This x 13
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3âŚ2âŚ1âŚAnd just like that, all the articles about how itâs the girlfriends fault. And a pile on from the boys club that there were no issues.
Not the racist president, the club, the league. Nope one screechy woman.
Look, maybe she is/was the problem, I donât know. But itâs always the way these stories play out in the AFL.
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Stop reading mainstream press.
Itâs liberating.
How to say something in an article, without actually saying it.
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I love longy, but why in the hell would you go to the media to talk about all this stuff? Thatâs moronic and just throws more fuel on the fire
Screw hawthorn
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What are some other examples??
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I donât believe anyone has posted the full thing yet. Here it is:
Hawthorn v West Coast Eagles. Aurora Stadium, Launceston. Cyril Rioli kicks a long goal
Michael Long urges nephew Cyril Rioli to seek help amid ongoing racism row with former club Hawthorn
Mark Robinson, Chief Football Writer
8 min read¡2 minutes ago
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
In a revealing interview with Mark Robinson, AFL legend Michael Long details his concern for nephew Cyril Rioli as the former premiership Hawkâs racism standoff with Hawthorn drags on.
Uncle Michael Long is hurting.
Heâs hurting for his nephew Cyril Rioli. âHe needs help,â Long said.
Uncle Michael has not spoken to his nephew for almost four years, despite them both living in Darwin.
âWe love our nephew but weâve seen the change in our nephew and itâs not the way weâve brought him up. We brought him up to have respect, but heâs changed and he needs to get professional help,â Long said.
Long believes his nephew has cut himself off from the world and needs to find his way back.
âHe needs to address it himself,â Long said.
âWe didnât bring him up this way. A lot of people helped Cyril along the way and there were a lot of family and friends who got Cyril to where he got to, and he became estranged to a lot of family and friends.
âAs a man he needs to stand up and take control of his life.
âAnd he knows a lot of people love him.â
Michael Long says they both live in Darwin yet he hasnât spoken to his nephew Cyril Rioli for almost four years.
Uncle Michael is also hurting for Hawthorn, and Jeff Kennett, and Rioliâs former teammates.
Heâs hurting for the Rioli and Long families in Darwin and on the Tiwi Islands, where respect has been the cornerstone of their upbringing, in the blackfella world and in the white-dominated footy world.
Heâs hurting because when he read what Cyril and his wife Shannyn revealed of their hatred towards Kennett and the Hawks last week, he believed he was reading the thoughts of a nephew he loved, but a nephew who was lost.
NO CONTACT
Cyril really doesnât answer any messages from family or former Hawk teammates, some of whom he played in four premierships with.
He was close to Jarryd Roughead and âPoppyâ (Paul Puopolo), but they are now distant.
Former teammates have noted the change in Rioli.
Eyebrows were raised several years ago when one former teammate organised to go fishing with mates in Darwin and contacted Rioli about helping to organise the fishing day.
Rioli apparently said no worries, but as the weekend loomed, he contacted his former teammate and the fishing trip was cancelled.
Rioli out on the Northern Territory water with mother Kathy and Uncle Michael.
As Uncle Michael details his despair and concern in this interview, he breaks down in tears several times, for Cyril is a like a son to him.
But at some point in his adult life, Cyril changed.
For several years, and even before he returned to the Northern Territory midway through 2018 and subsequently retired at the end of the 2018 season, the cheeky, grinning, loveable Cyril became sullen and withdrawn.
Family members have been concerned about his social behaviour for some time.
Uncle Michael wonât detail exactly what.
âPEOPLE WANT TO HELP HIMâ
âHe needs to address it himself,â he said. âCyril knows what he needs to address and thereâs plenty of people out there who want to help him.â
Itâs been a week since Cyril and his wife, Shannyn Ah Sam-Rioli, went public with their allegations of race-related incidents at Hawthorn when Cyril was at the club.
In a scathing attack, they also declared they would never return to Hawthorn until Kennett was gone.
Hawthorn president Kennett on Thursday announced the club was investigating the Rioli matters.
âWe are taking them seriously and any failings will be addressed,â Kennett wrote to Hawks members.
Rioli kicks a long goal against Collingwood at the MCG. Picture: Michael Klein
Long said he was saddened when he read last weekâs article, but not for the reason that saddened mostly everyone else.
âThat article I read ⌠thatâs not Cyril, thatâs not his go,â Uncle Michael said.
âHeâs been four or five years out of the game ⌠and for that article to come out that way it did ⌠I was saddened to read how it came across about Jeff Kennett and the Hawthorn Football Club.
âTHERE WAS GOOD LEADERSHIPâ
âThere were a lot of Indigenous players at the club at the time â Shaun Burgoyne was there, Lance (Franklin) was there and before that Chance (Bateman) ⌠thereâs good leadership there.
âI donât think any of those players spoke out about racial issues and Iâve never heard anything, and his mum has never said anything to me about this.
âI donât know where itâs coming from.â
Four-time Hawks premiership player Jordan Lewis revealed on AFL360 on Wednesday he was central to an incident in 2013 â which Rioli raised as an example of the problems at Hawthorn â when during an off-season trip to Bali a senior player asked teammates whether the partner of one of his Indigenous teammates was âalso a boongâ.
The Indigenous player was at the table at the time.
Lewis immediately organised a meeting with the Indigenous player and another senior player, where an apology was made and accepted.
The incident wasnât reported to bosses at the club, but at the same time Lewisâs immediate action has been commended.
âJordan took the right steps at the time and dealt with it as a leader should,â Long said. âClearly, Jordan had the trust and respect of the individuals involved.â
It has been reported a comment made by Kennett to Shannyn about her ripped jeans at a Tasmanian airport in 2018 was the final straw that led to Cyrilâs retirement at age 28.
The gifted Hawk pumps the ball deep into attack against Collingwood. Picture: Michael Klein
Uncle Michael â who called out racism in an Essendon match against Collingwood in 1995 â believes that episode has been overplayed.
âIt was blown out of proportion with Jeff,â Long said.
âJeff works for one of the big organisations with Beyond Blue and he wouldnât be in that organisation if he didnât have compassion for people.
âJeffâs apologised a number of times and wrote a letter.
âWe all make mistakes, but this is not a colour thing. Itâs about a pair of jeans and even though Shannyn might have felt humiliated, you donât end someoneâs football career over that.
âThatâs a sad state of affairs.â
Long said the Hawks, led by coach Alastair Clarkson, had given Cyril a wonderful football life and that he knew Clarkson had many times reached out to his former player, but to no avail.
âA lot of people have tried to reach out to Cyril, from players to family to the club,â Uncle Michael said.
âThis week, Gillon McLachlan said to me: âWhat can we do to help?âââ
âWE DIDNâT BRING CYRIL UP THIS WAYâ
Long recently caught up with Clarkson at the NTFL grand final.
âOur family, the Long family, and Maurice Rioliâs brother Lawrence was there ⌠I said to Clarko, âFrom the family, thank you for what you have done for Cyril and the Long familyâ,ââ Long said.
âWe were in the corporate area, most of my brothers and sisters were there and friends, and we just wanted to thank him and the Hawthorn Football Club.
âWe are so grateful and we said whatever we can do for the Hawks weâll go out of our way.
âThereâs a place in our heart for Hawthorn. Regardless that we played for Essendon, we followed our nephew pretty closely.
âBut, you know, after about the halfway mark of his career, he became estranged.
âThis kid weâve brought up ⌠and my father passed away in 2019 and he always taught us about being a passionate footballer ⌠we didnât bring Cyril up this way.â
Alastair Clarkson and Rioli at Hawthorn training in 2015. Picture: Colleen Petch
Uncle Michael is mystified about why his nephew has lost touch with his family and friends but is pleased, after a period of unease, Cyril and his mum Kathy, are reconnecting.
âA lot of people helped Cyril along the way,â he said.
âOn the way down and on the way out, a lot of players and coaches tried to reach out.
âHe went home because his father wasnât well and the club stood by him and did everything they possibly could to help, but on the way heâs forgotten a lot of people.â
In June, 2018, Cyril and Shannyn returned to Darwin because his father had suffered a heart attack and Cyril said he wanted to spend time with his family.
Later that season, then Hawks football boss Graham Wright travelled to Darwin to try to convince Cyril and Shannyn to return to Melbourne.
EMOTIONAL AND VOLATILE MEETING
The hour-long meeting at Shannynâs motherâs place was emotional and, at times, volatile and it is understood Shannyn did most of the talking. Then Wright met Long and Cyrilâs mum Kathy.
Long remembers the meeting clearly.
âEven Cyrilâs mother said, âWhat are you doing, son? Youâve got to get back to Melbourne.â
âBut he didnât want to play anymore. His mind was set ⌠and he was given the wrong advice.
President Jeff Kennett congratulates Cyril Rioli after a MCG victory. Picture: Michael Klein
âI think the discussion Graham had with Shannyn and Cyril was a bit embarrassing. We had to apologise to Graham, we apologised on behalf of our families.â
The Kennett-Cyril showdown has surprised many because after Cyril retired in 2018, he returned to Hawthorn to make his farewell speech to teammates. And he was asked if it was OK that Kennett was there at the playersâ auditorium at Waverley Park.
Cyril did not have an issue and Kennett attended.
KENNETT HAS NEVER HAD ISSUE
Kennett has told people in recent days he has never had an issue with Rioli, and before this weekâs revelations, nor did he believe that the champion Hawk had an issue with him.
In September of 2018, Cyril also wrote a column for the athletesvoice website, where he did not detail any concerns with the Hawks or Kennett.
âYou want to retire unbroken,â he wrote.
âYour body, your mind, your soul â theyâre all things you need intact for life after footy. I didnât want to grind it out until there was nothing left.
âIâm happy. Iâm back where I belong. Iâve got my family, and Shannyn and I want to start our own family. I want to start my own life.â
He added in the article: âMy role models were my dad, uncles and older cousins. I have the chance to be a role model to kids.â
Rioli and wife Shannyn attend the 2016 Brownlow Medal count at Crown casino.
Uncle Michael said Cyril was estranged from the greater family for years before he penned that article.
âWhen he first started playing, a lot of people cared about him and wanted him to be successful,â Uncle Michael said.
âHe is estranged and heâs been like that from about halfway through his career.
âItâs sad. Heâs forgotten about a lot of people.â
âI DONâT THINK WEâVE LOST HIMâ
Asked if he felt he had lost his nephew forever, Uncle Michael said: âI donât think weâve lost him, the door will always be open, but he needs help. Heâs got to see that. Heâs my flesh and blood and we love him.
âMaybe heâs reaching out, and I dearly hope he is, but he should not forget what the club and a lot of people have done for him.
âItâs a two-way street, life. Itâs not just about the individual, itâs about your family and your mates, not only on the way up but on the way out.
âHawthorn wants him at the club in some capacity, but we want him back in the family and in our lives. And that includes Shannyn as well.â
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Tanya Hird
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Long lost me when he said Kennett works for beyond blue becuase he had compassion for people
Kennett is a massive bully, and bullying can lead people into depression
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You might have to refresh the memory on that one. What was Tanya blamed for?
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That Koala Bloke goes BANG.
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Some of the crap she copped from opposition fans for defending her husband was a disgrace
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