Rioli family’s 1000-game milestone brings out the mean streak in NTFL club St Mary’s

ST Mary’s ran riot with all three Riolis bagging goals to celebrate 1000 NTFL games for their family, while nothing went the way of a downtrodden Waratah

Shannon Rioli is pinned by Waratah’s Liam O'Connor in a rare positive for the red and whites who were thrashed by St Mary’s on a day where the Rioli family reached 1000 combined games in the green and gold jumper. Picture: GLENN CAMPBELL

ST MARY’S ran riot with all three Riolis bagging goals to celebrate 1000 games for their family, while nothing went the way of a downtrodden Waratah outfit at TIO Stadium yesterday.

Saints started strongly with Anthony Wilson booting the first score inside the first minute in his team’s 25.14 (164) to 6.5 (41) hiding over the red and whites, and the Green Machine never dropped off in intensity from there.

Maurice Rioli Jr kicked two of his three goals in the first quarter, opening the scoring for his family.

“It went really well, me and the boys just pushed through for the win,” Rioli Jr told the Sunday Territorian.

“To play out there for the family was a pretty good feeling. Awesome to score goals, I wanted to kick four but the work paid off for us.”

Waratah loaded their defensive 50 and only then did Angus Hodgson come away with their opening goal from seemingly nothing, Kim Kantilla soon adding a second to end the quarter.

Saints coach Anthony Vallejo was pleased in side’s ability to maintain its intensity, every player pulling their weight and causing the Tahs’ shoulders to slump.

“Good win to be a part of, we had a pretty big game to play for in the Rioli’s 1000th game and I think we honoured them pretty well today,” Vallejo said.

“Maurice came up to me and said he wanted a goal.”

Tahs will especially rue their misfortune - Jordan Gardner came off with a shoulder injury, Aisea Raikiwasa overran his mark in the backline giving Jackson Calder an easy goal and Wilson scored after slipping into a high tackle.

Ben Rioli’s score in the third quarter inspired brother Shannon, who played an important link role all day, to focus on one of his own in the fourth quarter to complete the Rioli set.

“It was great to play this match with my brother and cousin. They scored their goals early so I said at three-quarter time I wanted a goal,” Shannon Rioli said.

“It was a really good team performance from everyone, unselfish, we wanted to play as a team and that’s what we did.”

It was Shannon who scored the last two goals of the game after a spell on the bench, with the last courtesy of cousin Maurice Jr ending a day the family will long remember.