Ricky Walford (born 8 December 1963) is an

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

former professional and state representative

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He played for the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won fifteen Ne ...

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in t ...

and the

St. George Dragons The St. George Dragons is an Australian rugby league football club from St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales competition and Australian Rugby League competitions from the 1921 until th ...

. He was a

goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ...

-kicking Winger.

Club career

Born in the northern New South Wales town of

Collarenebri Collarenebri is a town in north western New South Wales, Australia. The town is in the Walgett Shire Local Government Area and is situated on the Barwon River approximately northeast of Walgett and south west of Mungindi on the Gwydir Highway. ...

, Walford was raised by his grandparents in the larger nearby town of

Walgett Walgett is a town in northern New South Wales, Australia, and the seat of Walgett Shire. It is near the junctions of the Barwon and Namoi Rivers and the Kamilaroi and Castlereagh Highways. In 2016, Walgett had a population of 2,145. In the 2 ...

. He was selected from

as an Australian schoolboy representative and toured New Zealand in 1981. In 1982 Walford moved to Sydney, joined the

Eastern Suburbs Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won fifteen ...

and made thirteen appearances for the tri-colours in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C ...

and

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

. He made his first grade debut in Round 2 of the 1982 season and kicked two goals coming from the bench, going on to score three tries and kicking four goals in seven appearances. Walford played in only six games in 1983 for the Roosters, scoring no tries or goals. He then moved north of

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove River, Lane Cove and Parramatta River, Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or harbor, natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. T ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

and played 11 games for the

, scoring eight tries and kicking 21 goals. In his day Ricky Walford was one of a dying breed of 'toe poke' goalkickers in top-line rugby league. He was an old style direct kicker of the ball rather than using an 'around-the-corner' style that gives the kicker greater accuracy, and has proved popular since

Englishman The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in ...

John Gray introduced the style to Australia when he joined the Bears in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

St. George Career

Walford joined the

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

but only played two games for the season and missed out on the Dragons' 6-7 loss to

Canterbury-Bankstown Canterbury-Bankstown is a customary region of Sydney, Australia, in the south-western suburbs. The area is located around the Bankstown railway line, to the west of the St George region and to the south of the Inner West region. The suburbs ...

in the Grand Final at the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and association f ...

. He cemented his place on the wing for the Dragons in the 1986 season and scored nine tries in 17 games to be the club's leading try scorer. After an injury interrupted 1987 season where he only played 14 of the Dragons' 26 games, Ricky Walford enjoyed some of his best form and his best ever points haul in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

. Playing 22 games he was the club's leading try and point scorer with 15 tries and 52 of 89 goals kicked for a total of 164 points scored. Walford was also a member of the victorious

team that won the

1988 Panasonic Cup The 1988 Panasonic Cup was the 15th edition of the NSWRL Midweek Cup, a NSWRL-organised national club Rugby League tournament between the leading clubs and representative teams from the NSWRL, the BRL, the CRL and Papua New Guinea. A total ...

. In an 11-year career with the famous St. George club Ricky Walford played 207 games. He scored 104 tries and kicked 229 goals. He played on the wing in both of the

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

and

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 peacefu ...

Grand Final losses to the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite c ...

at the

Sydney Football Stadium The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. Built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the stadium was Sydney's premier recta ...

and was the NSWRL's leading point scorer in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

when he scored 146 points (equal with Balmain's

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

import

Andy Currier Andrew S. Currier is an English former professional rugby league and rugby union footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. A Great Britain national representative goal-kicking , he played most of his club rugby with English club Wid ...

). Walford crossed the line for 13 tries and kicked 47 goals from 75 attempts. Walford had his biggest point scoring day in Round 19 of 1989 at the Dragons' home ground Kogarah Oval when he crossed for four tries and kicked five goals against Canterbury in a 32-2 romp over the reigning premiers. Ricky Walford played in two losing grand finals for St. George in

and

, going down to the

in both games 8-28 in 1992 and 6-14 in 1993. Ricky Walford's 874 career points for St George stood in second place behind

Graeme Langlands Graeme Frank Langlands, MBE, (2 September 1941 – 20 January 2018), also known by the nickname of "Changa", was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. and coached in the 1970s. He retire ...

on the club's all-time highest score tally. He retired from the Dragons at the end of the 1995 season but made himself available to play for the Dragons in the 1996 season as a result of troubles during the

Super League war The Super League war was a commercial competition between the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the Australian Super League to establish pre-eminence in professional rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s. Super ...

. He subsequently retired again at season's end.

Representative career

During 1989 Walford started to be noticed by the representative selectors and he was selected on the wing for

Country Origin The Country New South Wales rugby league team is a representative rugby league football team. Between 1987 and 2017 there were two tiers: the Origin team that consisted of professional players who originated from clubs of the Country Rugby Leagu ...

and NSW Origin. He played in the first game of the 1990 Origin series before missing games two and three through injury. He also represented an

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait I ...

side on a tour of Tonga in 1990 and at the

1990 Pacific Cup The 1990 Pacific Cup was the fifth edition of the Pacific Cup, a rugby league tournament held between Pacific teams. The tournament was hosted by Tonga and eventually won by Western Samoa, who defeated New Zealand Māori 26–18 in the final, a r ...

. Walford is now Indigenous Development Manager at the

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australian Rugby Footbal ...

Post-playing

After retiring, Walford became the Indigenous Program Manager for the

's development function. He was awarded Life Membership of the

in 1996.Dragons-Our Proud History (website)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walford, Ricky 1963 births New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players St. George Dragons players Sydney Roosters players North Sydney Bears players Country New South Wales Origin rugby league team players Rugby league wingers Australian Aboriginal rugby league team players Rugby league fullbacks Living people People from the Orana (New South Wales) Rugby league players from New South Wales