Golf has always offered Nick Ricciuto an outlet from life's pressures until it became the source of the stress as he confronted what he had long sought to escape.
The son of Adelaide great and Australian Football Hall of Fame member Mark, expectation has been inexorable for as long as Nick can remember.
“At one point, I felt like everyone was always expecting me to be really good so if I had a bad game or bad stretch, I just felt like sh*t,” Riccuito told Zero Hanger.
“The biggest sledge I always get when I'm taking set shots and stuff. People would say I'm never going to be as good as my Dad and that one used to get to me when I was younger."
After years of unsuccessfully running from and zoning out the pressure, in 2024, he took a different approach as he searched for his best footy.
“One of the things I used to do was to get my mates to sledge me all the time about sh*t like that, which taught me to block it out and not care about it," Ricciuto said.
“We would play golf, and I would tee up, and I'd tell my friends to rip into me with sledges about my Dad and try to put me off as much as they could, and I would try and hit the best shot I could.
“That lowkey really helped me, and now I definitely feel like it's better.”
Mark has played an important role in impressing on his son he is his own person, and there is no paternal expectation that he reach the big leagues, but it has always been an internal goal.
Riccuito presents as humble, friendly, and trusting across a 45-minute conversation. Save for his belief that Dad's fierce competitiveness has rubbed off on his footy, if you didn't know he was a member of a famous footballing family, you wouldn't know.
“I feel like it's almost good to go through that because it has made me mentally stronger. I'm unfazed by it,” Ricciuto said.
“I feel like I've grown out of it and learned how to deal with it, but it is still in the back of my head.”
Ricciuto has had an injury-interrupted past two seasons, sidelined in 2024 with a complicated knee injury and plagued by shin splints across the past two seasons. He played just seven games in the two years prior to this one and has as many games under his belt as his brother, two years his junior.
Those injuries has kept the Sturt forward-midfielder out of mainstream draft conversations this year as he missed out on Under-18s National Championships selection, easing some of that burden as he has been out of sight.
The time on the sidelines has done two things: matured his thinking away from the external expectation and taken some of the pressure off, as his time away has caused him to slip down draft boards.
There are a series of benefits Nick has gained from his Dad, which he highlights.
Time training with the Adelaide Academy. Relationships with members of the Crows AFL squad. Access to good treatment across his time injured. Attending Prince Alfred College, one of the state's most prestigious schools. And a wealth of knowledge to lean on as he seeks to make his dream a reality.
“He's really good to lean on because he's so knowledgeable,” Ricciuto said..
“Say if I have a bad game stats-wise and people look at the stats and they'll say 'you didn't have a good one', Dad notices all the times I ran to the right spots and will point out the things I did right; maybe I just didn't get used.
“That's good because he boosts my confidence and tells me lots of places to run and how to set up in the midfield, and watching his highlights; I feel like I play like him.
“I like to think I'm a tough player and hit the ball hard, and when it's my time to go, that's one of my favourite things. Standing up and smashing into someone and doing the team thing.”
Who is Nick Riccuito?
The first question asked of most other teenagers entering adulthood is often overlooked on Nick, as assumptions are sometimes wrongly made.
There are clear similarities to Mark.
Like Dad, the thrill of the grind invigorates Nick.
At times in recent years, he would get up as early as 4am to get his gym sessions in around water polo and footy training.
Riccuito takes pride in his dieting habits too: “One big thing I took from the (Adelaide) academy was eating habits. I only eat whole foods, meats and salads and haven't eaten fast food in a year and a half,” he said.
The water polo exploits are left centre. There are just three pools where competitive water polo is played in South Australia and many South Australian state players come from interstate as the water polo pathway has struggled around Adelaide for some time.
But it was offered as a summer sport option at school in year seven, and Ricciuto took it up and ran – or, more aptly, swam – with it since.
He represented South Australia at the underage national championships for three years, and his ferocious competitiveness lends itself well to the sport.
“I have done water polo since ye, ar seven and I got quite good at it so went to state a few times," Ricciuto said.
"I never prioritised it over footy. It was a sport I did on the side but I got lucky and started going well at it. I've done it for seven years now, and it peaked two years ago when I was doing seven trainings a week, but I've cut back a bit to focus on footy.
"It makes you so much fitter, and it's really bloody hard, the amount of training you do, which helps with your mentality. You push through things other people wouldn't be able to push through.
"When there were close games and big moments, I loved making big plays, taking big shots or stopping others from taking shots."
On the footy field, he is a star midfielder for school side Prince Alfred College and spends time forward for Sturt in the Talent League, averaging 15 disposals and five tackles.
Like most players looking to progress to the AFL, Riccuito's goal at the start of the season was to play in the Under-18s National Championships.
Having missed last year's futures game and being outside the summer training squad meant that was a steep goal, and one he ultimately fell short of.
But he is unfazed that it didn't quite play out as he would have liked, instead enjoying playing footy week-to-week given the interrupted past.
“I'm not too fussed that I missed the state stuff because I know there are other ways to push myself to higher levels,” Ricciuto said.
“I love playing footy. I love the competitiveness and physicality. That's one of my favourite parts.
“I don't know if I've inherited that from Dad, but I like crashing into people and breaking tackles and laying tackles and kicking goals.”
What does the future hold?
Riccuito models his game on Jordan De Goey and Dustin Martin and remains insistent on reaching the top level.
Becoming more consistent both within games and across the course of the season is Riccuito's current goal as he speaks with confidence that his traits are transferable to the top level.
“I'm not completely spent on getting drafted this year, but if it doesn't happen, next year, there is no school to worry about so I can knuckle down, work on my weaknesses and get super fit and hopefully get picked up in the mid-season or rookie draft,” Ricciuto said.
“I just need to string together good footy and show the attributes I've got and prove I'm capable.
“I was watching the games at the champs, and when the midfield was struggling, I hated watching and feeling like I could fit in and make an impact and win the game. I just need to show what I've got and let my game do the talking.”
What sort of player does he see himself becoming?
“I want to be a damaging midfielder who can go forward, kick goals, and I'm not afraid to lay a big tackle, and I'm physical, and one of my strengths is using my athletic ability in the air,” Riccuito said.
“That's what I want to be and am developing into; I just need to close the gap between my best and worst.
“I can get pissed off at myself when I'm not performing, which I feel like can be a reason I have an off game. If I start bad, I can get in my head. Dad is helping me with resetting and move on.
“One thing Dad has always said to me is that the leads I make as a forward are positive,ositive so I just need to trust I'll get used.”
“My whole life, the only thing I have wanted to do is play AFL.
“Through the period where I was injured, it was hard because I had thoughts that I might be too far behind and I might not get the chance. I feel like I've done a good amount of work to put myself in a good position and it would mean everything.”
