seriously injured in a crash on Thursday afternoon<\/a>, when the truck he was driving hit a tree at Back Valley, near Victor Harbor on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula.<\/p>\nIn a statement, SA Police said a 57-year-old man from Waitpinga had been taken to hospital and SA Health on Friday morning confirmed he was in a “critical but stable condition”.<\/p>\n
Ricciuto, who played alongside Modra at the Crows in the 1990s, said he was “in good care” in the intensive care unit at Flinders Medical Centre.<\/p>\n
“[Erica] just wants to say a very big thank you to the first responders \u2026 who saved his life and helped talk through to Erica while things were going down,” he said.<\/p>\n
“He’s in the ICU at Flinders [Medical Centre] now, and he’s in good care, so we’ll keep you updated \u2014 say a prayer for Mods, and all the best.”<\/p>\n
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Police were called to the scene of the crash about 5:15pm on Thursday. (Supplied: SA Police)<\/p>\n
Claire Fuller, who lives along Range Road where the crash occurred, said she was not able to access her property when she came home at about 6:30pm on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“The road was completely blocked, they were waiting for crash scene investigators,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Fuller said she asked emergency services to escort her to her property.<\/p>\n
“It’s a very narrow and busy road, the speed limit through here is 100 kilometres an hour,” she said.<\/p>\n
“When we came through the crash scene last night, this tree behind me was across the road.”<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Claire Fuller returned to the crash site on Friday morning. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)<\/p>\n
Traffic restrictions were in place at the crash site for several hours, but the road has since been fully re-opened.<\/p>\n
‘We’re all thinking of him’<\/p>\n
Modra played a total of 165 AFL games for the Adelaide Crows and Fremantle Dockers.<\/p>\n
He debuted for Adelaide in 1992, and was the club’s leading goal kicker for five straight seasons, winning the league’s Coleman medal in 1997.<\/p>\n
It was in the same year he seriously injured a knee in the preliminary final and missed the club’s historic first AFL premiership.<\/p>\n
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas told 891 ABC Adelaide that Modra was an “extraordinary South Australian” who has had an enormous impact on people both on and off the field.<\/p>\n
“It’s hardly a surprise that [the news of the crash] has captured the attention of many, given the impact that Mods had on a lot of people, whether he met them or not,” he said.<\/p>\n
Today, Crows veteran Tex Walker told reporters outside the club that “we’re just hoping he’s OK.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/800999f84040014f2ff54a3d717edb90.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The Adelaide Crows also posted on social media saying the club is “all hoping for the best”. (ABC News: Rachel Forbes)<\/p>\n
Well-wishes have also flowed in from Western Australia from former Fremantle teammate and now coach Justin Longmuir, who spoke to reporters after the Geelong Cats v Dockers match.<\/p>\n
“It’s pretty fresh for me like it is for everyone, obviously a big part of the Freo family and all I can say is I wish him and his family well,” he said in the post-match press conference.<\/p>\n
“I’m thinking of him, we’re all thinking of him and his family and thoughts are with them.”<\/p>\n
Among his achievements, Modra kicked 440 goals for Adelaide and won the AFL’s mark of the year three times, including once after he joined Fremantle.<\/p>\n
He finished his career at the Dockers before returning to regional SA, where he played country footy and worked on a cattle farm he owned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The wife of AFL icon Tony Modra has thanked emergency services “who saved his life” as the Crows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[638,64,63,358762,6092,358503,3899,358763,10675,31708,358501,24805,85,82938,358502,14586,9052],"class_list":["post-745841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-back-valley","tag-crows","tag-goalkicker","tag-injury","tag-justin-longmiur","tag-legend","tag-mark-ricciuto","tag-modra","tag-peter-malinauskas","tag-sports","tag-tex-walker","tag-tony-modra","tag-truck-crash","tag-victor-harbor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745841","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=745841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n