20 Facts About Mark Ricciuto

Mark Anthony Ricciuto is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League.

From Ramco, South Australia, Ricciuto started as a junior with the local Waikerie Magpies Football Club.

Mark Ricciuto joined the West Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League, making his debut at the age of 16, before being recruited by Adelaide as a zone selection prior to the 1993 season.

Consistently considered one of the best midfielders in the competition during the early 2000s, Mark 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.

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

Mark Ricciuto earned his first All-Australian selection as a 19-year-old in 1994.

Mark Ricciuto was appointed as the Adelaide captain in 2001.

However at the end of the 2005 season, Mark 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.

Late in the 2006 season, Mark Ricciuto was ruled out of the Crows' final few matches due to a "mystery ailment" which was later found to be parvovirus B19.

Nevertheless, Mark 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.

Mark Ricciuto played his 300th AFL game on 21 July 2006 against North Melbourne.

Mark Ricciuto kicked 5 goals in a game that Adelaide won by 72 points.

Mark Ricciuto 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.

Mark Ricciuto announced his retirement on 16 August 2007 due to persistent injuries.

Mark Ricciuto was 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.

Mark Ricciuto is noted for his Italian heritage, and bears a large tattoo of his family name on his back.

Mark Ricciuto's grandfather was born in the small Italian town of Fragneto Monforte.

Mark Ricciuto played in the ANZAC day clash 2008 with Waikerie A grade against Loxton.

In time on in the final quarter with not very much time left on the clock, Mark Ricciuto kicked the 12th goal for Waikerie to seal back-to-back Premierships for Waikerie.

Mark Ricciuto was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2011, and into the South Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2012.