AFL CEO Andrew Dillon defends league’s handling of Willie Rioli saga

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon has defended the league’s handling of the saga involving Port Adelaide forward Willie Rioli after rampant criticism.

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon has defended the league’s handling of the Willie Rioli saga.

Rioli initially avoided suspension after this masthead revealed he had made an indirect threat against Western Bulldogs player Bailey Dale via an Instagram message.

However, Rioli was later handed a one week suspension after it came to light the small forward had other on-field incidents with Geelong’s Brad Close and Essendon’s Archie Roberts.

Dillon said the decision to inflict a suspension was not in reaction to media criticism but the AFL and Rioli acknowledging his behaviour “wasn’t acceptable”.

“We made decisions based on the information we had and in Willie’s instance there was both an on field and off field part to what happened so that’s where we landed,” Dillon said.

“We pardoned him earlier in the week without the knowledge of the previous incidents and when all that information came to light we laid down a new decision.

“We don’t react to media criticism, if we did that we would be changing our mind every single day, what we do is make decisions based on what we have and do that to the best of our ability.”

Dillon said he had not spoken to Rioli since the incident but having spoken to senior leadership at Port Adelaide, was confident Rioli was getting the necessary support from both the club and the Players’ Association.

He said there was more work the AFL needed to do to create an environment for players to perform at their best, but it wasn’t a problem the league could fix by itself and that discussions with clubs would continue in the coming weeks to ensure player sanctions would be as consistent as possible.

Rioli missed last week’s Showdown after the incidents. Picture: Tim Joy

“It’s our clubs, it’s our players, it’s our coaches, it’s an all of industry approach that we’re going to need to continue to make an environment that’s the best it can be for all the men and women that play the game,” Dillon said.

“I hope when Willie is back on the field he gets the ability to show the talent that he has, but also gets the benefit of the hard work he’s done.

“You get lots of different views on every decision we make and we want to try to be as consistent as we can be.

“We have group meetings with our CEOs and presidents in a couple of weeks’ time in early July and these will be the things we discuss.”