Maurice Rioli, Jr. (born 1 September 2002) is a professional

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who plays for the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers or colloquially the Tiges, is a professional Australian rules football team competing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1885 in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria, Ric ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL)

Early life, junior football and state-league football

Rioli is the namesake and son of former Richmond and South Fremantle player and Australian Football Hall of Fame member

Maurice Rioli Maurice Joseph Rioli Sr. (1 September 1957 – 25 December 2010) was an Australian rules footballer who represented St Mary's Football Club in the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL), in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and ...

. He grew up in

Pirlangimpi Pirlangimpi, formerly Garden Point, is a populated place on Melville Island in the Northern Territory, Australia. History Pirlangimpi lies from the site of the first British settlement in northern Australia, the short-lived Fort Dundas. The ...

on Melville Island, among the

Tiwi Islands The Tiwi Islands ( meaning "two islands") are part of the Northern Territory, Australia, to the north of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin adjoining the Timor Sea. They comprise Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island, Bathurst I ...

of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

alongside

relatives Relatives can refer to: * Kinship * ''Relatives'' (1985 film), a 1985 Australian movie * ''Relatives'' (2006 film), a 2006 Hungarian movie * "Relatives", a song by Irving Berlin See also * Relative (disambiguation) Relative may refer to: Gene ...

including his (older) nephew and eventual Richmond player

Daniel Rioli Daniel Rioli (born 16 April 1997) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Gold Coast Suns in the Australian Football League (AFL). Before moving to Gold Coast in 2024, Rioli was a three-time premiership player with and in ...

. He first attended high school at St John's Catholic College in Darwin. He was the subject to significant media attention from the age of 14, owing to his famous heritage and his special draft status with each of , and vying for his commitment, with the first two afforded priority access under the

father–son rule The father–son rule is a rule that allows clubs preferential recruiting access to the sons of players who have made a major past contribution to the club in Australian rules football, most notably in the Australian Football League. The rule ...

and the third under the AFL's Next Generation Academy rules. Rioli showed the strongest links to Richmond during his early teenage years, regularly visiting the club where his nephew

was drafted in 2015. He represented the Northern Territory as a 14-year-old at the 2017 AFL Under-16s Championships where he was a regular goalkicker. Later that year he made his senior football debut, playing for St Mary's in the

Northern Territory Football League The Northern Territory Football League (NTFL) is an Australian rules football competition, operating in Greater Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and the Northern Territory, formerly run by the Northern Territory Football League Incorporated a ...

. Rioli relocated to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in early 2018 where he boarded at Scotch College. He played football for the school that year, as well as once again representing the Territory at the Under 16s Championships. After another summer season with St Mary's, Rioli returned to Melbourne in 2019 where he joined the squad of the

Oakleigh Chargers The Oakleigh Chargers is an Australian rules football club playing in the Talent League, the top statewide under-18 competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. They are based at Warrawee Park in Oakleigh, Victoria, representing the ...

, though would not earn a top-flight

NAB League The Talent League (also known as the Coates Hire, Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the National Australia Bank, NAB League and Transport Accident Commission, TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representa ...

match during that his 'underage' year. Instead, he played NAB League football as part of a representative Northern Territory representative side. For a third straight season, Rioli played for St Mary's in the 2019/20 summer and into early autumn, ahead of his final year of underage football. He played nine games in the season, with his most impressive performance coming with a best-on-ground four goals in a semi-final win, before adding one goal in St Mary's losing grand final showing the following week. That same summer he trained with the AFL squad at Richmond as part of the club's father–son program for which he would be eligible at the coming draft. Rioli intended to play school football with Scotch and with Oakleigh in the NAB League that year, but ultimately each league's season was cancelled along with the AFL Under 18 Championships as a result of public health restrictions imposed in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

AFL recruitment

In September 2020, Rioli was one of 96 players invited to the AFL Draft Combine. Around this time he confirmed years of informal commitment, nominating for selection to Richmond under the

. Prior to the draft, Rioli was forecast to land with Richmond at pick 47 and 52 by

Fox Footy Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Australia operated out of its Melbou ...

and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

in their respective phantom drafts. He was noted for his tackling ability, goal-sense and sprint speed.

AFL career

2021 season

Rioli was drafted by with the club's second pick and the 51st selection overall in the 2020 AFL national draft, after using its

rule rights to match a bid from . He first represented Richmond as part of the club's reserves side, featuring in VFL pre-season matches from February through April when the season officially began. Rioli impressed over that time, first earning a place as a non-playing emergency in the club's round 5 AFL match against . Though he went unselected in the final team, he was a stand-out performer at reserves level, kicking two goals and recording 17 disposals in the opening round of the VFL season that same weekend. He was an AFL emergency regularly over the month that followed, while continuing to play VFL football as a small forward with occasional stints in the midfield. In May, Richmond senior coach

Damien Hardwick Damien Patrick Hardwick (born 18 August 1972) is a current Australian rules football coach and former player who is the head coach of the Gold Coast Suns in the Australian Football League. He is the former senior coach of the Richmond Football ...

labelled Rioli close to AFL selection, but said he would require a stronger endurance base before he could be named for a debut. Through the first week of July, he ranked second among midfield-forwards in the VFL with 5.8 tackles per game and was in contention for the league's goal of the year award with a 90-metre sprint goal against the Northern Bullants. Following an eight-tackle game against Frankston in early August, Rioli was elevated to senior level and named to make his AFL debut in a round 21 match against .

Player profile

Rioli plays primarily as a defensive small forward and is notable for his ability to apply forward-half pressure and create turnovers among opposition defenders.

Statistics

''Updated to the end of round 5, 2025''. , - ,

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2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

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2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

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Personal life

He is the sixth in the

Rioli family The Rioli family are a notable Australian rules football family from the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory. Six family members have played in the Australian Football League (AFL), with a further five playing in the West Australian Football L ...

to play in the AFL, following his father

Maurice Maurice may refer to: *Maurice (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name Places * or Mauritius, an island country in the Indian Ocean *Maurice, Iowa, a city *Maurice, Louisiana, a village *Maurice River, a trib ...

, cousin

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

, cousin

Cyril Cyril (also Cyrillus or Cyryl) is a masculine given name. It is derived from the Greek language, Greek name (''Kýrillos''), meaning 'lordly, masterful', which in turn derives from Greek (''kýrios'') 'lord'. There are various variant forms of t ...

, nephew

Daniel Daniel commonly refers to: * Daniel (given name), a masculine given name and a surname * List of people named Daniel * List of people with surname Daniel * Daniel (biblical figure) * Book of Daniel, a biblical apocalypse, "an account of the acti ...

and cousin

Willie Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Willie Allen (basketball) (born 1949), American basketball player and ...

References

External links

* *
Maurice Rioli Jr.'s profile
at AFL Draft Central {{DEFAULTSORT:Rioli, Maurice Living people 2002 births Richmond Football Club players St Mary's Football Club (NTFL) players Oakleigh Chargers players People educated at Scotch College, Melbourne Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football 21st-century Indigenous Australian people Rioli family Tiwi Islands people Australian rules footballers from Darwin, Northern Territory 21st-century Australian sportsmen