Ricky Walford
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| Born | 8 December 1963 Walgett, New South Wales, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Wing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ricky Walford (born 8 December 1963[3]) is an
Club career
Born in the northern New South Wales town of Collarenebri, Walford was raised by his grandparents in the larger nearby town of Walgett. He was selected from Walgett as an Australian schoolboy representative and toured New Zealand in 1981.[4]
In 1982 Walford moved to Sydney, joined
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
St. George Career
Walford joined the St. George Dragons in 1985 but only played two games for the season and missed out on the Dragons' 6–7 loss to Canterbury-Bankstown in the Grand Final at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He cemented his place on the wing for St. George 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, Walford enjoyed some of his best form and his best ever points haul in 1988. 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 St. George Dragons team that won the 1988 Panasonic Cup.
In an 11-year career with the famous St. George club Walford played 207 games. He scored 104 tries and kicked 229 goals. He played on the wing in both of the
Walford's 874 career points for St. George stood in second place behind Graeme Langlands on the club's all-time highest score tally. He retired from St. George at the end of the 1995 season but made himself available to play for the Red V in the 1996 season as a result of troubles during the Super League war. He subsequently retired again at season's end. Walford's final game for the club was their 16-14 upset victory over Canberra in the 1996 qualifying final.
Representative career
During 1989 Walford started to be noticed by the representative selectors and he was selected on the wing for
Walford is now Indigenous Development Manager at the
Post-playing
After retiring, Walford became the Indigenous Program Manager for the
He was awarded Life Membership of the St. George Dragons in 1996.[8]
References
- ^ NRL Stats
- ^ RLP
- ISBN 0-909558-83-3.
- ^ "Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League". Sporting Pulse. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
- ISBN 9781869693312.
- ^ "National Indigenous Sport Development Program". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 28 August 2007.
- ARL (2007). "Australian Rugby Football League Annual Report 2007" (PDF). Australian Rugby League Limited. p. 47. Archived from the original(PDF) on 13 September 2009. Retrieved 15 July 2009.
- ^ Dragons-Our Proud History (website)