Richmond spoiled for choice to replace Brandon Ellis as Maurice Rioli Jr joins Tigers stars at training
If Richmond’s latest pre-season training session is any guide, coach Damien Hardwick faces a selection logjam in 2020 that will surely ignite talk of a Tigers dynasty. And the sight of Maurice Rioli Jr was another reason for fans to get excited.
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Maurice Rioli Jr’s presence at Richmond training on Thursday was the perfect symbol for coach Damien Hardwick’s challenges ahead.
The stars on show ahead of the Christmas break revealed why pundits will spend the summer talking about the dynasty that awaits.
Alex Rance was surging through repeat sprints, Dustin Martin and Trent Cotchin were inseparable on the track, and the Tom Lynch-Jack Riewoldt dream duo continued their summer education.
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But around them were a dozen young players desperate to break into a side striving for its third flag in four seasons.
The selection logjam looks to be one of Hardwick’s greatest challenges.
The Tigers will have to wait until November next year to choose Rioli Jr as a father-son selection amid conjecture about where he lays in the draft pecking order.
Draft watchers don’t yet have him high or even mid-table in the draft but, as AFL talent manager Kevin Sheehan said, his cousin Daniel emerged only in his final draft year.
With Brandon Ellis gone to the Gold Coast, half a dozen players on show are already eyeing his spot.
Talented kids Patrick Naish, Sydney Stack and Derek Eggmolesse-Smith, all of them 2019 debutantes, will push for that position, alongside Oleg Markov and 2017 premiership player Kamdyn McIntosh.
The idea of a fit Lynch setting his sights on 80 goals after a full pre-season will terrify defenders.
And then there’s other key forwards Noah Balta, Mabior Chol and Callum Coleman-Jones who were blending into match-play drills after showing glimpses of their potential last season.
Add in the returning Jack Higgins, Norm Smith contender Marlion Pickett, VFL grand final revelation Riley Collier-Dawkins, and second-year midfielder Jack Ross and there is genuine intrigue going into season.
Higgins won’t integrate into full training until after Christmas, but the effervescent forward was bouncing around in repeat-effort drills with the look of a player set for a Round 1 return following brain surgery.
The mere mention of Rioli Jr’s name is enough to make Tigers fans weak at the knees, given a pedigree that saw his father win the 1982 Norm Smith 33 years before cousin Cyril’s best-afield display in the 2015 Grand Final.
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Maurice Jr will spend his year with Richmond steering a program that will include school games at Scotch College, the NAB League with Oakleigh Chargers and the under-18 championships with the Northern Territory.
“I remember with Daniel Rioli it wasn’t until about July of his 18th year where he played a game for NT and you thought: ‘This kid’s future is unfolding in front of our eyes’,” Sheehan said.