Tigers judge Rioli on club, not SuperCoach, value
RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick has defended small forward Daniel Rioli, declaring he should be judged on his “specific role” rather than “SuperCoach points”.
Rioli is poised to earn a recall for tomorrow night’s crunch clash with St Kilda, after being dropped to the VFL last week following an up-and-down start to the season.
The three-time premiership player had 17 disposals, five clearances and six tackles for the reserves in a scratch match against Werribee, Hardwick saying he played “very well”.
Rioli, who turns 24 on Friday, had kicked two goals from only nine touches against Sydney in Round 3, before being dropped for the third time since the start of last season.
He averaged just 49 KFC SuperCoach ranking points from his first three games this year, down on an average of 66 points from 18 matches last season.
“He’s a little bit hard to judge because we play a system,” Hardwick said of Rioli.
“Daniel plays a really specific role that doesn’t require him to get 15 kicks, three goals.
“It’s very mentally draining for him to play that role week in, week out. Sometimes he needs to go back and freshen up and find the footy a little bit for his own peace of mind. (The public) judge this kid off SuperCoach points but what we judge Daniel off is win-loss and he’s got three premiership medals.
“Jake Aarts, a similar type of player, gets seven or eight touches a week. But they play a really specific role in the way we want to go about it.”
Rioli looks set to join Kamdyn McIntosh on the Tigers’ list of ins this week in what would be an injection of speed for the clash with the Saints under the roof at Marvel Stadium.
McIntosh has been declared fit after missing last week’s loss to Port Adelaide with concussion.
The Tigers are looking to avoid what would be their first three-game losing streak since rounds 11-13 in 2019, but Hardwick said a slow start to the season was not cause for concern.
“Premierships aren’t won in April,” he said.