Willie Rioli’s journey ‘through the fire’ to become an integral piece in Port’s premiership pursuit

Willie Rioli’s best footy comes when he’s happy according to his cousin Dean – but there was serious doubt he’d ever get back here. MATT TURNER tells the Port star’s story of perseverance.

Dean Rioli could see it in his cousin’s eyes.

Port Adelaide goalsneak Willie Rioli had that look.

One that signalled to his family watching back home in the Northern Territory that he was primed for a special finals performance against Hawthorn.

“We picked it up in the first couple of minutes of the game, we knew he was on,” says former Essendon player Dean.

“You can tell when Will’s on, he’s got that steely look.

“I thought he was probably the most influential player on the ground.”

As Dean tunes in to the Power’s three-point semi-final win from Darwin, his cousin’s face tells him something else.

“He just looks happy,” he says.

“You can tell when he’s happy – he’s one of those guys who smiles all the time.

“You can tell he’s in a good place off the field and is obviously very well supported at the football club.

“It’s showing in the way he’s playing at such a crucial time of the year for them.”

Rioli was one of the heroes in the Power’s semi-final win. Picture: James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Port Adelaide and Rioli are one win away from a grand final, preparing to face Sydney at the SCG on Friday night.

The 29-year-old has already played in one AFL premiership decider – West Coast’s 2018 flag.

His road to a second one has been a story of perseverance.

The season after his grand final success, Rioli copped a two-year suspension from the league during the Eagles’ finals campaign for tampering with a urine sample in an anti-doping drug test.

In 2021, he was charged with cannabis possession and escaped conviction.

In 2022, the season he returned to play for the Eagles, his father died.

West Coast wrapped its arms around Rioli when that happened, then the club publicly clipped him after he asked for a trade to Port Adelaide months later.

The challenges have kept coming at the Power, where he has endured racial vilification on social media.

Supported by one of footy’s most famous families, Rioli has persisted through it all so he can keep living a dream that started as a boy growing up on the Tiwi Islands.

“Regardless of the challenges he’s had, he’s kept fronting up, so you’ve got to take your hat off to him,” Dean says.

“It’s not easy to keep rocking up every day when you’ve been put through the fire but he’s continued to show up.

“Willie had great success early with West Coast, then had those very challenging times, but he never ever gave up.”

The forward made the move to the Power in 2022. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Rioli is hoping to join cousins Cyril (four) and Daniel (three), and uncle Michael Long (two) as winners of multiple AFL premierships.

Cyril, Long and Rioli’s uncle Maurice have also received Norm Smith Medals.

Rioli has a senior grand final best-on-ground award – the Northern Territory Football League’s Chaney Medal, claiming it as a 17-year-old in 2013.

“People always say how talented Cyril was, Willie was as talented as Cyril as a kid growing up,” Dean says.

“He was very similar to Cyril in that he could always do some really freaky stuff with a football.

“He’d always be outside the boundary line trying to snap goals from over the fence … and would always try to make it as hard as possible.

“From a very young age, he knew how the ball bounced and how to bend the ball.

“We always knew Will would be something special.”

Rioli’s footy genes are also on his mum’s side, the Vigona family.

His uncle Benny Vigona is in the AFLNT Hall of Fame.

Rioli’s love of the game grew following his dad’s playing career around Australia.

His father went from St Mary’s in the NTFL, South Fremantle in the WAFL and Hawthorn in the VFL, where he was drafted in 1990 and never played, before lining up for regional clubs.

One of those was Mortlake in country Victoria, coached by Ken Hinkley, whose relationship with Rioli was a factor behind him joining the Power.

“Willie was always in the change rooms as a two, three, four-year-old, always with a football,” Dean says.

Rioli had his sights set on making the AFL until the passing of two uncles in 2011 led to him losing interest in trying to get drafted.

It was his nana who would later tell him to get out of Darwin to make something of himself.

“We had strong leaders as a family,” Dean says.

“I came back home when I was struggling once and it was my grandfather, father and uncles who said ‘Dean, we love you, but there’s no place for you here right now. Your home right now is in Victoria and you need to keep chasing your football dream’.

“Cyril got that talking to, Maurice Jr has got that and I’ve got no doubt Willie had that talking to.

“It would’ve been ‘we love you, we’d love to have you here with us, but remember you’re making us proud, we follow your career so get back there and do what you love doing’.

“So that’s the message if you’re feeling homesick – you come home, but then get out of here because you’ve got bigger and better things in your life to achieve.

“You come back when you’re finished (playing).”

Rioli moved to Adelaide and joined SANFL club Glenelg in 2015 to boost his prospects of landing on an AFL list.

He lost 16kg in 18 months, booted four goals in a state representative game and West Coast selected him at pick No. 52 in the 2016 national draft.

“Willie came down straight out of the Darwin league and I knew nothing about him,” former Glenelg coach Matthew Lokan says.

“I had a pretty unfit young man who every time he kicked a footy, you knew he had talent, we just had to get him fit.

“Whether he could adjust to being in the city of Adelaide, having to look after his body and play week after week was going to be the challenge, but it was one he lapped up.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a more creative player in my journey in footy and he’s one of the more humble young men you’ll ever meet.

“He’s so caring, a great human.”

Former West Coast teammate Will Schofield quickly came to know Rioli as a football genius on the field and a quiet, caring, loyal, family-oriented person with a great memory.

“I was playing in the WAFL one day and it’s not compulsory for Eagles players to go watch but Willie was there,” Schofield recalls.

“My mum was over, got chatting to Willie and this was early in his time at the club, in 2017, and not once after that did he ever forget her name.

“He’d greet her with a big hug and say ‘hi Jan’ and would still do that today.

“He’s just a big family man.”

Rioli has his own place in one of football’s most famous families. Picture: Steve Bell/Getty Images

Dean was with family proudly watching his cousin play an important role in the Eagles’ 2018 grand final triumph.

What stands out to him are never the goals, but how Rioli brings others into the game with selfless acts.

Last week against Hawthorn, it was his three goal assists.

“One of his attributes – and I guess it’s one that some of us get frustrated with – is sometimes he’s too generous,” Dean says.

“He gets more joy out of getting goal assists than getting goals himself.”

In the premiership win over Collingwood six years ago, it was a block on Brayden Maynard that allowed Dom Sheed’s late mark and matchwinning goal to happen in the final 90 seconds.

“Willie probably would’ve done that 15 other times in that game but that one got highlighted the most,” Dean says.

“He thrives on the things you don’t get stats for.”

Rioli’s football education back home taught him about those one-percenters.

“When you grow up playing football on the Tiwi Islands, you’re never quite the best player,” says Dean, who featured in 100 games for Essendon from 1999-2006.

“A lot of the time you’re chasing other players because they’re so fast and skilful, they like to play tricks on you, so you learn all the things to try to combat that and win the ball back.”

West Coast coach Adam Simpson visited Rioli’s Tiwi Islands community leading up to the 2018 premiership season – something Lokan did at the end of 2015.

“You can share all the stories you like but until people actually go there, see how people live – the overcrowding, the social issues, the challenges we face...,” Dean says.

“People think it must be great fishing, it’s beaches of paradise, there’s crocodiles.

“But if you go and see why it’s so tough for the Aboriginal people that come from very remote areas ... they don’t start their journeys on a level playing field.

“So if you have a coach, a teammate or a mentor make the effort to come up and see where you’re from and grew up ... you build that connection and relationship.”

After the Eagles’ grand final win, Rioli took the premiership cup to the Tiwi Islands.

It had “already done a few laps” after Cyril and Daniel’s flag successes.

Rioli returned home during his stint out of the AFL – to build houses.

Wanting to sweat and keep busy while he was banned from the Eagles and training away from the club, he worked as a labourer.

Dean describes the period after his cousin’s 2019 indiscretion as “very dark days”.

Rioli waited 15 months to have his case heard then three more months for a result.

The Rioli Boys – Maurice Rioli jnr, Willie and Daniel Rioli. Picture: Michael Klein

Willie with cousin Daniel after West Coast’s 2018 grand final win. Picture: Michael Klein

“Will had doubts as to whether even he wanted to come back,” he says.

“He understands he made some choices that put him in that position.

“But he continued to train and work hard.

“The reality of what life could be like without AFL football kicked in.

“For a lot of people, it would’ve been very easy to walk away, but he fought back.

“He didn’t bury his head in the sand and give up.

“He got back to where he should be.

“He had a lot of support around him.

“We’re such a tight-knit family, the Rioli and Vigona families, but Willie also has the entire Tiwi Islands community and many people throughout Darwin who are close family friends.”

Rioli’s ban ended in mid-2021 and he made his AFL return in round 1, 2022.

In July of that year, his dad died of a heart attack, aged 50.

“They were very close,” Dean says.

“He taught him everything.

“He was a disciplinarian and made sure he stuck things out.

“I speak from experience, when you’re away living your dream in the AFL – sacrificing being around family, weddings, funerals, birthday parties – every time you lose someone, you feel like you’ve missed a lot of time with them because you’re living your dream.

“That can hurt and make you question whether it’s worth it.

“But we had strong families that pushed again and said ‘there’s nothing for you here, keep sticking it out, this is what everyone in the family wants and more importantly what you’ve wanted every since you were a young kid’.”

Cousins Ben, Cyril and Willie at the under-18 championships in 2011. Picture: GREY MORRIS

Rioli hasn’t had it all go his own way across his career. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Rioli joined the Power at the end of 2022, in a difficult decision that bitterly disappointed Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett.

Schofield believes his friend, who has family in Adelaide, has made the right call.

“He understood how much West Coast had done for him,” says the fellow 2018 premiership winner.

“But I think he needed a fresh start.

“You can be loyal, love your teammates, be thankful and still put yourself first.”

Rioli’s return to Perth earlier this season to be at Simpson’s farewell gave Schofield further evidence of that.

“I had a really good chat to Willie that night and he just seemed like he was in a good space mentally – incredibly focused, thankful, and it was really cool to see,” Schofield says.

“I left the catch-up that night thinking ‘he’s going to finish the year really well’.

“It seems like Port Adelaide’s really embraced him and he’s happy.

“I know he thinks leaving West Coast is like leaving a family, which is why it was so hard for him.

“But he’s a great story and I cheer for him every time he’s out there.”

Rioli has booted 32 goals from 19 games for the Power this year, a career-best return.

His importance to the side is highlighted by Port Adelaide boasting a 15-4 win-loss record with him and 2-4 ratio when he has been sidelined.

Against the Hawks last week, he recorded season-highs in disposals (15) and score assists (four), while booting two goals and distributing three.

Rioli will play a key role in the Power’s quest for a GF berth. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

“He’s clearly a really top-end talent,” Hinkley says.

“He’s missed six games and if he’d continued his (goal) average for the year, he’d have kicked 45 or 50 goals as a small forward and that would’ve put him in the category of All-Australian, I would have thought.

“I know he reflects on his family history and his dad’s words to him over the journey and that is to make the most of your moments, and he makes the most of those moments.

“I’m really proud of Junior.”

Dean says his family knew Rioli could get back to this stage of the finals despite everything he has been through.

“We always had faith,” he says.

“He deserves everything that will come his way.

“This is a valuable lesson for him post-football that he’ll be able to share and become a great role model influencing a lot of young people about decision-making and resilience.”

Originally published as Willie Rioli’s journey ‘through the fire’ to become an integral piece in Port’s premiership pursuit