Bruce Reid (footballer, born 1946)


Bruce Malcolm Reid is the current club doctor of the Essendon Football Club and a former Australian rules footballer who played with Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League.
Reid, who came from North Balwyn Methodists, played two senior games for Hawthorn in the 1966 VFL season and made one further appearance the following year.
He was a member of Preston's 1968 and 1969 Victorian Football Association premiership teams.
Having graduated from university with a medical degree while at Preston, he worked as a club doctor with Richmond from 1976 to 1979. One of the players at Richmond during that time was Kevin Sheedy, who had recently been appointed coach of Essendon when Reid joined the club in 1982. Since then he has been the Senior Medical Officer for Essendon.

2013 supplements controversy

Following months of rumours and investigations, on 13 August 2013, Reid, along with the Essendon Football Club, senior coach James Hird, senior assistant coach Mark Thompson and football manager Danny Corcoran, was charged by the AFL with bringing the game into disrepute in relation to the supplements program at the club in 2011 and 2012. The club was given 14 days to consider the charges and face an AFL Commission hearing on 26 August 2013.
On 27 August 2013, the AFL Commission handed down its decision to exclude Essendon from the 2013 finals series and fine it $2 million. James Hird was banned for 12 months, Danny Corcoran suspended for six months and Mark Thompson fined $30,000 but the case against Reid continued after his decision to fight the charges against him.
On 18 September 2013, twenty four hours before Reid was due back in the Supreme Court, the AFL withdrew all 38 charges against him for his role in the supplements scandal, meaning he was free to resume his work at the Essendon Football club.