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AFL Grand Final 2018: Grandma Rioli’s fifth gift to AFL history

If it hadn’t been for a near-death experience in his teens, Willie Rioli might not be in tomorrow’s AFL grand final.

Members of the extended Rioli family play footy at Pirlangimpi in the Tiwi Islands. Picture: Amos Aikman
Members of the extended Rioli family play footy at Pirlangimpi in the Tiwi Islands. Picture: Amos Aikman

If it hadn’t been for a near-death experience in the football-crazy tropical outpost where his family lives, Willie Rioli might not be walking onto the field in ­tomorrow’s AFL grand final, ­according to his father.

The 23-year-old West Coast Eagles forward will become the fifth descendant of the Rioli family matriarch, Helena Rioli, to play in the AFL end-of-season spectacular. Cousin Adam Vigona predicted “young Willie” might get drafted by West Coast, even though Willie’s father, Willie Rioli Snr, “wouldn’t have dreamed” it a year ago. “I said to Willie, ‘West Coast are looking at you’,” Vigona recalls. “The football was in his hands before he was crawling. He wasn’t chewing on a dummy; he was chewing on a ball.” Despite coming from Pirlangimpi, a community of about 400 on the Tiwi Islands north of Darwin that has produced three Norm Smith medallists and dozens of excellent players, Willie’s future was not always assured.

Speaking on their way to Melbourne for Saturday’s match, his parents and partner recounted how, in Willie’s mid-teens, they once doubted if he would survive.

Willie Rioli's grandmother, Helena Rioli with other members of the extended family. Picture: Amos Aikman
Willie Rioli's grandmother, Helena Rioli with other members of the extended family. Picture: Amos Aikman

Willie had been playing in the mud during the wet season, as most bush kids do. The joy of slipping and sliding is perhaps second only to “up ‘n’ under”, the local name for a no-rules game in which everyone competes to catch a ball and someone kicks and run with it until they get tackled — often hard.

Willie came in from the mud feeling cold, his mother Georgina Vigona recalls. “He wrapped himself in a blanket and didn’t say anything until his father walked in and found him,” she says. “He ended up getting medivaced to Darwin.”

Memories differ about Willie’s specific ailment — most say it was pneumonia — but he was in a coma for several days and simultaneously diagnosed with rheumatic heart fever. “There were some really worrying times. The doctors were saying there was only a 50-50 chance that he would survive,” Willie Snr says. “Just after that happened, he started to forge himself. Maybe it sort of clicked his mind. He certainly got motivated.” Much of Willie’s early childhood was spent following his dad’s football career with St Mary’s AFLNT side and other teams in Victoria and South Australia. When the family moved back to the Tiwis, Willie met Lucy Campbell-Brogan who later became his high-school sweetheart and is now his partner.

They have an 18-month-old baby called Martin, who will watch his dad play on Saturday.

“Now he just rushes home from training to see his son,” Campbell-Brogan says. “Sometimes, he even takes Martin into training and shows him around.”

Willie Rioli of the Eagles. Picture: AAP
Willie Rioli of the Eagles. Picture: AAP

Cousins Adam Vigona and Deanne and Clinton Rioli and others are planning a barbecue in Helena Rioli’s Pirlangimpi backyard to watch the big game and, hopefully, celebrate.

Helena Rioli says she swapped to supporting West Coast from Fremantle when the team picked up her grandson. “I’m very proud,” she says. “I would love West Coast to win.”

Everyone has an opinion about what makes Tiwi people such great footballers. Lawrence Costa, the local MP and a Tiwi man, jokes about “something in the water”. Marius Pirrawayingi Puruntatameri, an important local elder, credits a combination of natural ability and skills learned during hunting. Deanne Rioli reckons Tiwi men “put down their spears and picked up the football”. Ever since the late great Maurice Rioli showed how far a top player could go, others have aspired to follow. “Football is pretty much the best option for these guys to see the wider world,” Clinton Rioli says.

It’s not just the boys now. Girls are coming up too. One is Maurice’s youngest daughter, Maria, who’s tall and fit at age 13.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/grandma-riolis-fifth-gift-to-afl-history/news-story/8ef310005f9cce037da9a4eb372f897d