Cyril Rioli wants to rediscover the fun in footy after a difficult year on and off the field
IT’S been an incredibly difficult year for Hawthorn star Cyril Rioli, who has battled injuries and had to cope with family health issues. But now the premiership Hawk is ready to launch into 2018.
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CYRIL Rioli wants to rediscover the “fun” in footy after a difficult year on and off the field.
The four-time premiership star battled a knee injury and was last month granted compassionate leave to care for his father — also named Cyril — following serious heart surgery.
Rioli admitted that it was often tough to focus this season but as his father works his way back to full health, is confident that he will be ready to return to playing in 2018.
“Things are on the up — dad’s recovering from surgery,” Rioli said.
“Being home after two months of being in hospital … he’s on the road to recovery and looking pretty good.
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“What he went through was pretty tough and very scary and just to be by his side and supporting him, I’m loving that and so would he.
“Mentally it’s been pretty hard to focus on footy when something like that happens to your family member. It has been a bit weird not starting preseason but my dad means everything to me and to be able to spend some time with him and get him through the tough times has been the No. 1 priority.”
Rioli thanked the club and the football community for “respectfully giving myself and my family private time” to help his father recuperate.
And now that his knee injury is behind him, he wants to find the spark again.
“(It will be a) late start to the preseason but I’m looking forward to getting back into footy. I don’t know when that will be due to my late start in the preseason, but I’m looking forward to going out there and having fun,” he told the club website.
“This year has been pretty tough with injury and the family stuff happening, but I think next year is just to find that fun again and to just play free footy.
“I’m very excited for next year and what it has to bring.”
Coach Alastair Clarkson delivered a heartfelt tribute to Rioli and teammate Jarryd Roughead — who battled his second bout of cancer in 2016 before returning to football this year — at Thursday night’s club annual general meeting.
In introducing a photo montage from the club’s trip to New Zealand, Clarkson highlighted the soundtrack — Bruce Springsteen’s 2012 single “We Take Care Of Our Own”.
“In light of what we’ve had to endure over the last 18 months, particularly with two significant individuals in our footy club — one being our captain Roughy and another being a very highly decorated and respected player in Cyril,” Clarkson said.
“When those two guys have had to go through things with humanity — and both of them around health and wellbeing, in Roughy’s case his own, in Cyril’s case his father’s, his grandfather, his uncle — it’s really difficult to actually get across the white line and turn our players into warriors when we’re having to worry about things about mortality of our close ones.
“That was what we all felt with Rough, he felt that himself and that’s what Cyril is feeling right now.
“We’ve always been very proud as a family club to look at care as a really important area. That word that men don’t like to talk about very often — love — for one another and our family and our teammates. It’s why we take our players on trips like this to New Zealand.”
Clarkson said the team’s New Zealand jaunt — which included time in Queenstown and Peel Forest — where the Hawks “went adventure bush”.
The trip included mountain bike riding, high ropes courses and white water rafting.
“Weren’t sleeping under much, weren’t sleeping on much … it was a tough few days,” he said.
“Whether it’s Kokoda or New Zealand … they’re trips that are quite unique to our footy clubs now. They galvanise our group, and that’s really important. We’ve had a significant amount of change at our club over the last 12 to 18 months … it was really important that we needed to instil in (the new faces) a genuine belief and a path forward for us.
“The real short term for us is all about season 2018. We’re delighted with the way the boys have come back in regards to their preparation for 2018 and we’re absolutely stoked with the approach that they’ve had to their training.”
Originally published as Cyril Rioli wants to rediscover the fun in footy after a difficult year on and off the field