The inaugural State of Origin match was played between Western Australia and Victoria at Subiaco Oval on Saturday October 8, 1977.

It was a game between two star studded line ups, with the home side handing out a ninety four point thrashing to the Big V. Among the cavalcade of stars taking part was a twenty one year old in his first State representative game, who wasn’t named with Barry Cable, Graham Moss, Max Richardson, Bruce Monteath, Ron Alexander, and Peter Featherby as Western Australia’s leading players in the match. As a matter of fact, his direct opponent, Robbie Flower, was his side’s best. But Alan Reid did enough to suggest that he had a bright future.

The son of a farmer at Maya, three hundred kilometers north of Perth, Reid did his schooling in Perth, at Hampton Senior High, and boarded at Swanleigh Residential College in Middle Swan. The locality of Maya’s only facility is a railway siding, and  is an abbreviation of the aboriginal word for a nearby spring. It was an apt meaning, as the district’s only graduate to league ranks was a springheeled jack on the football field.     

 Swanleigh College had a good football team, with a sprinkling of future league player in the ranks, such as Greg Frost(Swan Districts), Peter Le Cras and Gary Diver( both East Fremantle), and a very knowledgeable mentor in Kim Milstead. When he was selected in the 1971 State Schoolboys side, Reid began an acquaintance with coach Jack Ensor, and developed a tremendous respect for his ability as a mentor. It was a strong Western Australian contingent that overcame the Tasmanian rain to win a slogging carnival, with future league players Les Fong(West Perth), Jeff Sartori(Swan Districts), Geoff Gillies(East Perth), Mario Turco and Reid(East Fremantle), and Neil Fotheringhame(Perth) among their number.

When Ensor became Swan Districts’s league coach in 1972 he immediately set about convincing Reid to join him at Bassendean. But Col Minson at East Fremantle wasn’t letting a young player with potential from the club’s own zone go without a fight, and eventually the youngster opted to go to Moss Street. Finished school, and a year to go before starting University, Alan was set up with a job at the East Fremantle City Council. “My first day was spent picking up weeds all over East Fremantle,” he recalled. “I then graduated to dumping wool on the wharf, the big bales bloody heavy.”

Playing colts in 1972, Reid played his first league game in early 1973, along with Tony Buhagiar. “Toddy was introducing a few young guys into the side,” he said. From a debut on a half forward flank against East Perth, Alan quickly became a regular in the side. A classy player, he was able to fly with the best of them for marks and his groundplay and mobility enabled him to be used on the smaller players, where his height and marking ability were a decided advantage. In the 1974 grand final against Perth, Reid was in a forward pocket, with instructions to run opposition ruckman Wim Rosbender around when that player was resting. The tactic of denying the State player a rest(in the days before the interchange) worked, and was a factor in the Sharks premiership win.

The youngest player on the ground, Reid had great stamina, developed from chasing sheep around the paddocks at Maya.

It was the year 1977 that would change Alan’s football directions.  He was in sparkling form, and his efforts were rewarded with selection in the inaugural State of Origin game against Victoria, having been part of the unsuccessful East Fremantle side that took part in the grand final, won by Perth. His effort opposed to Melbourne star Robert Flower drew the attention of Essendon, and local scout Colin Hebbard put him in touch with Bombers president Colin Stubbs, who signed him up.

Reid spent the following four years at Essendon, playing in the reserves at the beginning of the 1978 season, and debuting with the league side under coach Barry Davis in the ninth game of the year as a wingman in the clash with Collingwood. “It was really the start of the Baby Boomers,” Alan recalled.  Reid quickly impressed with his new club, and, despite missing nine matches, received thirteenth highest votes for the Brownlow Medal that year. 

After another good year in 1979, injuries began to play havoc with the young West Australian’s football, and he managed just forty five games with Essendon before an approach from Geelong coach Tom Hafey resulted in a trade to Geelong, but, although playing seven games with the Cats, Reid retired after the end of the 1984 season.

Admitted as a legal practitioner in Western Australia in 1978, Reid had been working with Parker and Parker in Perth during his WANFL days, and after his football career ended took the opportunity to become part of a legal exchange arrangement that saw him posted to Beijing, China, where  he bcame happily entrenched. He has worked in corporate management advice positions in China, and was Senior Trade Commissioner with the Australian Embassy between 1992 and 1996.    

Alan married a Chinese girl, Qian Ying, and has three daughters, Sophie, who attended Melbourne University, Annie, and Elena, who plays soccer.      

He enjoys walking, running, and tennis, and of course speaks fluent Chinese.

Reid played on a who’s who of champion wingmen, among them Flower, Wayne Schimmelbusch, Keith Greig, Mike Turner, Alan Johnson, and Greg Cunningham, plus Perth’s Kevin Hill, and rated them all, while he regarded Mick Jez, Tony Micale, Brian Peake, and Gary Foulds, who played on the opposite wing at Essendon, the best he’d played with.

Alan Reid’s time span in league football consisted of five seasons with East Fremantle and two good years with Essendon before injury gradually took it’s toll. At the age of twenty four  he had the football world at his feet but, like many other budding champions before and since, the opportunity to take it to another level was denied him. There was no doubting the ability of the man, and his presence among the list of those taking part in the inaugural State of Origin match at the age of twenty one is testimony to that.