Australian Football

Jack 'Dinny' Reedman was a superb all round sportsman who, in addition to his football exploits, was a champion long distance swimmer, captained South Australia’s Sheffield Shield cricket team, and played cricket at Test level against England in 1894-5.

As far as football was concerned, Reedman was involved at league level with three different clubs for a total of 22 years. He made his debut in 1884, with Medindie, before crossing to Hotham where he was a key member of the club’s inaugurial years in the SAFA. However, it was when he crossed to South Adelaide in 1889 that his football career reached new heights. Lanky but lithe, Reedman was formidable in the air and like a terrier when the ball hit the ground, but it was his leadership qualities and tactical acumen which marked him out from the crowd. Captain of South Adelaide for 11 years, chief among his alleged innovations was a method for creating and then exploiting the loose man, a concept which, in some ways, could be regarded as the cornerstone of the modern game.

He was an extremely durable footballer, assiduously maintaining high standards of personal physical fitness, and between 1889 and 1898 he did not miss a single game for his club.

Reedman led South to a total of six premierships before being compelled, after the introduction of electorate football, to move to North Adelaide. In five seasons with North he oversaw another three premierships and later coached West Adelaide (as a non-player) to its first ever premiership in 1908. The season after his success with West, he returned to North Adelaide for one last season as a player, but it was an inauspicious finale as the red and whites finished second from bottom.

Reedman’s peak years as a player came during an era when intercolonial and interstate football was only intermittently played, but even so he represented South Australia four times.

‘Dinny’ Reedman was selected as a back pocket and change ruckman in South Adelaide’s official ‘Greatest Team’.

Author - John Devaney