OUTGOING Wangaratta Magpies senior football coach and Alpine footy product Ben Reid will forever remember his time at Norm Minns Oval. The 2010 Collingwood premiership player spent four seasons at Norm Minns Oval where he coached the Magpies for three years, two as player coach and one as coach, taking Wangaratta to premiership glory in 2022 before the flag was sensationally stripped. Reid joined Wangaratta fresh off finishing his AFL career with Collingwood in 2020, immediately throwing himself into country footy. “It’s been nearly four years now and I’ve really enjoyed my time at the club,” he said. “It’s been great to be back at a country club with people of the Wangaratta community – I’ve really enjoyed that aspect. “Everyone at the club are great people, from the footballers and netballers to the volunteers.” After two years as a playing coach, 2024 saw a change of scenery for the 35-year-old after retiring from playing, relocating to the coaches box. “Just coaching has been a lot different to player coaching,” he said. “It’s been different sitting in the coaches box and not being able to impact on the field, but I’ve enjoyed learning that side of things. “I’m definitely a more rounded coach having done both sides of it.” Reid has played a pivotal part in developing some of Wangaratta’s future stars over the past four seasons which he said is a part of the job he’ll miss the most. “Developing the young guys has been a really rewarding part of the job,” he said. “There’s some guys who have come on in leaps and bounds over the past few years and have gone from graduating thirds footy to playing in the seniors. “If you look at the reserves side that won the grand final this season there’s 10-12 players there who played senior footy with us this year.” Reid's time at the Magpies wasn't all smooth sailing though with his side's 2022 premiership stripped after salary cap breaches. Despite the Ovens and Murray history books not having the Magpies as premiers in 2022, Reid will always count the grand final win as a premiership. “The flag’s the highlight, that feeling that you get when collectively you all work so hard to achieve a common goal is something you can’t get anywhere else,” he said. “That group from 2022, including coaches, volunteers and the board will be connected for the rest of their lives. “We played some fantastic footy that year and I had some people saying at times we were playing some of the best football that’s been seen in the O&M. “All the stuff that happened after we won is background noise now, the majority of people I speak to about it say that we won it. “So to me it’s still a premiership that we won and the people at the O&M and AFLNEB who took it away from us don’t matter, some people don’t have any idea how a footy club works.” Wangaratta battled the tribunal’s call to take the premiership away but an unsuccessful appeal saw the decision upheld. Reid admitted it was an incredibly tough period. “It was definitely a tough time and I tried to remove myself from at as much as I could, my job was just trying to keep everyone together,” he said. “There were blokes who were potentially going to leave the club to go and play out bush because they were that annoyed with the O&M. “A few of those players were pretty highly credentialed guys that would’ve been a massive loss for the league. “So my job was just trying to keep the boys engaged, and for us to go on and make a preliminary final that year was a huge effort and showed the resilience of everyone at the club. “During that time we had Melbourne Storm come in and have a chat to us because they had a similar thing happen, but just on a much larger scale and they said they still celebrated and have reunions for that premiership. “Winning a flag is hard work and everyone inside the four walls know how hard we worked that year to achieve it.” The Magpies have seen some incredible players pull on the black and white over the past few years with the likes of Joe Richards and Callum Moore two of the most talented players to play in the O&M in recent times. “Joey (Richards) and ‘Cal (Moore) in terms of talent are definitely two of the best I’ve coached and played with,” he said. “Both are capable of turning a match on its head and some clubs are lucky to even have one of those players and we had two running around for a bit there. “Daniel Sharrock’s another one, people don’t understand how big of a loss he was for us this year, he was arguably the best player in the competition last year. “And then guys like Daine Porter, he’ll go down as one of the greatest of all time at Wangaratta, ‘Juice’ (Michael Newton), Matt Grossman and Matt Kelly all gave so much to the club as well.” Reid and his wife Erin are now plotting their next move with the arrival of their second child in March next year set to keep them busy. “We’re not too sure what we’re doing next,” he said. “We’ve got a baby girl due in March next year so we’re just weighing everything up but we’ll potentially move somewhere else. “In terms of footy I’m looking forward to taking a proper break but I’ll definitely still be involved in some way.”
