Ricky Graham (21 June 1946 – 16 November 2023) was an

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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL) during the late 1960s. He also captain-coached

Tasmanian Football League The Tasmanian State League (TSL), colloquially known as the Tasmanian Football League (TFL), was the highest-level Australian rules football competition in the state of Tasmania. It disbanded following the end of the 2024 TSL season, 2024 season ...

(TFL) club

New Norfolk New Norfolk ( ; Aboriginal Tasmanians#Big River, Leenowwenne/palawa kani: ''Wulawali'') is a river bank, riverside town located on the Derwent River (Tasmania), River Derwent in southeastern Tasmania, Australia. Established in 1807, it is Tasm ...

. Ricky comes from a famous footballing family with his father

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, incl ...

and nephew

Ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett, Benson or Ebenezer, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben meaning "son of" is also found in Arabic as ''Ben'' (dialectal Arabic) or ''bin ...

each playing over 200 games in the VFL/AFL. Mostly a centreman and flanker during his career, Graham played originally with Geelong Districts. He made his debut for Geelong's VFL side in 1965 and appeared in the seniors sporadically over the course of his five-year career. He spent a lot of his time in the reserves and won a Gardiner Medal in 1967. His efforts in the reserves that year earned him selection as 20th man in the Grand Final against Richmond but he finished on the losing side. Graham did however kick one of his four VFL goals in the game, from outside 50, with such long kicking being a feature of his game. Graham was appointed captain-coach of New Norfolk in 1970 and won the William Leitch Medal two years later. He had the distinction of captaining Tasmania at the

1972 Perth Carnival The 1972 Perth Carnival was the 18th edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian football interstate competition. It was the last of the traditional single-city round-robin carnivals in the residential qualification era of ...

. From 1973 to 1976 he coached Ulverstone and steered them to the 1976

Tasmanian State Premiership The Tasmanian State Premiership was an Australian rules football tournament which was contested at the conclusion of the season, initially between the reigning Tasmanian Football League (TFL/TANFL) and Northern Tasmanian Football Association (N ...

. He finished his coaching career in Queensland with Windsor-Zillmere. In his retirement from football Graham had a brief stint as a

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Bears were a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, now known as the Brisbane Lions. Granted a Australian Football League, Victorian Football League (VFL), licence in 1986, ...

board member and became a property developer on the Gold Coast.

References

*Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Ricky 1946 births 2023 deaths Australian rules footballers from South Australia Geelong Football Club players William Leitch Medal winners New Norfolk Football Club players New Norfolk Football Club coaches Brisbane Bears administrators People educated at Adelaide High School