Mark Anthony Ricciuto ( ; born 8 June 1975) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for the

Adelaide Football Club The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL). From Ramco, South Australia, Ricciuto started as a junior with the local Waikerie Magpies Football Club. He joined the

West Adelaide Football Club West Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Commonly known as The Bloods and Westies, the club's home base is Richmond Oval (South Australia), Richmond Oval (current ...

in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

(SANFL), making his debut at the age of 16, before being recruited by Adelaide as a zone selection prior to the

1993 season File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

. Playing as a midfielder, he established himself in Adelaide's side, receiving a nomination for the

AFL Rising Star The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan Buc ...

in 1993, his debut season, and being named in the

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

the following season, the first of eight selections overall. Having played in Adelaide's premiership side in 1998, also winning the

Malcolm Blight Medal The Malcolm Blight Medal is a post-season award given to the best and fairest player for the Adelaide Football Club. The medal was first awarded in 1991, and later named after former Adelaide Crows coach Malcolm Blight. The voting system as of the ...

as the club's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

, Ricciuto replaced

Mark Bickley Mark Alan Bickley (born 4 August 1969) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Bickley was a player for the Crows from 1991 until 2003, captaining the team to bo ...

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 The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

with

Nathan Buckley Nathan Charles Buckley (born 26 July 1972) is a former professional Australian rules football coach, player and commentator. He is listed by journalist Mike Sheahan as one of the top 50 players of all time. Buckley won the inaugural Rising St ...

and

Adam Goodes Adam Roy Goodes (born 8 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Goodes holds an elite place in VFL/AFL history as a dual Brownlow Medallist, d ...

, 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 South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

in interstate football and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in the

International Rules Series The International Rules Series is a senior men's international rules football competition between the Australia international rules football team (selected by the Australian Football League) and the Ireland international rules football team (s ...

, Ricciuto was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

in 2011, and the

South Australian Football Hall of Fame The South Australian Football Hall of Fame enshrines those who have made a most significant contribution to the game of Australian Football. The Hall of Fame was established in 2002 when 114 outstanding individuals became inaugural inductees. S ...

in 2012.

AFL career

Early career (1993–1996)

Ricciuto was born in

Waikerie, South Australia Waikerie ( ) is a rural town in the Riverland region of South Australia on the south bank of the Murray River. At the , Waikerie had a population of 2,684. The Sturt Highway passes to the south of the town at the top of the cliffs. There is a ca ...

. He was recruited by

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

team West Adelaide and soon after – as a 16-year-old high schooler – was recruited by the

Adelaide Crows The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) sinc ...

in 1992. He debuted in the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

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

, with Collingwood Football Club Collingwood's

and

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. In 2004 he came second in the Brownlow 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 Eagles West Coast; thus ruling him out of

contention and the Crows' first qualifying final against fourth placed , 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 Primate erythroparvovirus 1, generally referred to as B19 virus (B19V), parvovirus B19 or sometimes erythrovirus B19, is the first (and until 2005 the only) known human virus in the family ''Parvoviridae'', genus ''Erythroparvovirus''; it measur ...

. 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 The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

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 North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...

. 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 Craig Edwin Bradley (born 23 October 1963) is a former Australian rules footballer and first-class cricketer. He is the games record holder at Carlton in the AFL/VFL, and in elite Australian rules football (the AFL/VFL, SANFL and WAFL). Early ...

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 as well as Lance Franklin. Ricchiuto 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.

Personal life

Ricciuto is noted for his

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

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 2009, he played for Prince Alfred College Old Collegians 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. Ricciuto now works in the media is an AFL commentator for both

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back to th ...

and

Fox Footy Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited, operated out of their Me ...

and also hosts the weekday TripleM breakfast show with former Australian world number 1 squash player

Chris Dittmar Chris Dittmar (born 16 January 1964) is an Australian sports commentator who was formerly the World No. 1-ranked men's squash player. Dittmar is widely considered to be the "best player never to have won" one of squash's two biggest titles. He ...

. Ricciuto was inducted into the

in 2011, and into the

in 2012. In March 2014, a section of the Eastern Stand at

Adelaide Oval Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby ...

was named after Ricciuto.

Statistics

:Mark Ricciuto's player profile at AFL Tables
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1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 19 , , 2 , , 0 , , 238 , , 145 , , 383 , , 66 , , 33 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 12.5 , , 7.6 , , 20.2 , , 3.5 , , 1.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 21 , , 23 , , 15 , , 285 , , 142 , , 427 , , 118 , , 27 , , 1.1 , , 0.7 , , 13.6 , , 6.8 , , 20.3 , , 5.6 , , 1.3 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 21 , , 21 , , 26 , , 210 , , 119 , , 329 , , 89 , , 24 , , 1.0 , , 1.2 , , 10.0 , , 5.7 , , 15.7 , , 4.2 , , 1.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 22 , , 9 , , 9 , , 267 , , 188 , , 455 , , 97 , , 19 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 12.1 , , 8.5 , , 20.7 , , 4.4 , , 0.9 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 21 , , 6 , , 13 , , 316 , , 193 , , 509 , , 106 , , 33 , , 0.3 , , 0.6 , , 15.0 , , 9.2 , , 24.2 , , 5.0 , , 1.6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, style="text-align:center;",

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, 32 , , 24 , , 22 , , 25 , , 386 , , 183 , , 569 , , 111 , , 35 , , 0.9 , , 1.0 , , 16.1 , , 7.6 , , 23.7 , , 4.6 , , 1.5 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 21 , , 9 , , 4 , , 274 , , 162 , , 436 , , 97 , , 13 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 13.0 , , 7.7 , , 20.8 , , 4.6 , , 0.6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 22 , , 20 , , 10 , , 334 , , 247 , , 581 , , 104 , , 43 , , 0.9 , , 0.5 , , 15.2 , , 11.2 , , 26.4 , , 4.7 , , 2.0 , -style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 23 , , 27 , , 20 , , 265 , , 186 , , 451 , , 93 , , 48 , , 1.2 , , 0.9 , , 11.5 , , 8.1 , , 19.6 , , 4.0 , , 2.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 22 , , 35 , , 15 , , 261 , , 190 , , 451 , , 86 , , 67 , , 1.6 , , 0.7 , , 11.9 , , 8.6 , , 20.5 , , 3.9 , , 3.0 , -style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 24 , , 24 , , 16 , , 333 , , 232 , , 565 , , 79 , , 69 , , 1.0 , , 0.7 , , 13.9 , , 9.7 , , 23.5 , , 3.3 , , 2.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 22 , , 17 , , 17 , , 305 , , 230 , , 535 , , 87 , , 44 , , 0.8 , , 0.8 , , 13.9 , , 10.5 , , 24.3 , , 4.0 , , 2.0 , -style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 24 , , 21 , , 16 , , 292 , , 240 , , 532 , , 104 , , 52 , , 0.9 , , 0.7 , , 12.2 , , 10.0 , , 22.2 , , 4.3 , , 2.2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 17 , , 44 , , 26 , , 158 , , 87 , , 245 , , 102 , , 18 , , 2.6 , , 1.5 , , 9.3 , , 5.1 , , 14.4 , , 6.0 , , 1.1 , -style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 9 , , 12 , , 10 , , 60 , , 41 , , 101 , , 30 , , 13 , , 1.3 , , 1.1 , , 6.7 , , 4.5 , , 11.2 , , 3.3 , , 1.4 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, 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

*Team **

AFL Premiership This page is a complete chronological listing of VFL/AFL premiers. The Australian Football League (AFL), known as the Victorian Football League (VFL) until 1990, is the elite national competition in men's Australian rules football. The inaugur ...

(

): 1998 **

McClelland Trophy The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football trophy which has been awarded each year since 1951 by the Australian Football League (known prior to 1990 as the Victorian Football League) to the best-performing club in the home-and-away sea ...

(

): 2005 *Individual **

: 2003 **

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

: 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004–2005 (Captain) ** Malcolm Blight Medal (Adelaide F. C. Best & Fairest): 1998, 2003, 2004 ** Adelaide F. C. Leading Club Goalkicker Award: 2006 ** Adelaide F. C. Captain: 2001–2007 ** AFLPA Best Captain Award: 2005, 2006 **

Showdown Medal The Showdown Medal is the medal awarded to the player adjudged best on ground in the Showdown AFL match between Adelaide and Port Adelaide. It is thus similar to the Ross Glendinning Medal awarded in Western Derby games. However, no medal is a ...

: 2000, 2004, 2005 ** Australian Representative Honours in

International Rules Football International rules football ( ga, Peil na rialacha idirnáisiunta; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was develope ...

: 2000 ** Italian Team of the Century - Ruck Rover (Captain) **

inductee: 2011 ** SA Football Hall of Fame Inductee: 2012 ** AFL Rising Star Nominee: 1993 (Round 16)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ricciuto, Mark 1975 births Living people Adelaide Football Club players Adelaide Football Club Premiership players All-Australians (AFL) Australian people of Italian descent Brownlow Medal winners Malcolm Blight Medal winners Australian rules footballers from Adelaide South Australian State of Origin players West Adelaide Football Club players Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian rules football commentators Australia international rules football team players One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players