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Norm Smith Medallist Dead
(Story by Steve Butler, Louise Burke and Yolanda Zaw, The West Australian)

The football community is coming to terms with the loss of one of its greatest players, after champion footballer Maurice Rioli passed away in Darwin today.
It is understood Rioli, 53, died after suffering a heart attack at a family gathering.

Rioli was one of the first Aboriginal footballers to have a big impact in Victorian football and was known for his ball-handling skills and quick reflexes.

He started his career with South Fremantle before joining the Richmond Tigers and later returning as captain of South Fremantle.

He won the Simpson Medal as best player afield when South Fremantle won the 1980 premiership.

WA football legend Mal Brown, who coached Rioli at South Fremantle in the late 1970s and early 1980s, said he was one of the best two players he’d ever coached, alongside Stephen Michael.

“As his former coach he was a freak player, a marvellous player,” Mr Brown told thewest.com.au.

“I coached him at South Fremantle and helped him go to Richmond, where he won the Norm Smith Medal (despite Richmond losing the Grand Final).

“He was a very quiet, reserved, conservative person and most probably one of the top two players I was ever lucky enough to coach.”

Mr Brown said Rioli was “easy” to coach and had great personal pride.

“It’s just such a shock for his family and he was such a young man at 53 years of age,” he said.

“I think he had a record at Richmond of 16 tackles in a game, which was unheard of back in the 1980s. He wasn’t real quick, he just never got tackled.

“He was an amazing player.”

South Fremantle chief executive Brian Ciccotosto, who played with Rioli, described him as “The most talented indigenous player to have ever played for South Fremantle”.

“He was an outstanding big game player who won three Simpson medals and a Norm Smith medal in his career, and a member of the All Australian team,” Mr Ciccotosto said.

“He will be dearly missed by supporters of the South Fremantle Football Club and more widely by followers of football.”

“He did a lot for the Aboriginal cause in WA, he and Stephen Michael put indigenous football on the map in WA.

“Off the field he was a quiet and unassuming gentleman but when he stepped onto the field, he had amazing skill.”

Rioli’s nephew Cyril Rioli plays for Hawthorn and he is also uncle to former Essendon star Dean Rioli.

Rioli was a life member of the South Fremantle Football Club.

He won the best and fairest at Richmond twice in 1982 and 1983 and was named in the Indigenous Team of the Century.
Rioli also pursued a career in politics in the Northern Territory.





 
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