Following Maurice Rioli’s induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame, three top-class teammates from his time at Tigerland – Kevin Bartlett, Michael Roach and Dale Weightman – provide their views on how good a player he was at the game’s highest level . . .
Bartlett on Rioli
“I played only two years with Maurice, but in that time he showed enough to ensure his selection in my best Richmond team.
“He won the Best and Fairest in 1982 and ’83 and was also runner-up in the Brownlow Medal in ’83.
“His evasive skills and his tackling skills brought a new dimension to the Club.
“He had a sixth sense, knowing the whereabouts of opposition player, sidestepping at just the right time to create extra space.
“And he was a beautiful left-foot kick.
“He had a very low centre of gravity, so he never lost his footy, and he didn’t fumble. Great players don’t fumble . . .
“In today’s game, you would play him on the ball.
“He was just so good.”
*The above comments were from Kevin Bartlett’s book, “KB: A Life In Football”
Roach on Rioli
“Maurice was a great player . . . just awesome.
“He was the best tackler that I’d seen at Richmond. He was a tackling machine. None of us had ever seen anything like that. It just never happened back in our day.
“And, his awareness of what was going on around him was amazing.
“It was just a dream as a full-forward to have him kicking the ball to you.
“Maurice wasn’t a real powerful kick, but he would loop it up and it would land in your arms . . . you didn’t have to change stride! He’d actually kick it to where you should be. It was a case of: “You just go there and I’ll put it in your hands”. . . Being a left-footer was always handy, too.
“I reckon he’d have been an even better player in today’s game, with full-time training and all the sports science stuff.
“Although Maurice was fairly quiet, he had a burning desire to succeed. He was a fierce competitor and always did everything within his considerable powers to try and help us win.”
Weightman on Rioli
“There weren’t too many players who could tackle like him, and there were even fewer players who could tackle him.
“He was one of the best tacklers of all time. A few times during his career here, we actually got him to teach us how to tackle properly.
“Maurice’s all-round football skills were magnificent. He just did things that you marveled at. No-one could lay a hand on him. That’s what amazed me the first time I saw him play. He was dodging and weaving . . . they’d be coming at him and he’d be going this way, that way.
“Maurice was so good in ‘heavy traffic’ out on the field. It was just boom, boom, boom and next second he’d be gone and opponents would be left floundering.
“So many times I saw blokes who thought they had him covered, and he’d just slide around them sideways and then slot the ball down the throat of one of our forwards. It was just brilliant to watch.
“There’s no doubt that Maurice is one of the best players that I’ve played with – and one of the best I’ve seen, full stop.
“You always knew when Maurice was around the ball that you had a chance, whether it was a one-on-one situation, one-on-two, one-on-three, even one-on-four . . . As long as Maurice was the one, you always had a chance because he just had that ability to be able to beat opponents.”
Maurice the magician
