Richmond star Daniel Rioli hasn’t kicked a goal against Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard in recent years
The Richmond-Collingwood season restart clash is littered with defining match-ups. But can star Tiger Daniel Rioli redefine his? A Magpie has puts the clamps on him in recent matches, and the stats need to be seen to be believed.
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Brayden Maynard won’t practice social distancing on the football field.
When the AFL season restarts tomorrow night there is little chance Richmond star Daniel Rioli will be granted 1.5m of separation.
There is also little chance of Rioli sleeping too comfortably tonight. The electrifying forward knows exactly what is coming, and that is because he has spent the past two years wrestling the Maynard clamp.
Rioli, 23, has not kicked a goal against Maynard, 23, from their four most recent battles. In fact, the Tiger has collected just 17 disposals from 168 minutes spent on the Magpies stopper.
That’s almost three hours of torture for the dual premiership player.
“Brayds is a beauty,” coach Nathan Buckley said on Tuesday.
“He never wants to let anyone down. You can see that in his desperation when he plays. He's a legitimately tough player.
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“You don't have any favourites, but I do love him.”
Rioli is not alone in as a Maynard scalp. In 2019 the Magpie with a booming left foot went unbeaten.
To name a few, he kept clean sheets against Charlie Cameron (45 minutes), Anthony McDonald-Tipingwuti (30 minutes) and Tom Papley (54 minutes).
Gary Ablett kicked one goal on him from 112 minutes across two games while Luke Breust and Jack Darling (two goals) were the only players to manage multiple goals on Maynard in one game.
It was more of the same in Round 1, when Maynard split his time between Mitch Wallis, Bailey Dale and Ben Cavarra.
Each Bulldog registered just one disposal while playing on Maynard. He is the rough-and-ready defender you’d love to play with and never against.
“He's an emerging leader for us,” Buckley said.
“He has continued to improve himself and his game through diligence and workrate and he's really passionate about his role for the team.”
That passion is cause for concern for Tigers coach Damien Hardwick. What happens if Maynard takes Rioli out for a fifth-straight time?
Could ‘Dimma’ throw Rioli into the midfield, as his good mate Alastair Clarkson used to do with Cyril Rioli?
Daniel Rioli has attended just 23 centre bounces in his 78-game career, with the Tigers rarely pivoting from their proven mix of Trent Cotchin, Dustin Martin, Dion Prestia, Shane Edwards and Kane Lambert.
In fairness to Rioli he isn’t a major goalkicker. The livewire went goalless 10 times last year, and the Tigers went 8-2 in those matches.
But Maynard’s record does heighten the pressure on Richmond’s fellow forwards to cash in.
Tom Lynch dined out with eight goals from two games against Collingwood last year.
Will Buckley stick with Jordan Roughead on Lynch, or is the out-of-contract Darcy Moore – who blanketed Aaron Naughton in Round 1 – a better match-up?
Moore, who Hardwick was reportedly chasing before COVID-19 froze the player movement landscape, has been used as an intercept weapon against the Tigers.
Last year he had five intercept marks, eight intercept possessions and 13 spoils and in 2018 he had two intercept marks, seven intercept possessions and seven spoils.
Then there’s Jordan De Goey, who has an impressive record against Richmond, but not Dylan Grimes, kicking just two goals from 124 minutes across their past three games.
The MCG clash is one littered with defining match-ups. Will Rioli redefine his?
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Originally published as Richmond star Daniel Rioli hasn’t kicked a goal against Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard in recent years