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For Richmond fans of a certain vintage, the thought of screaming for another Rioli by the name of Maurice has been the stuff of dreams.
Key points:
- Maurice Rioli Jr will line up in this weekend's Northern Territory Football League grand final
- Maurice Jr is the son of Maurice Rioli, an AFL Hall of Fame member
- Maurice Jr's cousin Daniel plays for Richmond — a club he could play for in 2021
For fans of every other team, the idea is cause for nightmarish concern.
Maurice Rioli Jr, the son of Richmond and South Fremantle legend Maurice Rioli, is that fever dream. And he's about to become a stark reality for 17 other AFL clubs who wish they had him.
Until now, despite his name and proximity to footballing royalty, Maurice Jr, born and raised on the Northern Territory's Tiwi Islands, has flown largely under the radar.
But after the 17-year-old's four-goal, best-on-ground performance to lift St Mary's into the Northern Territory Football League grand final this Saturday night, the football world is starting to take notice.
At the end of 2020, Maurice Jr will be eligible to be selected as a father-son draft selection to Richmond, where his father Maurice played 118 games and won the 1982 Norm Smith Medal, or to Fremantle (Maurice Rioli played 168 games for South Fremantle).
Richmond is the team Maurice Jr supports and is also where his cousin Daniel, a Richmond fan-favourite, is a two-time premiership-winning star.
Maurice Jr has already flagged his preference to play with his cousin and follow his famed father's footsteps into Punt Road — and here's why it makes perfect sense.
The Tigers should be licking their lips
Between the start and end of the 2010s, two fundamental things changed in football. And for Maurice Jr and Richmond, what transpired couldn't have gone more to plan.
Firstly, Richmond had risen from basket case to become the best team in football by the end of 2019.
Secondly, the Tigers had assumed the form of a team purpose-built to accommodate and unleash the very weapons Maurice Jr already has in abundance: speed and tackling.
So while Maurice Jr's four goals in the NTFL semi-final showcased his already advanced bag of tricks — including a freakish basketball tap to himself and a check-side goal from the boundary — it's his advanced forward pressure and tackling that will have Richmond coach Damien Hardwick excited.
Maurice Jr is already inflicting vintage Rioli pressure, replete with crunching takedown tackles and repeat pressure acts, upon his opponents; and his speed, anticipation and readiness to tackle looks further advanced to what his cousin Daniel — who has now won two premierships with the Tigers — showed for St Mary's at the same age.
Since 2017, through amping up their tackle and pressure game led by their lightning-quick forward mosquito fleet, Hardwick's Tigers have scored more points from turnovers than any other team.
This is what makes Maurice Jr and Richmond — the team which has explicitly prioritised forwards whose primary instinct is tackling over goalkicking — a match made in heaven.
Maurice has already shown he can do both.
He kicks goals and creates them, flashing the exquisite skill, innate awareness and unfailing sense of the big occasion that defines the AFL's greatest footballing family.
Are there any downsides to a Rioli-Richmond reunion?
There are two potential issues for Richmond selecting Maurice Jr as a father-son pick in the 2020 AFL draft.
One potential roadblock is how keen other teams are on Maurice Jr as a prospect. Another consideration for the club is its glut of small forwards.
Under the AFL's reformed father-son draft rules, if other clubs bid for Maurice Jr high in the draft, Richmond must use one of its coveted high draft picks to ensure Maurice Jr lands at the club.
That scenario would mean the club's recruiters would have to make a calculation on whether Maurice Jr's talent and upside is worth a potential high pick — a decision that could be complicated and clouded by the sentimental link between Richmond and the Tiwi-born talent.
This is further complicated by Richmond's current list profile. The club has stockpiled an armada of small forwards including Daniel Rioli, Jason Castagna, Shai Bolton, Jack Higgins and Jake Aarts, who fight over limited spots in the Richmond side.
Dan Butler, a small forward in Richmond's 2017 premiership team, could not crack the team in 2019 and was traded to St Kilda, and Liam Baker, who started 2019 in a small-forward role, has been repositioned into defence.
Given Richmond's healthy small-forward stocks, could Maurice Jr's specific talents be seen surplus to requirement in the eyes of Richmond recruiters?
Maybe. But if the past four years are anything to go by, no-one values players like Maurice Jr higher than the Tigers.
In the tactical system that Hardwick has built, Maurice Jr already seems to tick every box.
The club has also proven itself a great landing place for immensely talented Indigenous players in recent years. (If you haven't seen Daniel Rioli or Sydney Stack play, then you might have heard about Marlion Pickett.)
So while most St Mary's supporters will be hoping he kicks another match-winning bag of goals this Saturday night, Hardwick and the Tigers will be watching to see if Maurice Jr does two things.
They're nothing flashy, they have nothing to do with kicking goals, and his cousin Daniel inscribes them on his wrist every time he runs out onto the footy field: 'Run. Chase.'
Who was Maurice Rioli?
Not only is Maurice Jr's father one of the most decorated players in Australian Rules history, he is also one of the game's most important.
Maurice led South Fremantle to the 1980 premiership before he moved to Richmond, won two best-and-fairest awards, and in 1982 became the first Indigenous player to win the Norm Smith Medal after turning in one of the great grand final performances.
While many football fans will remember Maurice for his singular blend of intelligence, creativity and class on the field, Maurice's greatest influence might have been as a trailblazer for Indigenous footballers at a time where few played the game professionally and racism in the sport was rife.
After his professional playing career, Maurice returned to the Northern Territory to enter politics and rejoin his family — a family that in the next generation would produce four AFL and AFLW premiership players (Cyril, Daniel, Willie and Danielle Ponter) throughout the 2010s.
Since Richmond poached Maurice from South Fremantle in 1980, every AFL team that has drafted a Rioli has won the premiership.
Topics: sport, australian-football-league, community-and-society, darwin-0800, nt
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