Nick Riewoldt told one half of football’s greatest “one that got away” story as he was belatedly inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in Melbourne last night.
It was an honour announced in 2023, when Riewoldt was living in the United States and was unable to get back to Australia for the annual Hall of Fame dinner but only came to fruition when he joined a star-studded cast of inductees on Tuesday night.
Riewoldt joined Hawthorn champion turned Brisbane player Luke Hodge, ex-Melbourne captain Garry Lyon, South Australian ruck great Peter Darley, Tasmanian Team of the Century member John Leedham (deceased), seven-time West Australian premiership player turned five-time grand final umpire George Owens (deceased) and AFL Women's trailblazers Daisy Pearce and Erin Phillips as Hall of Fame inductees as South Australian champion Ken Farmer (deceased) became the 33rd HOF legend.
But as much as Queenslanders have taken the now Brisbane-based Hodge to heart after his crucial two-year stint with the Lions in 2018-19, which proved critical in the development of the side that won the flag in 2024, for Queensland football it was a night about Riewoldt.
The Gold Coast junior star turned St Kilda champion, the only player chosen from Queensland at Pick No. 1 in the AFL National Draft in 39 years, recounted how he was “26 kilometres” away from playing not with St Kilda but with the Brisbane Lions.
As Riewoldt told HOF host Gerard Whately in his post-induction interview, living on the Gold Coast 76km from the Brisbane CBD, he was just outside a special 50km recruiting zone afforded to the club.
It was part of an AFL initiative to increase homegrown talent at what was the only Queensland AFL club at the time, and worked exactly the same as the father/son rule.
Riewoldt told how 12 months later the catchment area was extended to 100km, which, if it had been in place in 2000, would have made him a Brisbane player, and could have seen him play alongside fellow Queenslanders Michael Voss, Marcus Ashcroft, Jason Akermanis, Clark Keating, Mal Michael, Robert Copeland and Jamie Charman in the golden era of the club’s 2001-02-03 premiership hat-trick.
“I could have won a few medals but I would have had to play on the wing with the likes of (Jonathan) Brown, (Alastair) Lynch and (Daniel) Bradshaw running around in the forward line,” he joked.
What Riewoldt didn’t say was that there was an earlier scenario, which is a largely untold version of the recruiting zone story that would have had made him a Brisbane player.
As Queensland football folklore has it, under the initial priority the Lions were to be given a 150km catchment area so as to afford the same opportunity to aspiring youngsters from all of south-east Queensland.
It was only as the 2000 season wore on, and the potential of the Broadbeach and Southport youngster came to light, that the zone was reduced to 50km after a flood of protests from recruiters of Melbourne-based clubs.
This put an ‘off limits’ sign on Riewoldt, who had played a string of games early in the 2000 season with the Lions Reserves, known as the Lion Cubs, under coach Mathew Armstrong.
And it meant that instead of Riewoldt, the Lions used the local recruiting concession to claim Bundaberg-born ruckman Charman, who was playing at the time with the Northern Eagles.
Still, as much as Riewoldt was celebrated last night as a St Kilda player, and more recently has been an advocate for the proposed Tasmanian Devils AFL team in deference to his birthplace of Hobart, it is an undeniable fact he was drafted from Queensland.
He’d moved with his family to the Gold Coast aged nine and attended Robina Primary School and later All-Saints Anglican College. He played junior football at Broadbeach before switching to Southport to win 2000 All-Australian Under 18 selection and, several months later, play a key role in Southport’s 2000 QAFL premiership.
And it was from Southport that Riewoldt was drafted at Pick No. 1 in the 2000 AFL National Draft, ahead of Justin Koschitzke at Pick No. 2 and Alan Didak at Pick No. 3, and a host of future AFL stars.
Such was the prestige attached to his Pick No. 1 status that in 2008, when the Queensland Australian Football Hall of Fame was launched as part of the game’s 150-year celebrations, he was included among 150 players, coaches, officials, umpires and media representatives who made up the first intake.
Now Riewoldt is the fifth Queensland football identity in the Australian Football Hall of Fame alongside goal-kicking legend Jason Dunstall, Brownlow Medallists Michael Voss and Jason Akermanis, and 400-game umpire Tom McArthur.
Dunstall was the first Queensland inductee in 2002, ahead of McArthur (2008), Voss (2011) and Akermanis (2015) before Dunstall was elevated to Legend status in 2024.
Riewoldt was an 11-year St Kilda captain who kicked 718 goals in 336 games for the club, won the club best & fairest six times and was a five-time All-Australian. According to his long-time St Kilda coach Ross Lyon, he will be remembered as “arguably the greatest St Kilda player ever’.
