Rick Davies (born Evan Rick Davies, 8 April 1952) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Sturt in the SANFL and Hawthorn in the VFL. He played a total of 390 league games, 317 for Sturt, 33 for South Adelaide, 20 for Hawthorn, and 20 State of Origin games for South Australia.

Davies' senior career began with Sturt in 1970 at age 18. Though he did not play in the last of Sturt's five consecutive premierships under Jack Oatey, as the nucleus of that era retired in the following few years he became the lynchpin of the team. Though not tall for a ruckman Davies had a tremendous leap and always was able to assert control at ball-ups around the ground. He was also a brilliant high mark. Davies went on to win a club record seven best and fairest awards, all within the space of eight years, and in the 1976 Grand Final against Port Adelaide his dominance was such that his performance is regarded as probably the best ever in a SANFL grand final. Rick Davies was a regular interstate representative for South Australia from 1973 until 1980 and captained the State for his last two seasons. In 1980 Davies' status as one of the pre-eminent Australian Rules players was confirmed when he was named as captain of the All Australian team ahead of stars of the calibre of Kevin Bartlett and Brian Peake.

In 1981 Davies joined Hawthorn in the VFL where he played in the forward pocket, kicking 37 goals. He remained in the forward line when he returned to Sturt the following season and topped their goalkicking in three successive seasons from 1982 until 1984. His best tally came in 1983 when he kicked a SANFL record 151 goals, including eleven in a brilliant 114-point win over Port Adelaide and a club record fifteen in a grand final preview against West Adelaide. The 1985 season saw him cross to South Adelaide where he took on the role of playing coach after former teammate Don Scott was sacked, even though he was not captain. Davies played two seasons at that club before retiring, but stayed on as non-playing coach of South Adelaide for another season.

Rick Davies' involvement with football had an unfortunate sequel when he returned to his original club Sturt as non-playing coach after Mervyn Keane was controversially sacked as a result of a long committee in-fight. The club finished last for the first of a SANFL-record eight consercutive years, and despite being told with five weeks of the season still to play that his contract was not under review, when Sturt were thrashed by Glenelg by 132 points in their last match, Davies resigned immediately^[1].

[edit] External links

• Fullpointsfooty profile
• Davies marks against South Adelaide in 1977
• Rick Davies (footballer)'s statistics from AFL Tables