Australian Football

A long-striding wingman or half forward, Jim Reid began his senior league career at South Melbourne where he played 36 games, and was a member of the club's losing Grand Final teams against Collingwood in 1935-6. However, it was with Claremont, where he added another 107 games in a war-interrupted stint between 1937 and 1946 that he had the greatest impact. For the meagre few Claremont supporters who can still recall the club's great pre-World War II teams, "the sight of Reid sprinting down the wing outpacing numerous opponents and capping his dash with a magnificent running drop kick at goal is an image that is more easily called to mind than any other of that era?".¹

Jim Reid's arrival in the west coincided with, and helped shape, Claremont's emergence as a league power for the first time in its history. The side won three consecutive Grand Finals between 1937 and 1939, with Reid making significant contributions to the first two, but missing the third through injury. He won the Claremont fairest and best award on two occasions, in 1939 and 1940. Always a crowd-pleasing player, he represented his adopted state against both South Australia and his state of origin at the 1937 Perth carnival.

Author - John Devaney