Ricky Nixon

Ricky L. Nixon (born 3 April 1963) is a former Australian rules footballer in the VFL/AFL and now an Australian sports agent.

Football career

Recruited from Golden Square in the Bendigo Football League, Nixon played 4 games for the Carlton Football Club between 1983 and 1985, for 1 goal, amid limited opportunities (he was an emergency no fewer than 13 times in their 1982 Premiership Year. The half-back flanker then moved to St Kilda, where he established himself as a leading player in 51 games and 1 Final for 32 goals between 1986 and 1991. A contractual dispute with the Saints in March 1992 saw him move to the Hawthorn Football Club, where he played 8 games and 1 Final for 6 goals until his retirement in 1993.

ports Agent Career

Probably the most high-profile Sports Agent in Australia Nixon established his Sports Management Company (Flying Start) in 1994 after 8 years of teaching Physical Education at Carey Grammar. Since then, in the space of 13 years, the company has flourished and enjoyed enormous growth to become one of the leading sports management companies in Australia. Nixon pioneered group marketing of superstar athletes in Australia with his Club 10 team of AFL Players which included the likes of Gary Ablett, Wayne Carey, Jason Dunstall, Tony Lockett and Garry Lyon. He is widely acknowledge as the leader in innovative marketing of athletes. Recently rated by The Age Newspaper as the 4th most influential person of the past decade in the AFL, Flying Start’s stable of Stars includes the likes of Michael Voss, Matthew Richardson, Ben Cousins, Nick Riewoldt and Tom Hawkins. Flying Start recently opened Melbourne’s newest Fitness Club at Telstra Dome where Ricky also co-owns the Locker Room Bar and Cougars Sports Bar with Michael Gudinski. In addition to this Nixon commentates AFL on radio station Triple M and was recently awarded the Australia Day Sports Medal for services to sport by the Prime Minister. Ricky Nixon has been close to a few of the AFL's most controversial stars. The death of universally respected commentator and Nixon client Clinton Grybas has recently hit the football public hard. Acknowledged as the pioneer and leader in his field he was seen as a man of great humility. Nixon enjoys a huge popularity amongst ex-players, current players and football supporters. More recently he has entered into the business of education and his company Flying Start provides online education courses including "How to be a Sports Agent"