Meet Heritage Roll 

of Honour Inductee 

Jack Riewoldt 

Whilst the dinner has been postponed till 2022 it is important to recognise Jack and his amazing career - previous editions of OVAtions details the careers of Dr Leighton Kearney (August) and Dr Martin Scurrah (July). 

2021 ST VIRGIL’S COLLEGE HERITAGE ROLL OF HONOUR INDUCTEE                                  Jack Riewoldt 

(SVC 2001 -2004)

Jack played football with St Virgil’s teams during the four years at the College and also during this period became heavily involved in athletics both with the school and the Old Virgilians club.  Surprisingly the first best & fairest award he received was with the Richmond seniors – the Jack Dyer medal.  However, this was not the case with athletics: in 2002 he won the ‘Outstanding Junior Athlete Award’ at the College and in 2004 he won the Old Virgilians Trophy for gaining the most points for St Virgil’s in the Independent Schools’ Carnivals for that year.

In 2005 Jack made his senior debut with Clarence at age 16. He then went on to play with the club through its finals series including a losing grand final where he kicked four goals. The following year he again played in a senior grand final with Clarence, this time a member of the club's victorious side. 

He later played and trained with the Tassie Mariners at TAC Cup level and represented his state at the 2006 AFL Under 18 Championships.   In three matches at the championships he kicked a total of eight goals and was named in his side's best players on two occasions. 

In 2006 he played eight matches for the Tassie Devils in the VFL. In one particularly noteworthy game came against Bendigo he kicked four goals and took 13 marks. 

Prior to the draft, AFL Media's Matt Burgen labelled him a "goal-kicking forward who is extremely strong overhead. He was however considered both short and slow for his position, with North Melbourne recruiting manager Neville Stibbard later remarking that he did not believe Riewoldt was "athletic or tall enough to play key position at either end of the field". One long serving teacher at the College predicted that Jack would need to work harder because ‘you will neve make it in the AFL’!  Richmond Recruiting Manager Francis Jackson later recalled Riewoldt's impressive football smarts and his ability to read the flight of the ball as key factors in his recruitment. 

Riewoldt was drafted by Richmond with the club's first selection and the 13th selection overall in the 2006 National Draft. Interestingly in that same draft Bryce Gibbs was selected Number 1, Travis Boak 5, fellow Tasmanian (and now Launceston playing coach) Mitch Thorp 6 and Joel Selwood 7. 

He made his AFL debut in Round 9 of the 2007 season, in the Dreamtime at the G   match against Essendon. His unfinished football career reads thus: 

• a three-time premiership player,
• a three-time Coleman Medallist,
• a three-time All-Australian,
• a 11-time Richmond club leading goalkicker,
• a two-time Jack Dyer Medallist (i.e. Richmond senior B&F)
• a two-time Ian Stewart Medallist (Rich. V St Kilda)
• 2010 AFL team -  Tour of Ireland  (His framed Australian jumper is on loan to the College and is in the Centenary History Centre.)
• Tasmanian Football Hall of Famer. 2018
• Richmond's Vice Captain since 2017.
• 300 AFL games achieved during 2021 season
• 700 AFL goals milestone achieved during 2021 season

Jack  plays as a goalkicking full forward and centre-half forward. He is undersized at the position, measuring just 193 centimetres tall. Across the 2010s, he took the most marks inside 50 of any player in the league and scored more goals than any player other than Lance Franklin while matching Franklin with three Coleman Medals over that time. 

In the 2019/20 off-season, Riewoldt was labelled the 13th best player overall in the Herald Sun's list of the best players of the 2010s.  In 2020, Riewoldt was named by the Herald Sunas Richmond's fourth best player of the AFL era.

Riewoldt is of German heritage with his paternal grandparents Heinz and Helga immigrated from the European nation in 1950. His father Chris was a 298-game player at Clarence in the Tasmanian Football League , a representative player for the state as well as an inductee to the Tasmanian Hall of Fame. Riewoldt's two younger brothers, Harry and Charlie, both played for Tasmania at junior state level. He is the first cousin of former St Kilda AFL footballer Nick Riewoldt. 

Riewoldt became engaged to long-time girlfriend Carly Ziegler in 2016 and they were married in November 2017.  The pair welcomed their first child, a baby girl named Poppy, in March 2019. In January 2021, the couple announced the birth of their second daughter, Hazel Olive.

Away from the football field Riewoldt is a keen golfer once playing off a handicap as low as 0.6. He is also a fan of American rock band The Killers with whom he performed on-stage after Richmond's premiership victory in 2017. 

"I am a massive Killers fan and I might have flagged it with the media department that I wouldn’t mind doing it and the AFL kindly obliged and so did the Killers. You don’t get these opportunities in life much so why not take it". 

Media Career

Riewoldt appears as a weekly guest on Fox Footy's AFL 360. He appeared as a host on Australian TV show, The Great Weekend in 2019 and in 2020 he hosted his own radio hour on Monday nights on SEN. Riewoldt also appears regularly on NOVA100s Melbourne breakfast radio show Chrissie, Sam and Browny. 

Cancer Scare

In 2007 Riewoldt had a cancerous mole removed from his back. He had further tissue removed after the 0.9 millimetre melanoma was confirmed to be cancerous and has since undergone regular check-ups to prevent reoccurrence.]

In 2014 he led a campaign by the AFL Players Association and Cancer Council Victoria to "convince men to have difficult conversations about cancer." 

Maddie's Vision

When Riewoldt's cousin Maddie (sister to Nick) died in early 2015 as a result of the blood disease aplastic anaemia, he and the Riewoldt family became public spokespeople for a charity set up in her honour, Maddie's Vision.  There is now an annual Maddie's Vision game between Richmond and St Kilda to raise awareness and funds for this important cause.