Richmond will receive an injection of flare for Saturday afternoon’s clash against North Melbourne with exciting youngster Maurice Rioli Junior set to make his AFL debut.
The father-son selection and son of former Norm Smith Medallist, and two-time club best and fairest, Maurice Rioli, will play as a manic pressure forward for Damien Hardwick’s team.
“He just brings a chaos mentality up forward,” Hardwick told media today.
“His chase pressure and all that is very much like Daniel (Rioli) when he first started, it’s hard to believe he is probably quicker than Daniel, to be fair.
“He has got some areas of his game that he needs to improve but he has got some incredible strengths that he brings as well. But if he does play that’s what we will be looking forward to.”
Rioli Jnr, a St Mary’s, Northern Territory product from the Tiwi Islands, has laid 14 tackles across the past two weeks in the VFL.
He becomes the Tigers’ sixth AFL debutant this season, following on from Rhyan Mansell, Will Martyn, Riley Collier-Dawkins, Hugo Ralphsmith and Samson Ryan.
