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Updated
July 04, 2018 16:34:35
Cyril.
It is a rare honor in the sport to be known by one name. It's a reward for those few men and women that we can legitimately call a sports genius: Pele, Ali, Serena and in Aussie Rules, Kouta, Buddy … and Cyril.
Or, rather, CY-RRIIILLLLL !!!
The stretched word is uttered by commentators and fans just before the action – a moment of waiting before a moment of magic.
A leap from nowhere. A hand that, in a flash, flies the ball under the nose of an opponent, a blind turn in an unimaginable space, kicked through the body to a teammate that only he can see.
"Cyril" is the code to expect unexpectedly.
There have been many great footballers in the last decade: Ablett, Swan, Judd, Hodge, Dangerfield, Martin.
Chiefs, accumulators, strongmen, Brownlow medalists and champions.
But none of them awaits the magic of Cyril Rioli of Hawthorn who, with a few touches, could change the course of the game and excite a crowd like no other.
Simply, he could jump higher, run faster, think faster and see more than any other player.
It was not up to Cyril to have 30 keys. He did his job with 10 or 15, some goals, some critical tackles, a crucial touch that made the glory of his deadly teammates.
As football becomes more and more structured, everything about rules and team areas and even big players just cogs in a machine, Cyril was the aberrant value. He was the individual whose mastery of the game transcended the modern footballer.
Now, he leaves his stage at just 28 years old, with his greatest years probably still ahead of him.
All we have left are the memories of one of the greatest representatives of Australian football and unanswered questions about what he could have accomplished.
But what glorious memories they are:
Moments of Cyril Part 1: The Announcement
The grand finale of 2008 lags behind at the end of the third quarter. Stuart Dew kicks the wing where Rioli – in his first season – is outnumbered three to one.
Corey Enright takes first place in the battle for the ball, but Cyril jumps over him and, at arm's length, takes his hand as Enright's teammate Matthew Scarlett arrives and picks him up . Cyril propels himself one way or another on his lap to attack Scarlett to win a free kick.
Two minutes later, he moves from one platoon and runs into an open goal. Hawthorn left to win a grand finale against all odds. The legend of Cyril is born.
He came to the game with the expectations of one of the big names of Australian rules. Uncle Maurice was an innovative Aboriginal footballer for Richmond, who won the Norm Smith medal in the 1982 Grand Final – the first Australian native to do so and the first of a losing team.
Cyril was destined to play AFL football. He moved from Darwin to school at Scotch College in Melbourne while he was only 14 years old. It lasted only three days before packing with the intention of going home. If it was not for the intervention of another uncle, Michael Long, he could have been lost in the game.
His genius was to think and move faster than anyone else. These tackles during the grand finale of 2008 were the first indicators that Cyril was still in the contest and no one was safe. He was the silent badbadin, appearing from nowhere to attack an opponent. The will-o-the-wisp, flying in a package to take a mark, landing on his feet and then he was gone.
Moments of Cyril Part 2: Mortality
Late in the first quarter of the big 2012 In the final, Lewis Jetta of Sydney receives the ball in the back pocket and takes off with Cyril just five meters behind. A rebound, two rebounds, a jink, a third rebound, a fourth and he kicks. In a race of two great native athletes, Cyril just can not catch up – he is human after all.
Cyril's kryptonite was his hamstrings. It was like he was too fast for his body. Time and time again, he collapsed and, on many occasions, Hawthorn's physiotherapists rebuilt him, even teaching him how to run again in the hope that his muscles could follow his mind.
He played 189 games but without the injury and attraction of his family to Darwin, he may have played 50.
Memories of Cyril Part 3: Greatness
The grand finale 2015 , Hawthorn v West Coast. Hawthorn wins his third big final in a row and Cyril wins the Norm Smith medal for the best player of the game.
It was supposed to be.
All the tricks were there: 18 eliminations, 12 points, two goals, four goals-badists, but the numbers do not tell the whole story. There was a 15-meter chase behind to catch an opponent, a brilliant shot at a teammate, handballs that had disappeared even before he seemed to have possession, interceptions, jumps. It was the complete mastery of a game by the most unique player of the master team.
Moments of Cyril Part 4: The Recall
Hawthorn v Sydney 17th, 2016 at SCG. For his 27 years and one minute from the end, Cyril marks the ball, 50 meters from the corner. With a crowd of 42,000 people begging him to miss, with hamstrings at the end of a deadly match, he goes back and hits the goal.
After the game, I asked Sam Mitchell how Hawthorn won the match and he looked at me and said, "Ah Cyril." Not even one of Hawthorn's great champions and thinkers on the game can offer more as an explanation.
Hawthorn made the final in 2016, but the golden generation was over, and Cyril's best days were over.
In a season that was marked by a knee injury and his desire to return to Darwin to help his father recover from heart surgery. It was the same story this year: four games, a knee injury and more time in Darwin.
In a statement today, he wrote: "Football has always been my life, but it's still hard to go away from home and spend more time with my friends and my family. family."
Aussie Rules is renowned for its acts of athleticism, skill, strength and courage. It's a game like no other, where an individual's exploits can transcend tribal allegiances and leave fans speechlessly amazed.
Now Cyril is gone, but the memories that he leaves will live forever.
Topics:
League-football-Australian,
sport,
Hawthorn-3122,
vic,
Australia,
Darwin-0800
Published
04 July 2018 16:00:09
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