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Q. Did you have a sense on Friday night at the Champions of Essendon that Dick was unwell?
A. I thought he was very frail on Friday night. We had seen him only a matter of a week or so earlier at a Dick Reynolds Club function where he came to celebrate the four premierships that he had been involved in. I thought he had slipped a little bit backwards from then. When he got up on stage on Friday night - he took in the accolades and was fantastic.
Q. Is it fair to say one of Dick's major qualities was his humility?
A. I said this morning quite openly and in the release yesterday that we pride ourselves on being a club that is professional in what we do. We think we have a high set of values that we try and establish for our players and a lot of that I believes goes back to the Dick Reynolds era. The way he trained players and the way he coached players and that has adhered to the club and come on through the modern era. The reaction of our players when they heard last night was one of shock and therefore I think the value of Dick Reynolds will go on for a lot longer.
Q. Dick Reynolds has been involved at the club right through to the present time...
A. He has been wonderful. He did move to the Gold Coast to live with his wife Jean and therefore he was away from the ""hurly burly"" of Australian rules for a fair while. Whenever there was something on here that he wanted to be at or we wanted him to come to, he was the first the get down here. People just held him in some degree of awe. My first memory of Dick was him coming on in a comeback game in 1951 - I remember going to as a boy - in the grand final against Geelong. To come back here six years ago, he was held totally in awe by this club and the respect was enormous.
Q. It must have given him great joy to see grandson Joel play for the Bombers this year?
A. It did. He took that as a personal tribute as well. He had great empathy with a number of players here. He and Hird got on very well; he and Sheedy got on very well; he and Simon Madden and Tim Watson and others. I am sure he took great delight in Joel making the list and I know he was here for Joel's first game. I sat with him at that game and he was totally taken a back by the fact that he had a son playing Australian Rules Football.
Q. What tributes do you have planned?
A. It is still being put together. The family are here right now and we will make an announcement when all arrangements have been made.
Q. Will the funeral be one of the biggest in the history of the club?
A. I certainly expect it to be very large from Essendon's point of view and I believe there will be a lot of people, particularly older people who remember him from all walks of football that would want to participate and show their respects. We will give them that opportunity at either the service at the church or back here.
Q. Will there be acknowledgements of some sort at the match on Saturday?
A. I understand that the AFL is doing something at the game, but that will also be announced a little bit later.
Q. You already have different things in place around the club as lasting monuments to Reynolds, have you given any thought to a perpetual acknowledgement?
A. Not yet - it is too premature. We have a grand stand named for him here and he takes pride of place in our Hall of Fame. The club will no doubt think about how we will mark Dick more permanently, but that will be into the future.
Q. How do you think it will affect the players playing on Saturday?
A, I am sure it will be in the back of their minds. How they use it for their own personal motivation will be up to them. Certainly I know they will want to give their support to Joel and pay their respects to King Richard, like all the rest of us.
Details of the funeral arrangements for Dick Reynolds will be available on the BomberLand website when announced.
