How Adelaide Crows’ top draft pick Riley Thilthorpe went from ice hockey to fulfil AFL dream
It takes more than talent to reach the AFL, something Riley Thilthorpe knows well. His dad reveals how Adelaide’s No. 2 pick punished himself after quiet games.
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Not long after walking into Goodwood Saints Football Club to register his son, Riley, to play, Ben Thilthorpe expected to saunter straight back out.
They were told games were on Sundays, clashing with eight-year-old Riley’s ice hockey matches.
And ice hockey was the Thilthorpe’s sport.
Ben had represented Australia on the ice 32 times, including in seven world titles, and his dad, James, was co-founder of national-league team Adelaide Avalanche.
Riley had learnt to rollerblade at around 12-months-old, was ice skating by the age of four and playing in the under-12s state ice hockey team when he was six.
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The fork-in-the-road-moment seemed a no-brainer.
“I turned to Riley and said ‘oh mate, that’s really bad luck because you’ve got ice hockey on Sundays,” Ben, 42, recalls.
“I was expecting we were just going to walk off and leave, and that’d be the end of it.
“But Riley looked at me and said ‘actually dad, I’m going to be playing football this year’.
“You could’ve knocked me over with a feather.
“We finished the registration process and left.
“It probably took me two or three days to come to terms with what he’d done.”
Riley’s football career could have ended before it even began that day at Goodwood Saints.
Instead, on Wednesday night, the 201cm ruckman/forward became the Crows’ highest-ever national draft pick when they selected the West Adelaide product with the second selection.
Adelaide had publicly said it would not tell whoever it chose before the draft, but coach Matthew Nicks informed Riley and his mum, Claudine, at the family home in Everard Park about 1pm earlier that day.
After Ben got home from work, Riley let his dad in on the secret when they were in the car in the driveway ready to head to West Adelaide to watch the event.
“I was about to start reversing and he turned over and said ‘dad, I’m going to be a Crow’,” Ben says.
“I was elated … obviously I’m very proud.
“I leant over and we had a bit of a hug.
“I could tell it meant a lot to him, he was very excited and it was a special moment.”
Only four people in Riley’s circle knew before the draft: him, his parents and his manager, Ben Williams, of Players Ink.
Riley’s sisters, Lila, 15, and Haylee, 12, found out when the rest of the football world did – about 7pm, after the Western Bulldogs matched the Crows’ bid on Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
“We didn’t tell his sisters but Lila is very astute and could sense something was going on and asking a lot of questions, but we didn’t want to spoil it for them, we wanted them to have a surprise,” Ben says.
“They’re very close with their brother and I think the thought of losing him interstate was weighing heavily on them.
“If he’d left (Adelaide) we would’ve fully embraced his journey, but we’re really grateful he’s staying in South Australia.”
Riley slept that night in his bed below framed posters of the Crows’ 1997-98 premierships.
They were heirlooms from his great-nan, Marie Little, who was a significant influence on Riley’s life and helped push him towards football.
Little – a former president of the Australian Paralympic Federation who was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her services to disability sport – took him to Crows games from when he was about six.
They would have barbecues outside Football Park and always packed biscuits, ham sandwiches and a Thermos of hot chocolate.
Riley has called her the biggest Crows fan he has ever met.
Along with the posters, Riley also kept the Adelaide beanie she would wear to games.
“They had a special bond … so for her she would’ve loved nothing more than going to watch him play for her beloved Crows,” Ben says.
Riley was an ardent Adelaide fan but a more reserved barracker than Little.
“I think he spent most of the time (during games) trying to calm his great-nana down – she would get quite excitable,” Ben says with a laugh.
Claudine has been the other massive female influence in Riley’s life, transporting him to games, trainings, pilates sessions and physiotherapy appointments.
“She’s his number-one fan and an unsung hero,” Ben says.
“She also crossed over from the Power to the Crows in a matter of seconds (on Wednesday).”
Ben’s roles in Riley’s sporting pursuits have included sounding board, teacher and opponent.
During their hockey battles on the ice or in their cul-de-sac, Riley’s competitive juices flowed from a young age.
“He’d want to play all the time,” says Ben, who is a criminal defence lawyer.
“After probably 12 months of letting him win and he’d skate around and cheer, I beat him in one game and he wasn’t having it.
“Now he’s certainly a lot better but he didn’t like losing.
“He’s always been very competitive.”
When Riley left ice hockey for football, he never went back.
But he continued to play cricket until last year.
Riley was in Adelaide High’s cricket academy and played for grade club Adelaide, spending time as a batsman, spin and pace bowler, and even wicketkeeping.
“He loved to bowl spin and it was pretty funny because the ball was being released from such a height … and he was hard to play because he’d get so much bounce,” Ben says.
“He also loved wicketkeeping and it was strange because he was so big he looked almost like a giraffe behind the stumps.”
Riley has always been tall for his age.
When he was in the under-12s state ice hockey team, he measured up with many of his teammates despite most being five or so years older.
These days he wears size 15 or 16 sneakers and has a huge appetite.
“On average Riley will drink between six and seven litres of milk a week and will comfortably consume 14 or so Weet-Bix in one sitting,” Ben says.
Ben reckons Riley also has a massive appetite for wanting to get better.
He remembers Riley being so disappointed in his performance in a football game at the age of 13, he ran 10km the next day to improve his fitness.
“I told that story to recruiters because I think it typifies his character,” Ben says.
“From that point onwards he started running and he’s never stopped.
“He never wanted to be anything but fitter than the competition and he’s carried that since.
“When you look at his groins (injuries this year) and the work he was doing during that COVID shutdown, he was working as hard as he’s ever trained.
“The groin problems just came from overuse.”
Riley played state football at under-12 level but it was not until his son kicked five goals against Queensland for SA during a national titles a few years later that Ben thought he might make a future of it.
In 2019, Riley enhanced his draft prospects by playing six league games for West Adelaide.
He added nine matches for the Bloods this past season, as he began to be talked up as a pick-one contender.
“He’s never really said to me ‘dad, I’m going to make it’ or ‘I think I’m good enough’,” Ben says.
“He’s always come from the other point of view of ‘I’ve got to do more, I’m not at that level yet’.
“I think he’s had the confidence he could be, but he’s never wanted to get complacent.”
Ben says Riley’s determination is of his own making and has not been inherited from him.
That sounds like modesty given the elder Thilthorpe’s ice hockey achievements, which include being part of the Australian team to win the division two group A world championship in Melbourne in 2011 and playing 139 games for the Avalanche.
Ben, who lined up as a winger, was 18 when headed to Canada to play semi-professionally, attend the Banff Hockey Academy and pursue his dream.
Now, at the same age, Riley is chasing his.
Not on the ice, but with the club he has always loved.
“I was very surprised when he stopped ice hockey,” Ben says.
“But it was obviously always about what he wanted to do and football is his passion.”
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