When you think back to the 1990’s and early 2000’s Peter Riccardi is one of the first names that comes to mind.

His breakaway speed, silky left foot kick and stylish mullet made him a colt figure amongst fans between 1992 and 2006.

In that period, he played 288 games for the Cats and kicked 286 goals.

The now 47-year-old father of two still recalls the day he caught the eye of Stephen Wells, who was umpiring him in a school game.

That saw him invited down to the club and the rest you could say is history.

“I think there were three of us that got asked from that game to go and train with the under-19s and I was one of them, so I was in the right place at the right time,” Riccardi said speaking to the Geelong Advertiser.

“There was a game in 1990 that I got called up to play in the reserves.

“I trained Thursday night with the under-19 boys and then got told I had to go train on Friday with the senior group.

“I was nervous as hell just walking in there. I wasn’t even driving a car yet and I was walking in and seeing all these legends.

The 1998 Carji Greeves Medal winner distinctly recalls the moment he trained alongside Gary Ablett snr.

“I vividly remember we were just doing some lane work and Gazza kicked the ball to me and I swear to God he nearly knocked me over and I’m thinking, ‘Wow this is amazing’.

“You’re trying to be cool, but you’re not really.

“It was a dream come true. If I didn’t do anything after that, it was already the boyhood dream achieved running around there on a Friday night.”