New Board member Mark Ricciuto says the “time was right” for him to return to the Club where he spent 15 years and played 312 games in a distinguished AFL career.

On Tuesday, it was announced Ricciuto would join the Adelaide Football Club Board effective July 1. A premiership player, Brownlow Medallist, eight-time All-Australian and triple best-and-fairest winner, Ricciuto retired at the end of 2007.

Since then, the 39-year-old has established himself as a successful businessman in the hotels industry. He’s also forged a strong media career as co-host of a radio show, newspaper columnist and television commentator.

Ricciuto will take the place of long-serving Board member, Peter Hurley, who join fellow distinguished servant John Sutton in retiring at the end of the year.

The former Crows captain said he’d recently made changes to his personal and business affairs to allow himself more time to commit to a new role with Adelaide.

“I’ve always had a plan … that if I could get things in order on a personal front, I wanted to give something back to the footy club,” Ricciuto said on Tuesday.

“When I retired from footy, I had a number of things on my plate I had to get sorted out. I have restructured those business commitments to be able to delegate a bit more now and free up more time. We (the Club and I) have been in discussion for a long period of time, but I wanted to wait until the time was right for me and the footy club.

“Peter Hurley has been a great business partner of mine for a long time. He’s said to me for a long time that when he goes off (the board), I want you to go on. It hasn’t been the right time in the past, but with the restructuring of my personal stuff the time is right now.

“I’m really keen to put all the knowledge I’ve gained throughout my playing career and also since I’ve finished playing as well, which has been equally important. I’ve seen more games a week over the last seven years than I ever did when I was playing.

“The footy club has changed and footy in general has changed, but I think a lot of the core things are very similar. I feel as equipped as ever to be able to impact some knowledge on the footy club. I’m just going to come in and help make it as good a footy club as I possibly can.”

Whilst Ricciuto will provide input to the football department in consultation with Football Director, Andrew Payze, he said he had no desire to get into coaching.

“It’s hard to go into coaching seven years after you finish even if I wanted to. Coaching is a 110 per cent commitment. On the Board, you’re still committed and give it your all but you don’t have to physically commit 60, 70 or 80 hours a week,” Ricciuto said.

“I just want to get in and have a look how things are run. It’s been a long time since I was involved with the Club and I’ve never been involved in the inner sanctum off the field. I’m looking forward to working side by side with Andrew Payze, who has been Football Director for a long time. I’ll sit in and listen and learn. I’ll throw my knowledge at him and make some decisions together.”

Adelaide’s constitution, which was re-written when the Club took possession of its AFL licence from the SANFL, allows the Club to appoint a new Board member when it sees fit – not just at the end of the year as was the case previously.

Ricciuto said he didn’t want to “waste a year” while decisions affecting the Club’s future were being made. Chairman Rob Chapman agreed it was the right decision to make Ricciuto’s appointment mid-year.

“It makes a whole lot of sense to do it now,” Chapman said.

“With Nigel Smart joining the management ranks, we’re a little short on recent football experience (on the Board). Mark clearly ticks that box with his insight and experience.

“That will be invaluable to us, but I don’t want to pigeon hole Mark just for his football ability, he’s a businessman in his own right.”

Ricciuto will continue to be involved in the media despite his appointment to the Board. He said the dual roles wouldn’t be an issue, pointing to Eddie McGuire, James Brayshaw and David Koch as examples.

“It’s happened plenty of times before and is still happening with other people. I don’t see it being an issue going forward,” he said.