Mark Ricciuto

Mark Ricciuto
Personal information
Full name Mark Anthony Ricciuto
Nickname(s) "Roo"
Date of birth (1975-06-08) 8 June 1975
Place of birth Waikerie, South Australia
Original team(s) West Adelaide
Height/Weight 184 cm / 91 kg
Position(s) Midfielder, Resting Forward
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1993–2007 Adelaide 312 (292)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
1995–1999 South Australia 5 (2)
International team honours
1998–2000 Australia 2 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2007 season.
Career highlights

Mark Anthony Ricciuto (ri-CHOO-toe; born 8 June 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). From South Australia, Ricciuto began with the West Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), making his debut at the age of 16, before being recruited by Adelaide as a zone selection prior to the 1993 season.

Playing as a midfielder, he established himself in Adelaide's side, receiving a nomination for the AFL Rising Star in 1993, his debut season, and being named in the All-Australian team the following season, the first of eight selections overall. Having played in Adelaide's premiership side in 1998, also winning the Malcolm Blight Medal as the club's best and fairest, Ricciuto replaced Mark Bickley as the club's captain prior to the 2001 season.

Consistently considered one of the best midfielders in the competition during the early 2000s (decade), Ricciuto shared the 2003 Brownlow Medal with Nathan Buckley and Adam Goodes, and was selected in the All-Australian team for four consecutive seasons between 2002 and 2005, captaining the side in both 2004 and 2005. Having played more of a forward role in his last two seasons, Ricciuto retired at the end of the 2007 season, having played a total of 312 games for Adelaide, kicking 292 goals.

Also representing South Australia in interstate football and Australia in the International Rules Series, Ricciuto was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2011, and the South Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2012.

AFL career

Early career (1993–1996)

Ricciuto was born in Waikerie, South Australia. He was recruited by SANFL team West Adelaide and soon after – as a 16-year-old high schooler – was recruited by the Adelaide Crows in 1992. He debuted in the AFL in 1993. Ricciuto earned his first All Australian selection as a 19-year-old in 1994.

Rising career (1997–2001)

After a stellar year in 1997 (in which he received his second All Australian guernsey) he ended up missing the 1997 premiership due to a late season injury. Despite this setback, he rallied in 1998 to again be an All Australian, win the club best and fairest and play in his only premiership. He was appointed as the Adelaide captain in 2001.

Career high (2002–2005)

In 2003, he was joint winner of the league's highest individual honor, the Brownlow Medal, with Collingwood's Nathan Buckley and Sydney's Adam Goodes. In 2004 he came second in the Bronwlow medal. In 2004 and 2005 he earned his seventh and eighth All-Australian guernsey. However at the end of the 2005 season Ricciuto was suspended following an incident in the Crows' final regular season match against West Coast; thus ruling him out of Brownlow Medal contention and the Crows' first qualifying final against fourth placed St Kilda, hampering the Crows' attempts at a straight path to the preliminary final. Indeed, the Crows lost this match by just eight points, and ultimately the Crows finished one match short of the 2005 decider.

Twilight career (2006–2007)

Late in the 2006 season, Ricciuto was ruled out of the Crows' final few matches due to a "mystery ailment" which was later found to be parvovirus B19.[1] Nevertheless, Ricciuto led the Crows to their second straight top-two finish in 2006 and thus a more direct path to the preliminary final, again against the West Coast Eagles where again the Crows finished one match short of the decider, losing the preliminary final by just 10 points.

Ricciuto played his 300th AFL game on 21 July 2006 against North Melbourne. He kicked 5 goals in a game that Adelaide won by 72 points. He was quicker than any other player in AFL history to this milestone, in 13 years and 83 days, some 11 days quicker than Carlton's Craig Bradley.[2]

Retirement

Ricciuto announced his retirement on 16 August 2007 due to persistent injuries. During his career he amassed an incredible eight All Australian selections, a record matched in the AFL era only by St Kilda's Robert Harvey. Ricciuto was also twice named All Australian captain in 2004 and 2005, joining Wayne Carey and Michael Voss as the only multiple All Australian Captains in the AFL era.

He currently plays for the Prince Alfred Old Collegians Football Club.[3]

Family life

Ricciuto is noted for his Italian heritage, and bears a large tattoo of his family name on his back. His grandfather was born in the small Italian town of Fragneto Monforte.

On 19 January 2008 Ricciuto married Sarah Delahunt. They have two daughters and four sons.

Post AFL career

In 2008, he played for Prince Alfred College in division 4 of the South Australian Amateur Football League.

Ricciuto played in the ANZAC day clash 2008 with Waikerie A grade against Loxton. Waikerie won the match by 38 points.

Ricciuto also played in the 2008 Riverland Grand Final with Waikerie against Renmark. In time on in the final quarter with not very much time left on the clock, Ricciuto kicked the 12th goal for Waikerie to seal back-to-back Premierships for Waikerie.[4]

Ricciuto now works in the media is an AFL commentator for both Triple M and Fox Footy and also hosts the weekday TripleM breakfast show with former Australian world number 1 squash player Chris Dittmar.

Ricciuto was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2011,[5] and into the South Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2012.[6]

In March 2014, a section of the Eastern Stand at Adelaide Oval was named after Ricciuto.

Statistics

[7]
Legend
 G  Goals  B  Behinds  K  Kicks  H  Handballs  D  Disposals  M  Marks  T  Tackles
Season Team # Games G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
Totals Averages (per game)
1993 Adelaide 32 19 2 0 238 145 383 66 33 0.1 0.0 12.5 7.6 20.2 3.5 1.7
1994 Adelaide 32 21 23 15 285 142 427 118 27 1.1 0.7 13.6 6.8 20.3 5.6 1.3
1995 Adelaide 32 21 21 26 210 119 329 89 24 1.0 1.2 10.0 5.7 15.7 4.2 1.1
1996 Adelaide 32 22 9 9 267 188 455 97 19 0.4 0.4 12.1 8.5 20.7 4.4 0.9
1997 Adelaide 32 21 6 13 316 193 509 106 33 0.3 0.6 15.0 9.2 24.2 5.0 1.6
1998 Adelaide 32 24 22 25 386 183 569 111 35 0.9 1.0 16.1 7.6 23.7 4.6 1.5
1999 Adelaide 32 21 9 4 274 162 436 97 13 0.4 0.2 13.0 7.7 20.8 4.6 0.6
2000 Adelaide 32 22 20 10 334 247 581 104 43 0.9 0.5 15.2 11.2 26.4 4.7 2.0
2001 Adelaide 32 23 27 20 265 186 451 93 48 1.2 0.9 11.5 8.1 19.6 4.0 2.1
2002 Adelaide 32 22 35 15 261 190 451 86 67 1.6 0.7 11.9 8.6 20.5 3.9 3.0
2003 Adelaide 32 24 24 16 333 232 565 79 69 1.0 0.7 13.9 9.7 23.5 3.3 2.9
2004 Adelaide 32 22 17 17 305 230 535 87 44 0.8 0.8 13.9 10.5 24.3 4.0 2.0
2005 Adelaide 32 24 21 16 292 240 532 104 52 0.9 0.7 12.2 10.0 22.2 4.3 2.2
2006 Adelaide 32 17 44 26 158 87 245 102 18 2.6 1.5 9.3 5.1 14.4 6.0 1.1
2007 Adelaide 32 9 12 10 60 41 101 30 13 1.3 1.1 6.7 4.5 11.2 3.3 1.4
Career 312 292 222 3984 2585 6569 1369 538 0.9 0.7 12.8 8.3 21.1 4.4 1.7

Honours and achievements

Brownlow Medal votes
Season Votes
1993 —
1994 5
1995 5
1996 —
1997 18
1998 21
1999 1
2000 10
2001 7
2002 13
2003 22
2004 23
2005 11
2006 8
2007 2
Total 146
Key:
Green / Bold = Won

References

External links

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