RICK Davies was a champion for Sturt in the 1970s, an era when South Australia produced some of the great players of the time.

Davies was a powerhouse ruckman for the Double Blues, a dual premiership player and seven-time best and fairest winner who watched with envy over the years as playing compatriots such as Graham Cornes, Peter Carey and Russell Ebert were inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

"I suppose you see the other guys get in and you hope it can happen to you in your lifetime," he said. "Now that it has, I'm humbled and honoured."

There is no question that Davies deserves to be inducted. He made his debut in 1970 (Woodville's Ray Buckley, father of Collingwood coach Nathan, was his direct opponent). In 1973 he started his streak of seven Sturt best and fairest awards in the next eight years.

Davies was the premier ruckman in the SANFL. At 188cm, he wasn't necessarily the tallest, but he was nimble and athletic and he used the rules of the time to his best advantage.

"There were no lines across the centre, so you could manoeuvre your body to beat the useless taller blokes," he said.

"The line has taken away the art and technique of rucking, in my opinion."

Davies joined Sturt at the tail-end of a glorious streak when the Double Blues won five straight flags. He missed out in 1970, but made amends in 1974 and 1976  - and both were significant.

In 1974, Sturt won the first Grand Final to be held at Football Park (now AAMI Stadium), while two years later came the especially sweet triumph over Port Adelaide by 41 points in front of a crowd of 66,897. So large was the turnout that spectators were sitting two deep inside the playing arena.

"It was great to beat them because they were the favourites and I enjoyed rubbing it into them. But they've had the last laugh because they've won another 13 flags since then," he said.

Davies signed an agreement with the VFL binding him to Hawthorn. But his father wasn't in the best of health and, as he says, Sturt coach Jack Oatey had "wonderful powers of persuasion".

Davies didn’t cross to Glenferrie until 1981 when he was 29 and only spent one year with the Hawks, kicking 37 goals from 20 games while playing primarily out of a forward pocket.

"I left it too late," he admits.

"On my first night of pre-season they did a 15km run, and I came home and told the family not to unpack the trailer because we might be heading back soon. I never went that far on a holiday. But I loved every minute of it."

Back in the SANFL, Davies would play three more years for Sturt almost exclusively as a key forward and would finish there with 317 games and 635 goals. He then stepped in as playing coach of South Adelaide seven rounds into 1985 (after former Hawthorn teammate Don Scott was sacked) and would play 33 games and kick 146 goals for the Panthers.

While still a brilliant player, Davies did bulk up considerably towards the end of his career, which earned him the nickname, coined by Adelaide media sports personality KG Cunningham, of the ‘Jumbo Prince’.

After three years with the Panthers, Davies cut his formal ties to the SANFL. He moved to Western Australia for business reasons in 2000 where he revels in football anonymity, and he still follows Sturt and Hawthorn as avidly as he can from the other wide of the country.