Sam Reid: Football Is In His Blood

By Dan Hutton on June 30, 2012 in Other

During the month The Beast caught up with Sydney Swans young gun Sam Reid, who recently signed a massive five-year deal with the club…

Where are you originally from?
A small town in north east Victoria called Bright, where the population is about 5,000 people, I think. It’s right in the mountains, between Mount Buffalo and Falls Creek, and it’s really cold. It’s a bit of a change to Sydney. I grew up snow skiing.

When did you come up to Sydney?
At the end of 2009, in November. About three weeks after I’d finished school the AFL draft was on. I found out on a Thursday night that I’d been drafted and by Sunday I was up here and ready to go to training on Monday. It all happened pretty quickly.

Were you expecting to get drafted?
I was hopeful I’d get drafted. Obviously I didn’t mind where I went as long as I got drafted and Sydney was probably the last club I expected to draft me as I only spoke to them once at draft camp and that was only for about 10 or 15 minutes, so it was a bit of a surprise but I’m loving it up here now.

Where are you living in Sydney these days?
I’m in Coogee. A few of the other Swans boys are around the corner and I live with Brett Meredith, who’s at the Swans as well.

Have you been living in Coogee the whole time you’ve been up here?
No. The Swans have a housing system so I started out living in a small house in Pagewood with some other players for two years. Just recently I bought my own place in Coogee and now I’ve moved in there.

Was that a purchase after signing a five year deal?
It was. After that I realised that I need to get ready to settle down for a while, so I decided that was the best thing I could do.

Why did you choose Coogee over the other beachside suburbs?
I think it’s just a cosier place. I mean compared to Bondi it’s not quite as busy and a lot of the other Swans boys live here. Craig Bird is 400 metres down the road from me, Nick Smith is in the area, Mike Pyke and Ben McGlynn are too, so there are a lot of the guys around and I like it. It’s cosy and I love the beach too.

Do you hang around all day in the Coogee cafes with the other Swans boys?
I hang around mostly with Craig Bird and Brett Meredith and we usually try to get to Tropicana on Coogee Bay Road or Morning Glory down the end of Bream Street.

What’s the cafe scene like back in Bright?
My mates still don’t drink coffee back home and I was a bit the same when I moved up here.

What do you love about living in the eastern suburbs?
The weather. My brother lives in Melbourne and every time he comes up here he’s super jealous of how different the weather is up here and how all year round it’s usually pretty good. Today I’m wearing shorts and I’m sure back in Melbourne my brother is all rugged up. I just love the warm weather.

Your brother is a footy player as well, isn’t he?
Yeah, he’s at Collingwood. He’s been around for about five years now.

Did he play in their premiership side?
Yeah, he did. He played the last two years in the grand final, won one and lost one.

Won one, drawn one, lost one actually…
Yeah, he’s experienced all three results.

Is there anything you don’t like about living in the Eastern Suburbs?
Nothing really. I suppose not being able to have a dog where I live, seeing as though I’m in an apartment. Hopefully one day I can figure something out to get a dog but that’s definitely something I want and can’t get. I’ve got a few cats though.

Have you really?
Yeah but my house mate was allergic to them so I had to give them to my girlfriend for a while.

You just signed a five year deal with the Swans at the end of last season; you must be pretty happy about that?
Yeah, it’s good that the coaching staff have shown faith in me and signed me for that long a deal. It makes me really secure up here and that’s why I was able to buy a place and be really happy up here. Obviously I wouldn’t have signed if I was unhappy. I love it up here and I love the guys and it’s a really good environment around the club.

Are many five year deals getting thrown around these days?
At the Swans I think the only recent ones that have signed 5 year deals are Michael O’Loughlin and Adam Goodes. They’re pretty special players. If I can go close to what they’ve done it will be unreal but there’s a lot of work to do.

Did you have any other clubs interested in your services?
I didn’t meet with any other clubs or anything. I let my manager take care of it. I was always really keen to stay in Sydney and I was really happy to get such a secure contract for the next five years.

What do you think it is that AFL footballers down in Victoria find so attractive about coming up to Sydney to play?
The guys up here are all really supportive. A lot of them are from interstate so I think everyone’s forced to mingle with each other, which really helps. And AFL footy up here is not that big whereas back in Melbourne you walk down the street and you get noticed and hassled. I’ve experienced it with my brother. After winning the premiership, if he goes out of a night he will get hassled all night for photos and signatures. Up here even Goodesy (Adam Goodes) can walk around the street and not be noticed. It’s a different world in that way and it’s definitely a good thing.

Do you ever get recognised in the street?
I think I’ve been recognised two or three times in Coogee but in Melbourne it happens more often. Like I said, it’s a different world down there.

When you started playing with the Swans you were thrown straight into centre half forward, a key position, how nervous were you?
My first game was at the end of the 2010 season; we played Brisbane up there and I think I played on Daniel Merritt, who is an absolute monster of a man, so that was pretty intimidating. But I knew that I had a fair bit of run and I’m reasonably quick for my size so I think that helped.

Who’s the scariest opponent you’ve come up against?
Scariest opponent?

Yeah, who’s the toughest or roughest bloke you’ve come up against?
Darren Glass is a really good player. I know he doesn’t like getting pushed; if you give him a shove he doesn’t enjoy that. I can remember him saying a few words to me when I first played him when I tried to push into his chest. And Luke McPharlin towelled me up last year in my game against Freo, so it’s probably out of those two.

Have you ever matched up on your brother?
Yeah, in our game at ANZ Stadium last year I played directly on him for pretty much for the whole game, which was really weird after always looking up to him as a bigger, stronger brother.

Did you dominate him?
I wouldn’t say I dominated him but I think I’m starting to match it with him physically.

Have you been trying to talk him into coming up and playing for Sydney?
Definitely. Every day.

Do you reckon he’d make the change?
I don’t know. Collingwood is a pretty good club. It’d be a hard club to leave. I did work experience there in Year 10 and got to see first hand just how good their facilities are. It’s pretty incredible what they have. I think it’s a pretty attractive lifestyle up here in Sydney but he’ll do whatever he decides to do.

The Swans have had a pretty good start to the season and despite a short run of losses you’ve been able to really put some teams to the sword; are you guys feeling like you’re a good premiership chance this year?
It’s definitely a positive to be getting some solid wins. We’re beating teams that are well below us on the ladder and we’re beating them by massive margins but we really need to be beating those teams that are higher up the ladder in the top 8, the other contenders. We need to bring that form to the match-ups against teams Collingwood, Geelong and Hawthorn.

Would you say that you guys are exceeding expectations so far this season?
No, I think it’s the same every year with the outside world. No one ever rates the Swans for some reason. Last year I think we’d won four or five straight going into the finals and we’d beaten St Kilda two weeks prior to the final and they were still favourites. It’s definitely a blessing being the underdogs as we quite often are but internally I don’t think we’re exceeding expectations. We know we can still play a lot better.

Who are the players to watch out for at the Swans this year?
I would have said two guys but they’ve both been injured recently. Gary Rohan is a definite one that was probably going to come along in leaps and bounds this year if he had stayed injury free. Luke Parker, who obviously injured on the weekend against the Bulldogs, is another really good young player worth watching. And some guys in the reserves that have been playing good football, particularly Tom Mitchell and Jed Lamb. I think they could offer a lot if they came up into the seniors.

Have any of the older boys at the club taken you under the wing and shown you the ropes, on and off the field?
Obviously Goodesy has been a big help. The leadership group are all really good and supportive. There are five or six of them that are always full of helpful information and let you know what to do. Off the field I’ve lived with Nick Smith for two and a half years and he was really good at showing me how to live properly. When I moved up here I didn’t know how to do a thing; I didn’t know how to cook, didn’t know how to wash anything, I was pretty hopeless. I’m still pretty hopeless but he’s given me some basic guidelines.

Is it true that your old man played over 100 first grade games and your uncle played for the Swans?
Yeah, my Uncle John was here in the first couple years of the Swans being in Sydney, in ’82 and ’83. And then I think he was a reserves coach for maybe a year or two, so there’s a bit of history up here. My grandfather, Dad’s dad, played a few games at Footscray and Dad played 120 senior games all up in at Footscray and Carlton.

Are they giving much advice along the way? Does your old man critique you after your games?
They’re not too bad now. Back when I was a junior Dad used to coach me and he definitely wasn’t easy on me. He was probably a bit harder on me than he needed to be but I think it was all really good. He’s always supportive and he obviously knows what he’s talking about so he really helps me out.

Did you get your height from your Dad?
Yeah, my dad’s 6’2”, but Mum’s actually about 6 foot as well so we’ve got quite a tall family.

Is she sporty as well?
She played quite high-level basketball. She played for St Kilda in what was probably the equivalent to the WNBL.

Did you have a fall back plan if things didn’t work out with your footy?
I probably didn’t want to think about it too much. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do at school and I still don’t really know what I want to do after footy as well. The plan was if I didn’t get picked up in the draft was to play for the Murray Bushrangers in the TAC Cup and try to get drafted the following year.

Do you have any other skills, sporting or otherwise, that could have helped you out?
I played state basketball in under 18s, but academically I wasn’t super. I didn’t love school. I’m doing Certificates III and IV in Fitness at the moment to become a personal trainer, just to have something there, but I’m not sure if I want to do that or no.

Who was the first pick in the draft the year that you were drafted?
Tom Scully. He had a few years in Melbourne and now he’s at GWS on a pretty handy contract. He’s a superstar and ultimate professional from all accounts that I’ve heard.

Speaking of GWS, what do you think about Sydney fielding two AFL teams?
I think it’s healthy and it will be a really good for the game here. I think they’ve stolen a few members from us though. It’s been really good at growing AFL in NSW and increasing the awareness of AFL. It’s still very much league and union dominated here but I think it is growing and having two clubs up here can’t do anything but help.

Are you glad that you’re in the east rather than out at Breakfast Point?
I think so. I think the lifestyle out here would be a bit better than inland.

What are your thoughts on rugby league players converting to AFL? Have you come up against either of them?
I’ve come up against both of them actually. Karmichael has been playing pretty well this year. Last year he obviously struggled a little bit, which is to be expected because it’s such a different game. He’s had a tough time but he’s playing really good football now and that’s a good thing to see. I wasn’t so sure about it at first. AFL isn’t suited to all people but I’m happy to be proven wrong with Karmichael. Izzy has struggled as well in his first few games but I’m sure he’s getting a lot of help from his coaching staff and hopefully he can do the same as what Karmichael has.

Do you support a State of Origin team?
Not really. I haven’t really watched one to be honest. Being from Victoria I’d never watched a game of league before I came up here. And I’ve probably only watched half a game since I’ve been up here.

Is it true that you’re actually an Esendon supporter, technically speaking?
As soon as I saw my name on the screen on draft day and as soon as I got up here my alliances pretty quickly shifted to from red and black to red and white.

When you were growing up the Bombers had some pretty good years, didn’t they?
They did. Earliest I can remember is 2000 when they nearly went through undefeated. I think they lost one game. They played Melbourne in the 2000 grand final and absolutely smacked them. And they lost the next year to Brisbane. I can remember my brother tearing up his Essendon posters and flags after that.

So how come the Bombers given your old man’s Carlton/Footscray?
You would have thought that but Ben was born in Essendon and I naturally, you know, older brother supports Essendon so I’ll support Essendon as well. I just followed him and Mum and Dad don’t really have a team, well now they do but back then they don’t, they were sort of past AFL and ready for other things so they didn’t really follow it at all.

Who do they support now when it’s Swans verse Collingwood?
The Reid brothers, I think. It’s a bit tough when we’re playing each other, I feel for them.

What’s your favourite thing about playing footy as a career?
I think just doing something you love and hanging around with your mates. A lot of the guys from the footy club are now really good mates and to be able to do a job that involves hanging around with your mates, doing something you love and getting paid for it is hard to beat.

There are a couple of Sam Reids playing in the AFL at the moment and both of you are in Sydney (the other is at GWS); has this caused any confusion along the way?
In a few Internet stories it has. A few of the boys were showing me that there was a story after I’d signed the five year deal the headline was ‘Reid Signs Five Years At The Swans’ and the picture was of the other Sam Reid. I think that’s the only confusion so far but I’m sure there will be more.

What’s going to happen if he decides to come across to the Swans? Has that ever happened before, two players with the same name at the same club?
Not that I’ve heard of.

It’s obviously only early days, but do you have a career highlight thus far?
Yeah, probably the final last year against St Kilda. It was do or die time and we had to win to keep going and we had a really good win. The win in Geelong last year was good too given the circumstances. They hadn’t been beat there in for about 29 games or so. The headline in the Geelong paper that morning already had ’30 Wins in a Row’ and I’m sure a few of the boys saw it before and said, “Righto, we’ll stick it up them.”

Do you have any advice for youngsters looking to make a career out of their chosen sport?
I think the main thing is you need to enjoy it and that’s probably what made me choose between basketball and football. I did enjoy playing basketball but when it got to a higher level I think I enjoyed the company of the personnel around football clubs more. I just loved the people that played footy and it was more of a team sport. So as long as you’re enjoying what you’re doing you can’t go wrong.

Who were your role models growing up?
I was an Essendon supporter so I loved James Hird, Matty Lloyd and Scotty Lucas, they were pretty special players who I loved watching.

In an ideal world what does the future hold for Sam Reid?
A premiership first and foremost. I think that would be the ultimate achievement. I think with the young group we’ve got are working towards that at the moment and hopefully it comes sooner rather than later. And also playing good footy, I suppose.