Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this story references to a person who has died.
JUNIOR RIOLI will revert to his former name again this week ... but he will not be the same person of the past 28 years. He can't be, out of a pledge to his late father.
"Just be a better person," Junior says of the wish his father made before his sudden death last year. "That is from the last conversation I had with Dad at the time I was going back to West Coast (after an enforced absence from the AFL in 2020 and 2021).
"He said, 'Son, we all make mistakes. Look in the mirror and be a better person'.
"That is the best advice my father could give me - along with the reminder to treat people as you want to be treated, no matter how popular you are. That is something my Dad - my whole family - taught me.
"Dad would say, 'No matter who you are, no matter where you stand in life, never treat anyone different to how you want to be treated'. So that is how I live."
Junior Rioli will take back his birth name after honouring and respecting his cultural background for the past year while grieving - by Tiwi ritual - the loss of his father across the 12 months. Just as importantly, he will give more substance to carrying his father's name by living to his values that transcend all cultural boundaries.
Out of respect for the Rioli family’s wishes, Senior’s name will not be used in this piece. He died in mid-July last year - from a heart attack at age 50. His football journey was with St Mary's in the NTFL, South Fremantle in the WAFL (48 league games spread across three seasons in two stints from 1989-1994) and Hawthorn in the AFL where he was untried at senior level after being called at No.48 in the 1990 national draft. His life story is far more significant as noted in the citation for his Medal of the Order of Australia in 2008 for his work in the Tiwi communities.
Holding true to the cultural rituals that have followed his father's death have challenged Junior emotionally during the past year.
"Grieving for a year has been tough," said Rioli while giving his insight to the Tiwi tribal cultural themes he has had to honour during the past 12 months while also starting a new football chapter at Port Adelaide under the spotlight, after a tumultuous 51-game AFL career at West Coast. "It has been tough ... it always was going to be tough. I have lost the guy I would always call after a game.
"We (as AFL players) go through a lot of personal stuff in our lives," added Rioli of the unseen pages in a professional athlete's story.
A year later, Junior Rioli will honour the memory of his father by following every ceremonial ritual of his First Nations peoples. He has trained at Alberton early this week before first travelling to Darwin and then the Tiwi islands on Wednesday and Thursday during a week he describes as "full on" but critical to his cultural upbringing. He will miss - with Port Adelaide's full understanding - the away clash with Carlton at the Docklands in west Melbourne on Saturday afternoon.
"My father's ceremony a year on from his burial is so important to our culture," Rioli said.
"I get my name back," added Rioli who will officially restore his first name on his return to Alberton on Sunday. "My Mum can stop carrying the (visual) pain of a widow.
"I know in a lot of other cultures (the grieving process) is different. Every culture is different. Up there, we have a year of grieving. This is the last week of that year of paying respect to my father and our culture.
"We will dance for a whole day (on Friday). We dance and cry. It will bring back good memories of how Dad was so inspirational to a lot of people. A lot of people from all the different cultures back home will dance for Dad. Every family tribe has different dancing. It is their way of showing their respect.
"My Mum can stop wearing black. She has done that for a whole year. She has had to have short hair. She was not allowed to shower by the traditions we have up there.
"By our culture, after this ceremony I get my name back. That is the good part of it."
Rioli returned to the Port Adelaide line-up on Saturday night at Adelaide Oval - after missing the epic clash with Essendon in Melbourne for personal reasons - with another emotional bridge to cross while scoring two goals in the win against Gold Coast.
"One of my little brothers had his funeral (on Friday) that I missed," Rioli revealed to explain the markings he carried on his wrist strapping and the dance that followed his goal in the opening quarter.
"The celebration (dance) was for my Dad's family up there (in Darwin and the islands) ... it was the 'sailing boat' dance. I wanted to acknowledge the funeral."
Rioli, drafted to West Coast at No.52 in 2016, endured the very public consequences - a two-year ban - for tampering with a urine sample while being drug tested in 2019 the day after (as he admits) smoking marijuana. Having his professional football career at the crossroads more than once tested Rioli's commitment to conform to AFL policies, but the emotional private turmoil from his father's death has given Junior new perspectives on life - and football.
"Football can look all doom and gloom, but I say football is what makes me happy (now)," Rioli said, echoing Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley's observation on Saturday night that "you could see he was having some fun".
"A lot of people," added Rioli, "under-estimate the reasons why we play this game. They forget the reasons we have for loving this game. Football is a safe zone for everyone.
"This (club) is my big family. I am lucky to be at this club. I am lucky to be in an AFL environment where they look after you.
"When I was banned I came to forget how special this game, a club environment can be. I now appreciate again what a special feeling there is to see the joy of kids playing in the changerooms. These kids take away the business side of the game; their enjoyment makes football more fun. I missed out on so much of that.
"This (family feeling at Port Adelaide) is what drives me. I am lucky to be part of this club. West Coast showed me a lot of respect. Port Adelaide has been so good for me ... and I am really lucky that Ken (Hinkley) was close with my Dad. He understands that family is a big part of my life - and Port Adelaide is part of my big family.
"We are family. That is why we are winning. We all know we can lean on each other. That is what gets the best out of each other. We have trust and we have that belief and confidence in one another.
"I am watching under-16 boys come to training at our club and I get from them all their energy. It is a reminder - a new perspective - as to why I play this game. I want my kids to love this game the same way while they grow up.
"This is the main reason for me choosing to come back to football. Every day, I live with balance in my life. I know every day will not be perfect. But I have people who care; as long as I am talking to those people who care about me the most, I will be able to be a better person (as my father wished)."
Rioli, 28, was born in June 1995 on the Tiwi Islands where Australian football comes naturally.
"It is a unique part of the world," Rioli says with unchecked enthusiasm for his corner of paradise in the Northern Territory. "I am lucky to have been brought up there. A lot of people don't have a place to go back to; a special place to call 'home'. It is such a unique place ... a little island off the coast of Darwin.
"My Dad was a ranger there. He did a lot of research and study to save a lot of nocturnal animals that have been threatened by the cane toads; animals that are so important to the island's nature and our culture but are at risk of becoming extinct or are already lost.
"And football up there is a big tradition. But there is no junior program. So for me, Daniel and Maurice (Rioli) to be playing in the (AFL) system shows how unique the place is. No junior competition, no women's competition; we were lucky if the (Northern Territory) department of sport and rec would put on an Auskick session. That was it. But everyday, we would get together to play football from a young age. I am lucky to have that place as the 'home' I go back to."
Rioli will return to his new home and a Port Adelaide campaign that is now confirmed as part of the AFL's top-eight finals series during September. The team goal is more relevant to Rioli than any of the personal statements he could make on the field as a smart-reading, opportunist forward.
"I am not chasing personal accolades," said Rioli, a member of West Coast's 2018 AFL premiership line-up. "But I do want that ultimate team glory again and I know we are on the right track at Port Adelaide. From here, and it has been that way since the bye, every game will get harder. No matter who the opposition is, they always want to discover their best footy. Every team, no matter where it is on the ladder, has something to achieve (in the latter part of the season). At the bottom, you want to upset the top teams. I understand how it is not about how you start a season; it is how you finish. Every club we will play from here will give us a challenge. You saw how Gold Coast took it right up to us.
"We know our best footy is up there (with the best). If we stick to our plan, stick to the way we play, we can go a long way.
"I live this game week by week - it is my balanced way, week by week."
For the past 52 weeks, Rioli has carried the memory of his father by his cultural upbringing on the Tiwi islands. From the weekend - and for the rest of his life - he will carry his father’s name and his last wish on how to lead his life. The best of Junior Rioli as a footballer - and, more importantly, as a Tiwi man - is still to come.
