West Coast calls for drug changes and is hopeful Willie Rioli will play for the club again
West Coast CEO Trevor Nisbett says the AFL should consider breaking away from the WADA code as the Eagles stand behind banned forward Willie Rioli.
Richmond
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West Coast chief executive Trevor Nisbett is optimistic Willie Rioli will play for the club again and has vowed to support the 2018 premiership forward until the end of his drug ban saga.
And the Eagles will ask the AFL to consider stepping away from the World Anti-Doping code because of the treatment of Rioli in the 14 months since he was provisionally suspended for two doping infractions.
One infraction was for tampering with a urine sample in August last year and the other weeks later for testing positive to marijuana.
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The AFL wants a hearing for Rioli before the end of the year but Mr Nisbett said the club and Rioli still had no date.
“There is no update on him other than to say the AFL are pushing very hard to get a hearing before Christmas and hopefully that will happen,” Nisbett said.
“If that happens, we will be grateful.
“But then we have to move on and say what is the penalty and how can we look after Willie.”
Nisbett said Rioli was “not great but OK”.
“Like all of us, he is extremely frustrated,” he said.
The sample tampering infraction carries a maximum penalty of a four-year ban.
Rioli has maintained that he spat an electrolyte drink into his sample because he was dehydrated and frustrated at not being able to urinate.
Nisbett hoped the tribunal would consider strongly Rioli’s version of events.
“We have got fingers crossed that it will be looked at in its entirety and not just on the basis that he smoked marijuana and he meddled with the sample,” he said.
“We would like to think we can support Willie right through this.
“If we can, we hope to get him back playing for us.”
Nisbett believed the AFL could run its own performance-enhancing drug detection system, rather than being signed up to WADA.
“We will be asking the AFL to review the whole system in time … this stuff is critical and it needs to be addressed,” he said.
“They probably need to assess whether we need to implement our own system.”
MORE AFL NEWS:
Suspended Willie Rioli’s prophetic GF words for cousin Dan
- Craig O’Donoghue
Richmond forward Daniel Rioli has revealed the prophetic messages from suspended cousin Willie which inspired and kept him focused during Saturday night’s grand final against Geelong.
Richmond won their third premiership in four seasons after beating the Cats by 31 points at the Gabba. Rioli has played in all three victories, but experienced the quietest final of his career with only six possession and no goals.
He revealed Willie Rioli had warned him to prepare for the possibility of a quiet game and remember that small forwards could still have an impact without the ball.
“I spoke to him on Friday,” Rioli told The West Australian.
“He said that as a small forward I have to get to every contest and try my best. He said that if I don’t have any offensive impact I need to run, chase and do my role.
“He said I won’t get a lot of the ball, but have to apply pressure and try to tackle to force mistakes and turnovers for us. I didn’t have a special game offensively but felt like I did my job.
“He texted me congratulations after the game. He’s a silky small forward. He’s better than me. He’s similar to Cyril.
“I’m not in that category. I rely on my gut running. They are special and have unique skills.”
Rioli lay down on the Gabba after the game to FaceTime his mum and was looking forward to returning to the Tiwi Islands to celebrate with family in the coming weeks.
The Rioli family have an extraordinary grand final record with a combined eight premierships between Cyril, Daniel and Willie.
Daniel threw his support behind Willie as he fights a doping suspension, but said the West Coast forward should take heart from knowing he had already achieved more than most AFL players.
“He’s going well. He’s got great support back home,” Rioli said.
“I love him and he’s not giving up. He wants to get back. But he’s got one (premiership) under his belt so he can’t complain. If he’s done, he’s done. He’s got his premiership and that’s what we play footy for. Our dream is to play in a grand final and win a premiership medal.
“I have to pinch myself and sit down in my room and reflect on how truly amazing it is for our name to be able to produce premiership success. I guess it’s just luck or something in the water back at the island that’s created something special.
“To have three around my neck and for Cyril to have four around his neck, and play in five, and for Willie to have one is truly amazing. We are young Tiwi Island boys who wanted to achieve the dream of playing at the highest level.”
JACK REVEALS STORY BEHIND ABLETT GESTURE
- Eliza Sewell
Richmond’s premiership stars hid their medals at the Gabba on Saturday night and in doing so may have shown their true mettle.
As the Tigers waited opposite the vanquished Cats to farewell Gary Ablett from the Gabba and a storied football life, they removed the evidence of a third premiership claimed in four years.
It was all about ensuring the spotlight could stay on 36-year-old Ablett, Tiger elder Jack Riewoldt told Fox Footy.
“I spoke to Danger (after the game) and just said, `look, we’d really like to do this’,” Riewoldt said on AFL 360.
“To be honest the medal idea came from when Dustin did it in 2017. He didn’t wear his Norm Smith around when all of us had our premiership medals on … he didn’t want to be the only one out with two medals.”
“This isn’t a moment for us – we paused our celebrations – this was actually about respecting and honoring a champion of the game.”
“I’d hate for Gary to look back on those images and see all of us standing there with the spoils of victory, and take the shine away from what has arguably been the greatest career in AFL history.”
“A small gesture but we’ve had some correspondence with Geelong and they really appreciate it. As Dustin said in his speech, he’s one of the greatest players to ever play the game and he deserves the respect. We were happy to give that to him and to send him the love.”
MORE GRAND FINAL:
Coaching legend Mick Malthouse analyses where the Grand Final was won and lost by the coaches
Opinion: AFL Grand Final at night might have looked great, but it must never happen again
