One footy pundit quipped this season that Cyril Rioli is the best player to barely touch the ball. So what happens when he’s got it on a string? On a day like Saturday, he becomes a Norm Smith medallist.
Rioli barely caused a ripple on Brownlow night, but there was no stopping him at the MCG in the season finale: hard-working, entertaining, selfless in front of goal, and a little cheeky with the mic in his hand afterwards.
Perhaps it should come as no surprise the medallion was hanging around his neck after a hard afternoon’s work on a baking Melbourne day. After all, he is the third member of his family to be named best-on-ground in a grand final, and all in little more than three decades – his dad’s brother Maurice did it with Richmond back in 1982 and his mum’s brother Michael Long did with Essendon 11 years later.
Saturday’s victory ties together all three stories. The contrast in their tales – a trailblazer, a slayer of racism, and an elite private school graduate – is a small sign of how much progress has been made thanks to Cyril’s forebears, even if there remains plenty of work to do.
Back in the 90s, when Indigenous footballers were really starting to make a big impact in the league, it was common for them to be referred as wizards and magic men. It was meant to be a nod to the elite skill and unique style they brought with them (from their supposedly mythical faraway lands) to suburban Melbourne.
There was an implication, however, that these footballers were born with supernatural powers rather than possessing a strong work ethic and an ability to develop and hone their skills. It fit with an old negative stereotype, and is as such considered insensitive.
Indigenous footballers were called many other things too. It’s why St Kilda’s Nicky Winmar turned to the meatheads at Victoria Park one day in 1993, lifted his guernsey and pointed proudly to his black skin. And it’s why Rioli’s uncle, Long, demanded action from the league when he was racially abused by Collingwood’s Damian Monkhorst during an Anzac Day clash a couple of years later.
What Long did was back Winmar’s powerfully symbolic act with practical and significant action. After a messy few months of mediation and debate, he managed to bring about about real change. He forced the AFL into taking a stand on racial vilification, and the league now boasts about being a national leader in this field.
Long’s parents were both part of the stolen generations. His father was taken from the deserts of central Australia, his mother from the Daly River region. Both ended up with the missionaries on the Tiwi Islands, a few hours north of Darwin by ferry.
Years later, after prime minister John Howard denied the existence of a stolen generation, Long would write in the Age: “My mother was taken when she was a baby, taken to Darwin and put on a boat ... screaming and yelling, not knowing what was happening and then crying herself to sleep. I am so angry anyone could do this to a child just because their skin was a different colour … How do I explain to my mother, who as the most loved, trusting mother figure to all who knew her, that Mr Howard is just the same as the people who were in power back then, cold-hearted pricks.”
The Northern Territory has been referred to as the AFL’s Brazil, and the Tiwis alone have produced players of the calibre of Long, Maurice and Cyril Rioli, not to mention Dean Rioli, David Kantilla and Austin Wonaeamirri. More than one in three people – men, women and children – on the islands reportedly play the game, and there’s no doubt they play it differently to those from those in, say, the leafy eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
“The players think of themselves as entertainers,” Indigenous leader and ABC commentator Charlie King said earlier this year. “It’s footy as it was a long time ago. They don’t put in a lot of effort in shutting down players and taggers and those sorts of things. They take it from one end of the ground to the other end of the ground without actually handing it over. The skill level is extraordinary. At ground level when the ball hits the ground they just run at it at a great rate of knots.”
King could be describing Long’s best-on-ground grand final performance for Essendon from two decades ago when Long – who was named as a forward pocket – finished the game with 33 possessions and two goals, setting up a number of others, including the last of the match. It was a standout performance that even outshone Stephen Kernahan’s seven-goal haul.
The UN had declared 1993 as the year of the world’s Indigenous peoples, and the pre-game entertainment included Yothu Yindi and Archie Roach. Indigenous opera singer Maroochy Barambah did an interpretation of Waltzing Matilda. A few nights earlier, Wanganeen had happened to win the Brownlow medal.
And the man selected to present the Norm Smith medal for best on ground? None other than Maurice Rioli. The Tiwi Islander had won the medal himself 11 years earlier, in his first season with Richmond. The Tigers lost that match, making Rioli both the first losing player and the first Aboriginal to win the medal. In his previous two seasons, in Perth, Rioli had been best on ground in consecutive WAFL grand finals.
Long won another premiership in 2000. The Bombers went through that year with just a single defeat, and met little resistance from Melbourne on grand final day. “He actually taught us a different way of footy,” said coach Kevin Sheedy when his protégé retired a year later. “The player running with the ball has overtaken the skill of marking as what fans love … [He would] move into space, kick balls to where no one was, then run to it, get it ... [or] run backwards into space. We always thought you had to move forwards.”
The likes of Long and Maurice Rioli helped show recruiters what a relatively untapped resource Indigenous Australia was. While Rioli was one out of the mould, there are dozens of Indigenous players in the league these days, including Cyril. (For whatever reason, the number has dropped significantly in recent years.)
Since retiring, both Maurice Rioli and Long have been dedicated to the public good. Rioli moved into community work on the Tiwis and was the islands’ member in the Territory parliament for a number of years. Sadly, he died on Christmas Day 2010, aged just 53.
Long is what biographer Martin Flanagan calls “a man on a mission to do with the welfare of his people...a man whose eye is fixed on [their] multiple disadvantages”. The most high profile of his activities has been the Long Walk. Travelling by foot, he left Melbourne for Canberra, where he would demand a meeting with John Howard. It was, of course, the plight of his people on his mind.
It was criticised as a merely symbolic act. But the walk became increasingly embarrassing for Howard, and as Long reached the halfway mark, the prime minister agreed to a meeting. Once again, Long had turned the powerfully symbolic into something of practical consequence.
Long and Maurice Rioli started their career at St Mary’s, the powerhouse team of Darwin that has the Tiwis in its DNA. They both finished their careers alongside each other on the centre line of the Indigenous team of the century.
But despite all they’ve shared over the years, perhaps their strongest bond remains a family one. Long’s sister married Rioli’s brother and from that union was born the latest member of the family to continue the family tradition and win a Norm Smith medal – none other than the Hawks’ current man of the hour, “Junior Boy”.
Having picked up 13 votes on Saturday night, four ahead of his nearest rival, Sam Mitchell, history repeated itself when Rioli received his medal from another Indigenous star from the Northern Territory – this time it was the former Adelaide player Andrew McLeod.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling to follow in their footsteps and very humbling to receive the award,” he said. Indigenous roots run deep, none more so than in one particular AFL family from the Tiwi Islands.
