG, Sam Reid will love that he had a 4-3 record in games against his brother.
Over his career Reid travelled about 225,000km on 92 interstate flights and one international flight to Wellington, New Zealand, for a 16-point win over St Kilda on Anzac Day 2013, and that he played to an aggregate crowd in 181 games of 5,660,187.
And that among 32 players named Reid, Read or Reed in AFL history, his 181 games is the most. And that his family has four of the top six. Ben (152) is second, father Bruce (119) is third and uncle John (91) is sixth. They are split by the Sam Reid who played 108 games with the Bulldogs and GWS, and Phil Read who played 108 games for West Coast and Melbourne.
They’ll be safe for some time, but Harley Reid at West Coast might challenge at some point.
Reid is among 28 Swans whose last game for the club was a grand final, including six who moved to another club.
Charlie Ricketts, South Melbourne premiership captain-coach in 1909, played his last South Melbourne game in the 1912 grand final before going to Richmond and later St Kilda, and Bruce Sloss, who also played in the 1912 grand final, played his last game in the 1914 grand final. He enlisted in 1915 and was killed in France in World War I on 4 January 1917.
Of course, there was another Reid – 23-year-old Jim Reid played his 36th and last game in the 1936 grand final loss after also playing in the 1935 grand final.
And among this group are some other famous names alongside which Sam Reid sits more than comfortably. Like 1933 premiership captain-coach Jack Bissett and his ’33 teammate Dinny Kelleher, who went out with Jim Reid in 1936. Plus the legendary Herbie Matthews and Laurie Nash, whose last game was in the ‘Bloodbath Grand Final’ loss of 1945, and the unlucky McGlynn, who missed the 2012 premiership with injury, and played in the grand finals of 2014 and 2016 without securing an elusive flag.
