{"id":728269,"date":"2026-06-10T21:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728269\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T21:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:55:12","slug":"news-2026-matthew-richardson-says-saverio-rocca-should-be-in-the-australian-football-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728269\/","title":{"rendered":"News 2026: Matthew Richardson says Saverio Rocca should be in the Australian Football Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richmond<\/a> legend Matthew Richardson has reignited the campaign for goal kicking champion Saverio Rocca to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

Gary Ablett Jr and Dustin Fletcher headlined the latest class of inductees<\/a> on Tuesday night, but the 10-time leading goal kicker for North Melbourne<\/a> and Collingwood<\/a> remains absent.<\/p>\n

\"North<\/p>\n

North Melbourne’s Saverio Rocca in 2005.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Rocca sits 17th all-time for most V\/AFL goals kicked with 770. Geelong star Jeremy Cameron recently passed him.<\/p>\n

He finds himself just above the likes of Barry Hall, Stephen Kernahan, Wayne Carey and Peter Hudson, all of whom have already been inducted into the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

In fact, as Richardson pointed out, every single member of the league\u2019s top 30 all-time goal kickers who are eligible to be in the Hall of Fame are already in there, apart from Rocca.<\/p>\n

The likes of Lance Franklin<\/a>, Tom Hawkins<\/a>, Jack Riewoldt<\/a> and Cameron all sit inside the top 20 and will all likely receive inductions at some point in the future. You have to be retired for five full seasons before you become eligible.<\/p>\n

Richardson feels aggrieved for Rocca, saying he absolutely should have been honoured by now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my case for why he should be in the Hall of Fame,\u201d Richardson told 3AW.<\/p>\n

\u201cSav Rocca is not in the Hall of Fame and every single year, I cannot believe it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the top 30 V\/AFL goal kickers of all-time, Rocca is 17th.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of that top 30, every single player that is eligible is in the Hall of Fame, except Saverio.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why he\u2019s not in. I think he should be in. I think he is one of the stiffest omissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other guys in the top 30 who aren\u2019t in, Lance Franklin\u2019s not eligible yet, he\u2019ll go straight in. Tom Hawkins, he\u2019ll probably go straight in. Jack Riewoldt will go in. Josh Kennedy from the Eagles probably will and Taylor Walker will.<\/p>\n

\"Umpire<\/p>\n

Umpire Hayden Kennedy is inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2026.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll all go in and Sav Rocca probably still won\u2019t be in. I just don\u2019t know why he\u2019s not in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rocca also played seven seasons in the NFL<\/a> as a punter for Philadelphia<\/a> and Washington after his AFL career. <\/p>\n

Richardson himself sits 13th all-time on the V\/AFL goal kicking list and was inducted in 2014.<\/p>\n

Ablett was the only first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee from the 2020 crop of retirees on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Next year however both Hawthorn<\/a> champion Shaun Burgoyne and Carlton<\/a> legend Eddie Betts<\/a> become eligible, and both are likely to go straight in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richmond legend Matthew Richardson has reignited the campaign for goal kicking champion Saverio Rocca to be inducted into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-728269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}