St Mary’s captain Shannon Rioli recalls brilliant matchwinning goal to win 2015-16 NTFL premiership
ST MARY’S captain Shannon Rioli still gets nervous watching replays of the 2015-16 NTFL Grand Final.You wouldn’t think so.But he believes Saints had no right to win that game given their injury and suspension toll, before upsetting powerhouse Wanderers 7.8 (50) to 7.6 (48) in one of the great Territory grand finals.
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ST MARY’S captain Shannon Rioli still gets nervous watching replays of the 2015-16 NTFL Grand Final.
You wouldn’t think so.
But he believes Saints had no right to win that game given their injury and suspension toll, before upsetting powerhouse Wanderers 7.8 (50) to 7.6 (48) in one of the great Territory grand finals.
And THAT amazing matchwinning goal from Rioli in the dying minutes of the fourth quarter still gets shared plenty of times on social media.
Of course, it’s the one where he soccered the ball twice before having one last kick of the ball on the ground, after lying on his back while under pressure from Wanderers’ Thomas Motlop.
That was after the breathtaking passage of play started way back inside Saints’ defensive 50.
And what better time for Rioli – with six Territory flags to his name and who lives and breathes football – to relieve that passage of play to the NT News before Saturday night’s blockbuster 2019-20 grand final rematch against Nightcliff at TIO Stadium.
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“I still get nervous. I remember the next day we were watching the grand final replay like we always do the next day,” Rioli said.
“Watching that last quarter I still get nervous. Mikey Coombes shattered his ankle and he was on one leg.
“Kieren Parnell and Anthony Long did their ACLs in the first 15 minutes.
“Kieren did his a minute and half into the game. Anthony Long did his at the 10-minute mark.
“Justin Cooper thought he had broken ribs at halftime. I remember in the changerooms he was in tears and I said ‘brother, just get out there. You don’t have to touch the footy but if people think you’re chasing them it will have an impact on the play’.
“We had no right to win that game. We were trailing at three-quarter time.”
Always a team-first man, Rioli believes the sacrifices his mates made that night was the best part of the Green Machine’s memorable premiership victory.
“It’s pretty special. Not just because of the goal but because of the injuries we had,” he said.
“We lost Benny Long to suspension, Leroy Larson to injury. We did it pretty tough to get there.
“Even if it wasn’t for the goal it still would’ve been a special game for St Mary’s.
“That’s one of my favourite grand finals because we came back from behind against a rampaging Wanderers.”
Saints were well and truly the underdogs going into the game.
And so what about the goal? Rioli remembers every lead-up detail while playing in an unfamiliar position.
That is, except for a few “blank” seconds of bliss after he kicked it.
“They beat us two weeks before so we had no right to win that grand final,” he said.
“I was quite frustrated because at the start of the second half the message was ‘Shannon, the goalsquare is yours’.
“So I was fresh as a daisy in the goalsquare the whole second half.
“Every time I went to chase a kicker our runner would come out and say ‘get back in the 50’.
“The footy came down. Guy Orton did a cheeky little kick into the corridor which was very risky.
“And then luckily for him Labba (Henry Labastida) took a mark and hit Jack Williams, Jack kicked it to Boof (Darren Ewing).
“Darren Ewing was pretty well held by (Wanderers defender) Daniel Weetra that game, and that was probably the one day he was able to get goalside of Daniel, and win the footy and get it our way.
“Raph (Clarke) wasn’t supposed to be in the goalsquare, but he was because he came in behind me.
“He put in a monster effort in the ruck back from wherever he was on the ground.
“I was up the ground and I remember the ball came from Boof and I knew Thomas Motlop was coming, and I tried to get between him and the ball, and I stopped him from knocking the ball away.
“I just bumped him enough so that he wouldn’t impact the play, and the ball skidded on past us, and I thought ‘yep, no one should be in the goalsquare. I can run and pick this up’.
“And I forgot Raph was there. So I thought all Raph has to do is block or tap it on for me.
“And he picked it up and handballed it. It bounced off my legs and I thought ‘Thomas is going to get me’.”
Motlop was relentless in his pursuit of Rioli.
“I could see Thomas flying up behind me, and I was trying to keep him away and trying to keep the ball in front of me,” Rioli said.
“We both hit the deck. Thomas dived for it and I remember he came around me goalside.
“The ball was rolling away and I remember thinking ‘I can’t let him grab this ball because he’ll get up quicker than I will’.
“That was because he was on his knees and I was on my back, so I stuck my leg out to stop the ball and as I stopped it I dragged it back behind me away from him.
“And I knew Darren Ewing was goalside of Daniel Weetra, and I thought if I got this towards the goal Boof could kick a goal.
“I just saw the ball and just as it rolled onto its point ‘I thought I can get good purchase on it’.
“I was waiting for Boof to come and pick it up and it was rolling.
“I thought I was 20 or 30 metres out from goal because I was going down so I didn’t have a good idea of how far from goal I was. But then I saw the ball bounce over the line and Boof came up to me.”
At that moment, Rioli was so ‘in the zone’ he says he had a rare memory blank.
But only briefly.
“I blacked out there for a few seconds and then Boof fell on top of me and picked me up,” he said.
“But credit to Wanderers. They went down and kicked a goal, and as the siren went to end the game they were going inside 50 and one of their guys had front spot.
“But as the ball was in the air the siren went.
“Every now and then someone will share the video.
“Or I’ll look it up myself if I’m missing my footy, or if I want to feel good about myself I’ll go back and watch it.
“They beat us two weeks before so we had no right to win that grand final.
“Talking to Wanderers guys now like Daniel Weetra he hates watching it.
“When I’m a fatter and older bloke I can say ‘that was me’.”
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