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Mark Ricciuto
Mark Ricciuto
Personal information
Full name	Mark Anthony Ricciuto
Nickname(s)	"Roo"
Date of birth	8 June 1975 (age 49)
Place of birth	Waikerie, South Australia
Original team(s)	West Adelaide
Height	184 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	93 kg (205 lb)
Position(s)	Midfielder, Forward
Playing career1
Years	Club
1993–2007	Adelaide
Representative team honours
Years	Team
1994–1999	South Australia
International team honours
1998–2000	Australia
	1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2007.
Career highlights
	Brownlow Medal: 2003; AFL premiership player (1998); 8× All-Australian (1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 (c), 2005(c)); 3× Malcolm Blight Medal (1998, 2003, 2004); Adelaide captain (2001–07); AFL Rising Star nominee (1993); South Australia team representative; 3× Showdown Medal (2000, 2004, 2005); 2× AFLPA best captain (2005, 2006); Adelaide leading goalkicker (2006); Adelaide Team of the Decade - half-forward flank; VFL/AFL Italian Team of the Century (named 2007); Australian Football Hall of Fame (inducted 2011); South Australian Football Hall of Fame (inducted 2012); 4x Merv Agars Medal (1996-1998, 2004);
	Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Mark Anthony Ricciuto (/rɪˈtʃuːtoʊ/ ri-CHOO-toh;^[2] born 8 June 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). From Ramco, South Australia, Ricciuto started as a junior with the local Waikerie Magpies Football Club. He joined 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's 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 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; 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

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. Ricciuto was also twice named All-Australian captain in 2004 and 2005, joining Paul Kelly, Wayne Carey, and Michael Voss as the only multiple All-Australian Captains in the AFL era.

Personal life

Ricciuto is noted for his Italian heritage, and bears a large tattoo of his family name on his back.^{[citation needed]} His grandfather was born in the small Italian town of Fragneto Monforte.^[5]

On 19 January 2008, Ricciuto married Sarah Delahunt.^[6] They have two daughters and four sons.^[7]

Post AFL career

In 2009, he played for Prince Alfred College Old Collegians in division 4 of the South Australian Amateur Football League.^{[citation needed]}

Ricciuto played in the ANZAC day clash 2008 with Waikerie A grade against Loxton. Waikerie won the match by 38 points.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[8]

Ricciuto now works in the media is an AFL commentator for both Triple M and Fox Footy and also hosts the weekday Triple M breakfast show with former Australian world number 1 squash player Chris Dittmar and local media personality Laura O'Callaghan.^[9]

Ricciuto was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2011,^[10] and into the South Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2012.^[11]

In March 2014, a section of the Eastern Stand at Adelaide Oval was named after Ricciuto.^[12]

Statistics

^[13]

**Legend**
G	Goals	K	Kicks	D	Disposals	T	Tackles
B	Behinds	H	Handballs	M	Marks


Season	Team	No.	Games	Totals							Averages (per game)
Season	Team	No.	Games	G	B	K	H	D	M	T	G	B	K	H	D	M	T
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

Season	Votes
Brownlow Medal 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